One look at Siemens S65, it means business. Made of the German origin, it's classy, traditional and overloaded with varied functions, highlights being its memory card slot and the integrated megapixel camera. Technology news brings you its review.
Besides Nokia 6230 and Sony Ericsson K700, Siemens S65 also stands as a high class phone to its competitors. But unlike the two former phones which are more attractive because of their multimedia and entertaining functions, Siemens S65 don't pay much attention to this area of entertainment. It means pure business for the people who look for more useful features for the phone to work only as a phone rather than being entertaining type.
The Overall Design
Though the producers use the older concepts, Siemens S65 does not look that traditional. It has a very elegant design enriched with a bright but black design with dark color graphic themes on the display. The phone is made of plastic material with dark components dominating the frontal view and the silver finish all over the rear side of the phone.
No doubt that it ranks high among other phones on the dimensions with height and width, but it appears to be sleek and smart enough to hold comfortably in hand.
If you compare its structure with Nokia 7610, you'll hardly find much difference in both of them in construction. And Nokia 7610 is on the Symbian made.
The size of Siemens S65 with dimensions 109 x 48 x 18 mm is perfectly normal and fits well into anyone'e pocket.
We can have a good comparison of Siemens S65 with other top-class phones:-
Phone Size Front surface Weight
Siemens S65 109 × 48 × 18 mm 52,32 cm2 98 g
Motorola E398 108 × 46 × 21 mm 49,68 cm2 110 g
Nokia 6230 103 × 44 × 20 mm 45,32 cm2 97 g
Sony Ericsson K700i 99 × 47 × 20 mm 46,53 cm2 93 g
The handset looks like a bar with visibly rounded head and slightly rounded edges.
Huge Display
Resembling its peers from 65 series Cx65 and M65 in display, the display here is too big with the size taking 13 sq.cm of area. The display is not usually that big with the regular phones. A summary of the other models of different brands can give a precise picture:-
Phone Display size Display resolution Density
Siemens S65 31 × 42 mm 132 × 176 1 784 pixels/cm2
Motorola E398 30 × 37 mm 176 × 220 3 488 pixels/cm2
Nokia 6230 27 × 27 mm 128 × 128 2 247 pixels/cm2
Sony Ericsson K700i 29 × 36 mm 176 × 220 3 709 pixels/cm2
In comparison to other models here, Siemens S65 displays larger size; and Siemens S65 can display good resolution only on height what Motorola E398 or Sony Ericsson k700i display on width, of course Nokia 6230 lacking behind in these aspects. But Siemens S65 stays far behind from the other phones in terms of the pixels per sq.cm.
Just a glimpse at the display, it looks very rough. The problem is not with the font size but its with the graphics as the resolution is low and that makes the display unattractive.
The display is but active and gives out 65k colors same as Siemens CX65 and M65 high-class phones. It does have the illumination effect and the inverse graphic themes help even in the daylight, making the display sufficiently clear.
The Keypad
The keys are made of hard and transparent plastic. It covers 1/3rd area of the front part of the phone. The numerical keys are broad but smaller than regular size. Soft keys are just placed below the display and the functioning goes smooth with them as they are not inter-connected to each other.
Then there are two soft keys for call functions, two soft keys with three dots and a key below the joystick which is used to access WAP. The joystick has 5-directional navigation system with respective controls taking to address book, camera, ringing profiles and events list (messages, missed calls etc.) and a firm press on the joystick takes you to the main menu.
The Sides of the phone
Infrared port is placed on the left side of the phone, rocker switch on the right side. The volume during the call can be controlled by it, moving it down leads to camera function, and moving it up leads to set function. The bottom part has an outlet for fixing the strap.
The battery is under the bottom part of the rear cover. It is a Li-Ion battery and beneath that is the SIM card slot and unlike previous phones of the Siemens, SIM card is removable. The battery can last upt0 300 minutes while in use and upto 250 hours in a standby mode. It takes 2 hours to charge the battery.
The back part also has an external antenna that actually defaces the phone as it is not covered by a suitable plug. The middle part has the camera lens.
The Memory Card
Siemens S65 uses a usual MMC that is of a reduced size MMC special format like how Nokia 7610 has. It just goes hard in the slot and while taking out its harder. It is also possible to place the normal MMC cards as the phone owes 100% compatibility and slot placement. This memory card placement can well given a thought for, as the Siemens S65 donot play MP3 files and it can save only pictures and the size of every picture is 100-150 kilobytes with its megapixel camera, but then a size 10 MB of the internal memory can be sufficed for it if we actually ponder over it.
The Megapixel Camera
The Siemens S65 is one of the first phones to be equipped with a megapixel camera having a higher resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels against Nokia 7610's 1152 x 864 pixels.
Earlier when the two phones were compared, Siemens S65 was criticized for its pictures, but if we have the latest firmware, things are changed. Actually Siemens S65 has two kind of optics: one that takes pictures with a quality for which it has been criticized and the other the pictures with better quality.
So to have the pictures with better quality, it is to have an actual firmware that makes it possible. And now the comparison between the two phones make Siemens S65 pictures better in quality.
The camera settings possibilities are good. One can go for from 5 types of resolution, an exposure compensation, and also max 5x zoom. The camera has a self timer, 3 settings for color balance, monochrome and sepia effects. Pictures can be saved in the internal memory or in the memory card.
The video recordings can be made with max resolution of 176 x 144 pixels. It can't be longer than 15 seconds and it can't be stored on the memory card. And color balance is used for video mode also.
Environment and Functions
One can go for the variety of graphical themes at your disposal. The main menu icons look normal. But the low resolution makes the icons look dull with jagged lines. The standard graphical theme looks nicest of all with the inverse image that must look better than black font on a light background.
There is plenty of space available for wallpapers. Screen savers start after a preset time with switch off option or analog or digital clock options too. While switching off the phone, you can hear some ugly sounds, but overall the phone is a fast phone.
Telephony
Siemens S65 stands similar to its predecessors Cx65 and M65 on performance terms. The sound during the call is excellent: a bass sound with no disturbances, and the sound quality is exceptionally good even with loudspeaker. The phone is a tri-band phone with frequencies 900/1800/1900 MHz.
It is not possible to record the voice during the call as the call just gets blocked. Siemens S65 does not facilitate the voice dialing option or voice control functions also.
The Handy Phonebook
Siemens S65 claims to have an excellent phonebook. The search is done with initial characters. There is memory space both for the SIM card and the phone memory, so entries can be stored in either of them. You can also assign the following fields to a single contact:
name, default phone number, office phone number, mobile phone number, 2 × fax, 2 x email address, web page address, nickname, WV fast messaging nickname, ICQ number, AIM nickname, group of callers, company address : street and number, ZIP code, city, country, date of birth with a possibility of a reminder.
As a matter of fact, different ringtones for different contact names from different ringing profiles can also be assigned, plus an image also if you want to put for someone. The contact list can be sorted in groups making it easier for the user to scroll and search the contacts.
Messaging
Siemens S65 supports everything: SMS, MMS, EMS, instant messaging and also integrated email client. The message service is fast featuring T9 dictionary.
Users can actually resize the font size for the message writing, and formatting the text is also possible with the help of EMS. The MMS has more pages to deliver and it also includes pictures, video, text, sounds and oultines the items on the page.
The email client is comfortable to work with as it supports attachments for sending and receiving.
The phone memory can have 100 text messages. The multimedia messages and the email attachments are saved in the internal memory.
Organizer and other Applications
The phone possess one repeated alarm clock like any other normal alarm clocks that come in mobile phones, but with an Airplane ringing profile you put off the alarm clock if the phone is switched off otherwise it would go on even if the phone is switched off.
With calender, you can have daily, weekly and monthly views. Upto 1000 items can be entered with outlook coordination in the calender. One can choose events from the possible availabilities in the calender or from the To-do list: Memo, Calls, Meeting and Voice record, Vacation and Birthday.
One can record notes in the phone from the total length of the memory in several hours. The Notes function enables the user to write short texts and these texts can also be saved in a secret folder with a secret password.
The calculator is a Java application but it ignores the primary mathematical functions and rather you can get connected to the Units converter from here which can be connected from the main menu as well. You also have a countdown timer and a stopwatch like in other normal phones.
There are also special folders for pictures, video, animations, sounds, graphical themes, games, applications and others, managed well the file manager in the phone.
Siemens S65 also supports Java MIDP 2.0, which inturn supports three integrated games- Sea Battle, 3d Rally and Worms.
Other applications also have:-
- A Photo editor that edits the photos from the integrated camera.
- The Download Assistant that makes the downloading part into the phone easier.
- An Emergency Phonebook that provides you a phonebook with all the emergency lines around the globe.
- A Survival Dictionary that enables the user to understand the languages while traveling, it mainly contains German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
- A Cocktail Manager which is a pictorial help for preparing cocktails.
Data functions
The new WAP browser is fast in Siemens S65, helping adequately in setting possibilities. From mobile data transfer technologies GPRS class 10 (4+2) to slow data connection (CSD) is preferred. You cannot go for HSCSD, EDGE or WDCMA in the Siemens s65. The phone can be connected to a PC through Bluetooth, infrared port or a cable.
The Data transfer settings are mainly recommended to be done via internet service instead of TCP/IP and WAP transfer support as it is difficult to transfer data via these sources.
Internet connectivity
The phone can be connected to a PC through an infrared port, cable or a Bluetooth, where infrared port or bluetooth can use the services of the Mobile Phone Manager Application (this application enables the user to comfortably work with the address book, text messages or the calendar etc.). The SyncML technology synchronizes the Calendar, address book or organizer data. The PC can be connected to the internet through Bluetooth or Infrared port.
Inference
Siemens S65 is definitely a high-class phone and as mentioned in the beginning, it is designed mainly for business purpose without concentrating on the entertaining aspects except for may be its megapixel camera. It presents a revolutionary change as compared to the previous models whether it is its overall design, display quality, sufficient memory and memory card, telephony functions, messaging and organizer,etc. It has a huge address book, refined functions in organizer and well equipped with the mobile data transfer. Two negative aspects could be its rough display and no music functions in this phone.
Standard package contains: phone, battery Li-Ion 750 mAh, charger, user's guide, CD-ROM containing among others a synchronizing software, memory card RS-MMC 32 MB