My Vintage Mobile, Siemens A50 (Siemens A50)

Member Name: brittle1906

Product:	Siemens A50
Date:	25/04/09 (129 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Neat and easy to use

Disadvantages: Perhaps too few features for some users

Review of Siemens A50 mobile phone

**The phone**

The Siemens A50 is a basic model. It is a slim, deep blue phone with a fairly large screen and easy to see and use buttons. No fancy gizmo's or gadgets grace the A50's layout and no clamshell style opening for me to fumble with. The phone was retailing at around £40 on a Pay As You Go tariff when I purchased mine from Carphone Warehouse.

I chose this phone some four years ago as a replacement for an all singing, all dancing model made by a rival manufacturer. The reason for selecting a basic phone was very simple (rather like me!), I got fed up with the fiddly number pad and complicated menu on my other phone and decided that as I had no interest in playing games, listening to music, surfing the net, receiving and sending email or taking photographs with my phone, it was pointless to have all these features!
A bog standard phone call and text menu and a neat, yet functional phone was all I felt I needed and indeed, with the Siemens A50, this is exactly what I got!

**Use and reliability**

As I have already stated, I am not interested in all the fancy technological things mobile phones are capable of nowadays. My mobile is not a vital part of my life, it is a means of communication, no more, no less. I live a somewhat nomadic existence, travelling by narrowboat at certain times of the year. I also retreat to a holiday home in the North East of England at other times, so a mobile phone is a useful means of keeping in touch with family and friends when I am away from home.
I have had no problems at all with my A50, it has never let me down and is simplicity itself to operate. The phonebook facility is capable of storing all the numbers I need and is sturdy and durable enough to withstand the constant travelling, it has been dropped, knocked and generally ill treated, yet still looks as good as it did when new!

The phone came with a mains charger and a hands free kit, the charger is still in use but I never actually used the hands free kit, as I am very much against using mobiles in the car, so never bothered with it.
On start up the phone has an amusing cartoon of a cat and goldfish, I understand other options can be downloaded, but personally I cannot see the necessity! The phone is capable of accessing the net and has various interactive facilities, there are a couple of games built in, 'Snack Attack' and 'Balloon Shooter' but as I have not used any of these features, I cannot confirm whether they are any good! The selection of pre-programmed ring tones is adequate for my needs although perhaps a younger user would find them too limited.

The phone is used daily and still has the original battery in place. The battery is not holding it's charge for quite as long as it used to, but this really is not a problem to me. Considering the phone and battery are over four years old, I do not consider this to be an unreasonable situation. The talk and standby time on the phone are acceptable, I tend to make one or two shortish calls per day and only charge the phone twice a week on average.
The reception quality of the Siemens A50 is very good, certainly comparable to other mobiles that I have used. The one draw back with the phone that I feel I must mention is that the loudest setting of ring tone volume is not quite loud enough to hear over my narrowboat engine, however I am sure that this is not an uncommon problem with any model of mobile, as narrowboats can be noisy!

**Conclusion**

As a basic mobile phone, the Siemens A50 takes an awful lot of beating. Text messages, making and receiving calls are simplicity itself, making the mobile ideal for my meagre needs! I do not think this phone would suit someone who wants more than just a took to make and receive calls and texts, but if, like me, you see your mobile phone as a necessary evil, you would need to go a long way to find a better more durable product. Given that I have owned the phone for such a long time, I really feel that I have had my moneys worth from the product!
This phone is unlikely to be available from the main mobile phone stockists given it's age and the demise of the manufacturer! It is available second-hand from e Bay and similar sites. The Siemens company was made a part of the Benq group and in February 2007 the company went into liquidation.


Thank you for reading.
©brittle1906 April 2009.

Review also published on www.ciao.co.uk

Summary: A simple, durable phone that has succeeded my expectations!

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