Alas, as we round the bend, and head into the final straight, Nokia are well and truly in the lead (Siemens C25)

Member Name: Wease

Product:	Siemens C25
Date:	12/04/01 (673 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See opinion

Disadvantages: See opinion.

LOOKS
Weighing at 140g the C25 isn't in the lightweight category however the featherweight which contains the 8210 etc appears to delude it. Still it's hardly a brick. The phone is 11cm long with a 2cm aerial, 4cm wide and 2 cm thick. It comes in a variety of colours, namely navy blue or sky blue (orange pay as you talk), I've also seen a yellow one too. The covers are changeable, but this ain't no "Xpress on - Xpress off" deal. To change the cover the phone has to be sent away. This only happens if there is a fault. You have no choice of colour and will probably end up with the same cover as you sent off!

TIP: If you are desperate for a new cover, book yourself a trip to Australia, bite the aerial off, when you send it for repair over there you can choose a new colour!

The rubber (soft on the fingers of frequent texters) keys are in the usual layout - there IS a God! (see diagram 1.1.). There are two buttons just under the screen. These are used for selection and generally strolling through the menu! Below these there are another 2 buttons. One green, one red. The green is used for calling people, the red used for ending the call (what could be harder?).

??? ?
& &
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #

Diagram 1.1
(? denotes the two selection keys, & denotes the red and green keys)

The * can be used for turning all tones off and the # is used for turning the keylock on and off!

The screen is kind of small, especially when compared with my new phone (a Nokia 7110). It's 3 x 1.5 cm, feels a tad flimsy but it's actually fairly strong and hard to scratch (Mine's permanently getting battered!).

There is no room for a logo - other than that of the operator, so you can rule out any idea of having a nike tick/EMINEM/manga text across the screen - it's too small :o( There is a little area at the bottom with a f
ew logos, a new message when it arrives appears as a letter, the phone book appears as an open book or there is the symbol for an answer machine message. Along the left side are 4 triangles denoting network coverage. The more triangles appearing boldy, the better your coverage. There is also a battery shaped thing which shows the amount of battery left (whaddya know!!). This isn't particularly accurate, and can change very quickly.

Also lacking is a clock, I was a little disappointed about this. My favourite way of discovering the time was to ring myself, leave a message and then rely on the vodaphone recall centre to tell me the time the message was left! I guess the conventional weating of a watch might be a little simpler!

PHONE BOOK
Can hold up to 200 names (depending on your network provider - orange allows 60 on pay as you talk and 100 on contract, vodaphone allows 200 on contract. A shortcut to the phonebook is through the top left-hand button, alternatively it is the 6th port of call in the menu.

The first entry you will see allows you to view your own number (ideal for a night out drinking, as it saves the embarrassment of not being able to remember your number when a top bird/geezer asks for it - the old, "I've lost my phone number, can I have yours?" only works so many times!). The second entry allows you to create a new number (don't go home without top bird/geezer's number!). As you would expect the other entries are listed in alphabetical order. The format shows only the name. You can use the top right-hand button to change the preferences on it.
1.View the number (to share top bird/geezer's with all your mates when they turn out ot be not-so-top bird/geezer and are in need of a few prank calls - mwah ha ha ha ha).
2.Edit the name (drunken typing is the worst).
3.You can add the number to your VIP dial (more about that in a mo).
4.Delete the entry (once you find out top bir
d/geezer is married/an illegal immigrant/french - delete as appropriate).
5.Check the capacity (allows you to find out how many spaces you have free for more potential top birds/geezers.
6.Delete the entire phone book (ideal for when you fake your own death, run off with the milkmaid and start a new life in the Bahamas).

One downfall of the phone book is that you can only save one number under each entry. This is particularly annoying as you might have: - "top bird mob", "top bird home", "top bird work". On phones such as the 7110 you could have them all under "top bird". There is also nowhere to store email addresses etc - unless of course you save them as text messages, in which case the capacity will soon be met.

VIP DIAL
This is the first stop on the menu. What is it? Simply it is a place where you can store 9 numbers from your phonebook. This will enable quicker access. You can call them by pressing the corresponding number on the keypad and the green call button e.g. if you save "top geezer mob" in position3, you then have to press 3 and the green call button and you will be calling top geezer's mobile! An excellent feature!

TEXT MESSAGES
I'd like to say this is the ultimate in SMS communication, but, quite frankly it's not. In fact it is rather poor. The text message area can be found in position two of the menu. The first option is to create a new message. If you are used to a Nokia, you will have a hard time coming to grips with the siemens typing. The symbols are in very different places, however the letters available for each key are displayed ta the bottom of the screen e.g. for the number 3 key you will see D E F 3. This is useful if you forget where the symbols are kept.

The messages are stored in date order. 20 received messages can be kept if you are with vodaphone, only 10 if you are with Orange. Browsing can take quite a long time, an
d you will only be given the number the message was sent from, which means, if top bird texts you the morning after (the night before hehe) then you might not remember his number and will have to search through your phone book to match the number and name with the message!

A nice feature is that you can have instant access to a new message from the start screen. It will appear as a letter icon, you just have to press the button directly underneath and you're there!

Unlike with Nokia models, you can't get delivery reports, so you will never have any idea if people are getting your messages! Unless of course they reply - lol. This can be really annoying especially if it is an important message e.g. "The police have discovered your evil plot to conquer the world and are on their way over." Newer models e.g. Siemens S35 now have delivery reports, so someone has obviously taken the hint!

VOICE MAIL
The layout and options will depend on your network provider. It basically gives you access to the number of your voice mail - nothing flash here sir!

RINGER/TONES
This is what first attracted me to the C25 - the DJ style ringtones. We've all seen the adverts with the sexeeee ladeeee dancing around the rather gorgeous man with the afro, if you haven't, "You appall me!"

There is a choice of 19 default tones. The 3 dance tunes are good, the others are a little mudane. There is also a ringtone composer! (Wave those pom-poms, shake that booty and release the balloons!). There are loads of instructions for creating tones online. The best site is probably www.yourmobile.com, but there are tonnes of others (all the rage nowadays), they will all give instructions. The pitch can be altered too, which makes the sound slightly upbeat! Unfortunately you can only store one at a time.

There are 5 ringing levels. Quiet, a bit louder, loud, loudest, and one ascending level (gradually gets louder).
The loudest, isn't really that loud, and unfortunately there is no vibrating alert, so you have no way of detecting a call when it is on silent and in your pocket.

When a text message arrives a short sharp "bbbbrring" alerts you to it's prescence. It's fairly quiet and can't be made any louder :o(

A nice feature is that you can have a different ringtone for your general phone book and your VIP dial.

LAST CALLS
This is stop 6 on the menu. This is where you can see your last 20 incoming calls, 20 outgoing calls and 20 missed calls. If the number is in your phone book it is shown as a name, if not then your left with the number!

EXTRAS
Last stop is the extras section, you can view the last the time of all your calls, or your last call, or clear the call timers. Handy if your tariff allows only a certain amount of minutes per month - you can check up on them easily!

You can also choose to select an in call timer - very handy, if once again you only have a certain number of minutes free a month or day.

You can opt to have a minute beep, or not as the case may well be - I never used it as I imagine it is more than a little annoying! Still if you're a stingy begger...

That's it from me (oi I heard you breathe that sigh of relief!). It's cute, it's classy but it's now a little outdated. I used to think it was the best, I also used to pick my nose (hey we're going back a long way here). Most people would be more satisfied with a more "hi-tec" phone with all the latest features - games, WAP, however, if you only want the bare basics, and technology bores you, the Siemens C25 could still be a devil in your underpants! :o)

Summary: