BETTER THAN ANY NOKIA (Siemens C35e)

Member Name: jacklover

Product:	Siemens C35e
Date:	28/09/01 (215 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good phone

Disadvantages: No snake!

Do you remember my old opinion, 'I'M THE SAD COW THAT CAN'T AFFORD A PHONE!'? I wrote an opinion on a Philips C4, well now I'M STILL A SAD COW BUT A SAD COW THAT OWNS HER OWN PHONE! Last week I finally decided that I really needed a phone so that I could be contacted at all times by friends and family, whether it was a casual call or an emergency of some kind.

So far I have been really impressed with my new phone, I decided to go for something a little different, originally I wanted a Nokia 3310, they looked smart and casual and many people had them, but I opted for something a little different in the end, a Siemens C35e was the phone I ended up with.

I wanted the phone to be on 'Orange Just Talk' as many of my mates are on Orange and with Just Talk I can top up as and when I need to. The best place for an Orange Just Talk phone at a reasonable price in my local town is believe it or not, Woolworths! So off I marched to Woolies and after much 'ahhring' and 'oohing', I chose this phone for £80 which was pretty good value.

I didn't think my new phone would be as good as any other Nokia that I had seen before but surprisingly when I got it out of its box, it looked so smart, sexy and cool, it was better than any other Nokia I'd EVER seen! My first impression was a very positive one!

The appearance of the phone was really cool, the phone was very light in weight and also very dinky, it looked really hip and the blue and black contrasting cover looked really smart. The phones weight is really light so don't think that just because it isn't a Nokia, its a brick! There are many phones on the market nowadays! This phone also fits into all pockets! ~ Which I find really handy! The buttons on the phone were all really close together too which I liked as then the phone is easier to use! Overall I give the appearance of this phone 10/10.

The phone itself seemed really compli
cated to begin with, being used to a Philips C4 handset and all Nokias, this did seem very weird to me! But I remained positive as I usually do and within a day I had the phone wrapped up in my hands quite nicely! Now I know just about every function that each button does! The function of the phone has to have a 9/10, it is really easy but needs getting used to!

Onto the features of the phone itself though, this phone comes with many gadgets! Here is a (Quite!) simple layout of the structure of the phone itself:

The main MENU

Internet
Office and fun
Messages
Records
Profiles
Audio
Time/charge
Divert
Set up
Usage Hints

INTERNET

I haven't actually used this yet and I don't think I ever will! Not many people that I know of use the internet on their phones, although this handset does come complete with WAP! (YEY! NOT!) So, obviously I haven't a clue about what goes on here! (Sorry!) I give the WAP services 5/10 because they are so unappealing to me, I haven't even bothered to try them! If anyone is specifically interested in the WAP facilities, let me know and I will look up some info for you...

OFFICE AND FUN

Here again you have an option to go on the internet, you can also save appointments that remind you of things, you also have the available calculator function as well as a handy currency conversion and a chronemeter which includes a stopwatch, an alarm clock and a countdown function. You also have a selection of games which are nothing comapred to the famous Nokia Snake and Snake 2, you have available to you Wayout, which is a game in which you have to find your way out of a maze. Reversi, which is something to do with black and white counters and Quattropoli which is like Connect 4. You also have Minesweeper in which I'm sure you all know of if you own your own PC with Microsoft! These games are alright but I didn't buy my phone for the game
s so I'm not that fissed voer them! You also get an overall usage hints function which helps you navigate this part of the phone system, overall I give the Office and Games section 9/10.

MESSAGES (SMS)

This function on my phone is however used somewhat more often! I can explain in great detail that here you can recieve incoming messages, send SMS, setup your message system, set up your voice message (Voice mail) and again you have a handy 'Usage Hints' button which helps you incase you get stuck. On my SIM card I have 10 available spaces for incoming and outgoing messages, so sometimes I have delete some when my inbox and outbox are both full.

When you are writing a text message on this phone, it comes with Predictive Text input, which is when your phone predicts what word you are writing and finishes it off for you, however being the 14 yr old that I am, I have no need for this, slang suits me just fine! To get rid of this function, at the start of each message press the * button and hold it for a few seconds. I give the messaging system 10/10 because this is mainly what I use and this phone works well with me!

RECORDS

This part of the phone contains the useful info of all your phone calls, there are all your missed calls, recieved calls, alarms missed and again your usage hints incase you get either lost or confused! That is basically it for this section, I find this section rather helpful sometimes so I give this 10/10.


Profiles

This section is still getting used to by me, it seems a little confusing and I haven't looked it up in my hand book yet, but at the moment I have 3 options here, the first one is quiet environment, the second is Noisy Environment and the third is Normal. This is all to do with how loud or quiet you want your phone to be, I just leave mine on normal all the time. This section gets 5/10 from me because I don't think it has much of a use and is quite com
plicated too!

Audio

I used this section of my phone to begin with, I set up all my volumes and tones here. You have 7 sections to 'Audio'. The first one is the Volume which can either be on, off or on 'beep'. The second option is the Melodies which are the tones, you have a selection of 21 which are all quite good. The third option is the Vibrating alert which I love because you can use this instead of a tone which saves embarassment sometimes! You can either set this on or off. The fourth is call screening which you can choose from on or off. The next option is the service tones which I haven't really explored into yet, the sixth option is recording your own melody which can be fun but also stupid! Lastly, the seventh option is the 'Usage Hints' section. I give the Audio section 10/10 because it has the silent option, the vibrating option and some good tones too.

Time/charge

This section is quite simple with two options, the cost of your last incoming and outgoing call and charge setup which can be useful to some who care how much money they use and save. I haven't really used this yet so I give this 7/10.

Divert

I haven't used this part of my phone at all! Here you can Divert all Fax Calls or data calls, you can have a status check and you have the option to clear all diverts, I guess this comes in handy if your not using you're handset for personal use, if you're using this phone for business etc however I assume this could be very handy, I haven't a clue what it's all about though! I give this section 5/10 because I don't need it!

Set up

Here you can choose whether your menu mode is complete, the langauge your phone is using and whether you want your keys on your phone to click, make a tone sound or be quiet. You can also decide upon your battery care and your display status. You can also choose some security options such as PIN codes o
n your phone, you can also recieve advice on your network, FAX/DATA mode and car use advice. You can also decide upon a minute beep for incoming and outcoming phone calls, you can set the date and time on your phone and get information on using the headset and you also get the normal 'Usage Hints' option. Although I don't use this part of my phone much after setting it up it is quite usrful so I give this part 9/10.

You may have wondered why I haven't talked about the Address book at all, this isn't in the MENU facility, this is a different button, the 'book' button on the left of the phone, here you can add up to 100 names and numbers (Thats on my SIM card) and also add smiley faces or symbols to them, so when they call you may recognise the caller via the picture! (This is quite fun! ~ But then I'm sad like that!!!)

I've recieved a few calls already but today I recieved my first call which lasted over quarter of an hour, I found the reception pretty good and the quality of speech pretty good too, it isn't that clear reception but it is as good as all mobiles!

The battery life is very good with this set too, the charger is like most others and when I bought the phone although I was told to charge it for 16hrs, it was up and running, fully charged with 3hrs, I left it to carry on charging throughout the night though too! On my old Philips C4, whenever I made a call or recieved one, my battery would go straight down a bar or two, after some phone calls today my battery is still full!

Other handy tips about this phone are:

1. Hold down the Hash key in the bottom right hand corner to lock your keypad, which prevents any unwanted outgoing phone calls! ~ Do the same to unlock your keypad.

2. Always hold down the 'End Of phone call' button to turn the phone on and off and also to go back a page in the MENU section.

3. Always delete unwanted or unimportant message
s straight away so then you have more room for incomibng messages.

4. Set up your voice message straight away so it is up and running, try to get the first try right, because it costs you to ring your answer machine. (Thats on Orange, on some other tariffs it is FREE)

So those are all the main parts and functions to my new Siemens C35e, I'm so impressed with it, I'm glad I saved my money and bought something a little cheaper instead of a Nokia. I'm used to the set now and find it very easy to control and I've only had it a few days now!

I totally 100% recommend this phone to people who are interested, if you have the patience of sitting down and getting to know your phone well, you will get along with this phone! I hope I've helped you all, any more Q's? ~ Just ask me, thanks for reading all! Cheers ~M~ :0)

P.S WATCH OUT FOR MY SOON TO COME OPINION ON MY ORANGE JUST TALK TARIFF

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