Cheap & Cheerful (Siemens C45)

Member Name: devevre

Product:	Siemens C45
Date:	30/01/03 (302 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small, lightweight, easy to use

Disadvantages: short battery life, keys wear out, quite an old model

I got my Siemens C45 last year and it has been adequate.

I don't advise you to rush out and buy one unless you are on a budget. By now they are a cheap option as a pay-as-you-go mobile, but if you are getting a free phone on a contract I would advise choosing something else.

The phone is small and lightweight. It is not unattractive, but quite curvy and the cover that comes with it is dark blue and blackish blue.

Some of the features that it has are very useful. For example, if you set the alarm on the phone but then switch the phone off, the alarm will still go off at the time you set it for. This can be useful if you're absent-minded, or want to turn the phone off overnight to save batteries.

There is also a function to remind you of birthdays, games, predictive text and all the usual stuff that comes with most mobiles these days. It has fun duck graphics when you switch it on, which is a nice touch, and when it is on standby a picture of an analogue clock comes up to show the time. It is easy to navigate the menu, and to find things quickly.

Some of the things that aren't so good? The keys are soft painted rubber rather than the usual hard plastic of most mobiles. If you have long nails, the top layer will peel away and it doesn't look great. The cover is cheap and looks tatty after a while. My phone sometimes switches off suddenly for no reason, although most of the time it is fine.

The worst bit is the awful battery life. If you use it much, you have to charge it every day and even then the batteries sometimes run out. Compared to the Ericsson T28 that I had before, this is awful.

As I said before, this is not a bad little phone. It has been reliable for almost a year now, and although I plan to replace it with an Ericsson T68i, it is still working as well as ever.

I think that as a pay-as-you-go phone, this is an excellent buy at around £60 in the shops. But
if you're getting a contract phone, choose something a bit nicer.

Summary: