Siemens Comes Up Trumps (Siemens C45)

Member Name: Andy_The_Writer

Product:	Siemens C45
Date:	25/03/03 (778 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Functional, Fashionable, Small, Light

Disadvantages: Bad Games

The Siemens C45 is small, functional and brilliantly durable, which in my opinion is why it is one of the best value mobiles available on the market. After trying phones from Motorola and Nokia in the past, neither of those two companies as come anywhere close to the quality of the Siemens C45.

~~~ Vital Statistics ~~~

Phone

Band: Dual
Antenna: Integrated (in built)
Weight: 107 grams
Dimensions (L x W x H): 109 x 46 x 23mm
Exchangeable Covers: Yes

Battery

Nickel Battery
Stand By Time: 60 - 200 hours
Talk Time: 100 - 300 mins

This phone is so small and light that you will hardly notice it when it's in your pocket. This phone is great for someone with an active lifestyle who doesn't need a big, heavy phone pulling them down more than necessary. With the antenna being inbuilt there will be no discomfort of it sticking into your leg like a pin when it?s in your pocket.

I will mention more about the exchangeable covers later on, but now about the battery. For such a little phone, with an equally small battery, you would expect low battery life. However, the C45 shows that you should not judge a book by its cover, as this little battery can out live the majority of phones on the market. With a charge time of around 3 hours this phone is fantastic if you are on the go, and you need a quick charging phone.

~~~ Features ~~~

++++ SMS and T9 Predictive Text ++++

This phone has a fantastically simple interface, and the text message screen is no exception. This phone makes typing those many text messages a breeze, with its great predictive text feature. You press the keys to place in the corresponding letters, if the word the phone comes up with is not your desired word; you simply press change using the simple button.

However, a very small bad point about the predictive text is not every word you are going to use will be stored within the
phones dictionary. Moreover, if during typing a message you accidentally press the red phone, the whole message is lost, and has to be re typed.

If you have friends with a C45 then pictures can be sent between the two phones. Having said this the pictures are not the best, but to be honest, what more could you expect from a mobile phone?

Delivery reports can be sent up with the C45, notifying you when a message has either not delivered, delivered or its validity has expired.

++++ Keypad Features ++++

The buttons on this phone take a little getting used t, but once you have got the hang of them, you will be sure to love them. The big green dial button, is obviously pressed when you wish to make a call, however it has another very useful feature. If you press the button when not wishing to make a call, you're most recent numbers dialled will appear. You can then simply select the person you wish to call, and press the big green button.

By pressing the down key of the main key pad your 10 most recent missed calls will appear great if you have not heard your phone ring and have missed a few calls. Another great feature about this missed calls list is that each missed call has a time and date stamp, along with who called you, allowing you to quickly get in contact with the caller.

The keys can either be placed on silent, so no noise is present when pressed (which is great when you wish to use your phone in somewhere quiet), or you can have a variety of annoying beeps every time you press the keys, the choices is yours. As with all mobile phones this keypad can be locked to prevent the pressing of keys, and possible accidental calling, whilst the phone is in your pocket.

Something extra offered by the C45 which is great in my opinion is the addition of two features. Firstly, the phone book key, with one press of a button you can be into your phone book (with a 200 number capacity) in seconds, a
nd ready to select a name to make a call. Secondly the star key, if held down for a second can completely put your mobile on silent, or back onto loud. This saves the hassle of having to go through all the various menus.

++++ Display ++++

The phone has a nice simple display, with no fancy images, functional rather than fashionable. The menus are incredibly simple to get to grips with, and navigation really couldn't be any simpler.

This phone can send, receive and store operator logos, as seen across the Nokia range of mobile phones. These logos can not only replace your network title on the main screen, but they can also be used as a handy screen saver if your phone is inactive for a few minutes.

The screen saver is a great feature for two reasons, firstly it saves battery life, which is always useful, and secondly you can place a security code onto the screen saver to prevent people from reading your private/dirty text messages.

++++ Reception and Speaker Quality ++++

This phone dispels the myth that all phones with an inbuilt aerial have poor sound quality, and reception. This phone delivers great clarity during voice calls no matter where you are. The speaker and microphone are also very high quality, allowing you to hear the caller, and them to hear you loud and clear in almost any situation.

++++ Call Features ++++

This mobile really shines with its call features, during a call you can divert the call to another number, start up a conference call with more than one other person, alter the volume of the speaker or the microphone, transfer data over the phone to the other caller and observe how long you have been on the phone, and more importantly how much credit it has taken.

++++ Fashion Features ++++

By fashion features I am referring to the likes of games, ringtones, logos, changeable covers etc, so here is a run down of what the C45 has to offer.


++ WAP ++

Yes the C45 is internet ready, but this may sound good but as with all mobile phones the internet service is very poor due to the small number of sites that are actually WAP compatible. The internet will quickly drain your phone of credit, and serves no real purpose to the average phone consumer, and I can only really see a use for emails etc if you are a business man/woman.

The internet also has very poor security and no filtering features, meaning that porn and other adult content are easily found, so if you have kids with his phone just take this into consideration.

The connection speed on all mobile internet is deathly slow, and I believe an old spectrum would be capable of loading the web pages faster. This isn't really a fault of the C45, rather of mobile internet itself.

++ Ringtones ++

Annoying as most of them prove to be, the C45 has not got a bad selection of ringtones. 24 stored within the phone and space for a further four of your own (which can be downloaded from the internet or bought from phone order companies). The ringtones in my opinion are quite good, and offer such classics as Green Sleeves and the Pink Panther Theme Tune, not as annoying as some of the Nokia ringtones for example.

The downloadable ringtones are out in their numbers all over the internet, everything from modern pop songs, rock, down to television and movie theme tunes can be found. A great feature if you're a fan of cheesy ringtones.

++ Logo's ++

Mentioned earlier, so will just say that the number of logos available to Siemens users is huge, and the official Siemens website offers a few for free when you sign up. Make sure you choose a good one however, or you will soon be paying for more.

++ Games ++

The main reason I have a mobile phone is for sending text messages and making calls, however some people do like to see a selection of games (such as the massivel
y popular Snake on Nokia's) on their phones. So Siemens have not left out the games in their phone.

Having said this, the games this phone includes are boring, unimaginative, and none challenging. The phone includes the games Balloon Shooter (where you shoot balloons, and yes it is as boring as it sounds), stack attack (an attempt to recreate the tetrus style game on a mobile, and failing miserably), and lastly Battle Mail, which is a very poor fighting affair, which can be played against over C45 users for 20p a pop.

So if games are your thing then this phone will not be for you.

++++ Changeable Covers ++++

The C45 has a huge range of covers now available from a lot of different retailers. I'm sure you have seen all these things before on Nokia's so no reason for me to go into any detail, apart from to mention that these C45 covers are surprisingly strong, and if bought from the right place, quite cheap as well.

~~~ Further Features ~~~

++++ Dual Band ++++

This allows you to make calls to anyone whether they be on land line or mobile, from anywhere in the world with the exception of the USA, which requires a tri band phone. Perfect for those who are away in Europe a lot as an example.

++++ Diary and Reminder ++++

Never forget that Dentist appointment or someone's birthday again with Siemens handy organiser. A great little feature that has been cleverly implemented to sound an alarm a day before the reminder occurs, and then every few hours up till the reminder, or whatever it is you have stored in there.

++++ Vibrating Alert ++++

When the phone is placed on silent vibrating alert can be activated. Not as violent as many phones out there on the current market, so if your after cheap thrills then this phone is definitely not in your street. The vibration is a perfect strength, not so much that it hurts your body, but not too little that you si
mply can?t tell that it is vibrating.

++++ Language Selection ++++

Only really useful if you are foreign as you can select your mother language so that all this phones displays are changed to show it. Also fun for getting som
eone really annoyed by changing their phone into Dutch for example, then watching as they angrily try to navigate the menus to change it back to English.

++++ Alarm Clock ++++

A great feature that I have used quite a lot since owning this phone. Can be set for anytime any day, and the volume of the alarm can also be altered accordingly. However, the alarm sometimes can become quite annoying and very irritating, especially if the alarm is for waking you up in the morning.

++++ Fun with Faces ++++

For each entry in your phone book (so for example your mother in law), you can place a little picture that will appear when they call under their name. Be careful which picture you choose for certain people, for example there is a danger of having to try and convince your loved one that the dog that appears when they call is in fact "cute" like them and not"ugly" like them as it may imply.

I have had quite a lot of fun with this feature and it just adds a degree of personalisation to your mobile phone, making it more unique, and more in keeping with your personality.

~~~ Durability ~~~

I have owned this phone for almost a year and half now, and believe me it has come under some heavy wear and tear over this time. It has been dropped down stairs, onto the pavement, into a cup of water, of my bike, and many more little accidents, and although falling to pieces each time, the phone has remarkably come away with nothing more than a few scratches.

The phone has never let me down with any technological errors, and has always been as good as new in terms of functionality, although the appearance as you would expect with anything has deteri
orated. The phone may appear flimsy and weak, but when put to the test this phone comes out a winner, and surprisingly can win many battles.

++++ Add Ons +++

An in car kit can be purchased for this phone allowing hands free mode,
and in car charging. Great sounds clarity as usual.

Additional batteries can be purchased should anything go wrong with yours.

A data cable can be used to transfer text, and data both from and to the phone. The data cable includes software to allow connection to any PC, with any operating system. A simple interface will have you downloading and transferring data (such as ringtones, logos and emails) in no time.

An official Siemens plastic case can be purchased to further protect this precious piece of equipment.

~~~ So in Summary......... ~~~

This phone is small, sleek, functional, fashionable, and great value for money. When you?re looking for a new phone look no further than C45 or any other Siemens model for that matter, as they are all under rated and great phones for people on a budget.

Durable, long lasting battery and a variety of covers adds so much value to this phone, allows for personalisation and a great phone for an active lifestyle, due to a great resistance to rough and tumble it will inevitably be subjected to.

Siemens are extremely underrated, and should deserve a closer look, and a little more attention. Go on, give the C45 a try, your missing out on a real gem!

~~~ Thanks ~~~

As always thanks for reading my opinion, any comments welcome, and hope to read you soon :O)

Andy_The_Writer

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