Ohh a pretty Flower (Siemens CL75 Poppy)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	Siemens CL75 Poppy
Date:	24/10/07 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: size

Disadvantages: many

Some time ago I attempted a review of this phone on the 'other side' I would be the first to admit my attempt was truely atrocious and was the reason I largely avoided writing technology reviews for a long time. But the time has come that I feel upto the task of trying again.

It has to be said that currently I have been using this handset for near enough2 years, although for much of the time it has been a back up for reasons to be explained later.

Starting with the looks of the phone, yes it does look vrey pretty and feminine, and at the time I bought it I was finally growing out of my overly tomboyish stage (a period of my life which had lasted almost my entire 20 years). So it was somewhat shocking to me when I opened a magazine and found an advert for a pink flowery phone appealing!

I ordered the handset sim free because my network at the time didnt have it as an option and though I was due an upgrade they had nothing I wanted as there was nothing in the looks or function of the options which could replace my old Nokia 6130i.

I paid just short of £150 for the cl75 prerelease, and it was delivered on the first day it was avaliable. Opening the box out fell the usual bits and pieces, charger, battery, handset and instructions along with the silver and pink swarovski crystal phone charm. Size wise it was bigger that the advert had made it appear but it is a comfortable size for holding and carrying in pockets while big enough to find in all but the largest of handbags.

Assembling the handset is as simple as these things usually are, the sim slot is under the battery, so in that goes followed by the battery and cover. Charging took around 6 hours (at least thats how long I had to leave it for), originally I only had to charge it once every two or three days depending on the level of use. These days I have to charge it every day but it does get alot more use and the battery capacity will have diminished over the two year period.

The built in themes were quite adequate for my needs, after all I dont really care too much about how the menus look. It had on it three games all of which I played and found bored me fairly quickly, one was a sims style game where you play a character travelling around a virtual world, the other two I cant remember anymore (shows how much of an impact they made).

The ring and message tones were quite step back from the older nokia as the phone doesnt have polyphonics or mp3 capabilities, reverting to simple beeps and jingles.

The phones camera is also at best adequate, not as good as more modern ones it was at the time quite good but was very soon rendered laughable, with no flash photos can only be taken in light conditions. It has video but the clips are of low quality and dont seem to retain the sound (despite it being recorded according to the literature), again the clips are only worth while in light conditions.

One of the things that was new to the market on this phone was that the screen can be switched off independantly to make it in to a mirror, but as everyone knows if you use it for calls the screen ends up smudged and greasy from your ears, and it you wear earrings there will be a multitude of small scratches on it making any reflection a scary thing to see.

Sound quality on calls is pretty average, certainly nothing special and recently has begun to deteriorate most likely due to the age of the handset. Text messages are easy to read as the screen is a decent size.

So far it all sounds quite good really doesnt it?
Well the problems started early, the software in the handset regularly freezes, and occasionally loses anything saved in the phones memory, lucky really that I never use it to save anything important!

Not longer after first bought it my dear mates worked out how to change the language setting, and being slightly tipsy in my attempts to change it back managed to manually wipe the contents of the phone, literally everything, from the preinstalled images and tones to my phone numbers, photos and calendar. Now I managed this by clicking reset, and rather than then having a check option to ensure you hit the right button it simply reset, something which on otherphones I havent come across before.

Then theres the phones habit of switching itself off usually mid call for no reason even when the battery is fully charged, and that it can take up to 5 minutes to refind the network connection, in areas that other handsets can find the network in seconds.

Not so little niggles when you rely on your mobile for day to day life as I do. Those are the reasons that the phone spent a good 18 months as a back up to the nokia, which finally went to good phone heaven earlier this year, leaving me with the choice of buying another handset or sticking it out with this one until December when I can get an upgrade.

Other things this phone fails on is that it doesnt have bluetooth, relying on the old infrared technology, pity really that from around the same time as the cl75 was released infrared was becoming obsolete on new handsets. Also its menu though well laid out is hard to navigate due to the awkward buttons either skipping forward to far or not registering your attempts to move. The calendar and memos section is so hard to use that I have barely bothered with it.

All in all this was marketed as a phone for 'modern stylish young women' but in all honesty had I actually looked at its functions I would have avoided it, in my opinion it is a phone for a child who doesnt want or need bluetooth or mp3 or even decent photos from a phone. Generally I dont fall for the marketing ploys of companies with things like phones and I sincerely wish I hadnt with this one, its only redeeming feature is that the size is as close to perfect for me as you are likely to find.

Oh and the silver and pink charm? Its a pain in the backside, always catching on things in your bag or pockets, and with its sharp pointy bit painful to sit down with in a pocket, not to mention the number of times it pulled off the phone with a loud snapping noise, needless to say I took it off within days of starting to use the handset.

Summary: Just dont

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Sound quality:
Variety of features: