Lara Babe, You Gotta Get One Of These! (Siemens M35i)

Member Name: PaddyofNine

Product:	Siemens M35i
Date:	28/06/01 (321 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I own one

Disadvantages: I am therefore biased

If the Nokia 8810 could be described as the James Bond of the mobile world, then the Siemens M35 is definitely the Lara Croft of mobiles. Small, petite, undeniably cute, tough on the outside, yet all soft and friendly on the inside. If you lead a seriously active lifestyle, like me, then this phone is for you...

Looks: Small, unobtrusive, and light, with no straight lines in sight make this phone easy on the as well as easy on the pocket! If you opt for the yellow version, you're bound to be seen, but more importantly, it's bound to be seen underneath a pile of clothes on your bedroom floor. Trust me, when you're running out of the house at 90kph, it's things like this that are important!!

Usability: The little screen may not seem like much, but its adequate for all you'll need. Unfortunately, I can't download logos and ringtones off popular websites and magazines, but seeing as I'm not a giggly fashion conscious teenage girl, it's not such a let down for me. The night light may not seem like much in daytime, but it's fine in the dark, and perhaps more importantly, doesn't blind ya when you reach for it in the middle of the night!

The buttons, while small, are nicely formed, and the T9 predictive text input makes firing off text messages a breeze! In hindsight, the buttons are so tough on the outside that any other phones feels strange in comparison: try it and see what I mean. The phone book button is also handy, a welcome change from the Maze of Death menu system of previous systems: this one is actually easy to use! The softkeys are also handy, and I particuarly like the fact that you can assign them to a function of your choice. The keylock is also a welcome feature, and means that you dont run up a huge bill after collapsing in a drunken heap. Waking up with a hangover and being billed with a four hour mobile call is not a good way to start the day, trust me. Ahem.

The vibrate featur
e is well received, although a little power intensive for my tastes. This can be overcome by the ability to write up to five different setting-profiles for the phone. For example, after setting it up, selecting "school",
I can turn off my vibrate alert to conserve energy and turn all tones to "beep", and so on for "Noisy environment" profiles, etc. A handy little feature, and it's the little things like this that make or break a phone!

The fiddly little rubber seals which protect the phone from moisture damage are also very easy to lose, and as soon as you leave one beside the phone when its plugged in, it's gone. Order an extra pack of them with you're phone, it's not worth the hassle of going back for some new ones.

The menus are surprisingly simple and intuitive for a Siemens phone, and the latest menus from Siemens rival those of a Nokia in structure and ease of use...

For those of you who worry about such things, don't worry about the microphone barely reaching past your cheekbone: apparantly it works as well as any other phone, and the new EFR technology means that my M35 boasts crystal clear signal strength in the right conditions. The internal antenna also means that you don't end up with it up your nose when trying to juggle the phone between hands...

Technology-wise, the handset is also in a class of its own... The WAP is as fast as WAP can get, although I defy any experienced Web user to use it without getting frustrated. Still, the 9.6kbps isn't all that slow, as WAP goes, and it does for checking the cinema listings... Still, I wouldn't go writing your bestselling novel on it just yet.
The charger is quite fast, and new battery technology means that a pretty feature-laden handset lasts quite admirably given the size of the battery... Nokia users may sniff their noses at it, but in my book a complete charge up in 2hrs is pretty nifty! The SMS-relate
d features also work well, although the lack of the ability to split a text message up into two, thereby removing the 160 character limitation, is frustrating. Still, maybe in the Z35, eh Siemens?

Overall, the Siemens is a powerful, durable little phone with a lot of style and very practical. I have dropped it repeatedly on concrete and used it in a rainstorm (Yes, really!) and it just keeps on going! Maybe it should have been named Duracell, eh? Anyway, it's shock, water and dust proof, and I would recommend it to anyone who, like me, leads a busy lifestyle which is not always confined to the home or school!

Summary: