This phone has a "fly" mode for beating traffic! (Siemens M35i)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Siemens M35i
Date:	13/02/02 (413 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: has most of the features you're bound to use (and some you won't), hasn't aged

Disadvantages: abysmal battery life

MOBILE PHONE GUIDE FOR DUMMIES (LIKE ME...)

When buying a mobile phone, my priorities were (1) good reception, (2) clear display, (3) vibration mode, since my work often involves meetings where phones ringing aren't such a good idea, and (4) ... ahem... ok I confess, I wanted a phone that looked stylish too. Well then, I said it.

This priority list was drawn up nearly two years ago, when I bought my current mobile phone. After driving the shop salesman crazy, veering to and fro between models incessantly for what must have seemed (to him) like hours, I opted for a Siemens M35i, which although today may seem quaint, at the time had just been launched and was a pretty cool thingie.

Becoming the proud owner of a brand-new Siemens M35i, needless to say I delved into it, experimenting with all available features. It definitely satisfied my preset criteria. Although its aerial is internal (adding immeasurably to its attractiveness), I've never suffered from lack of signal - unless this was due to the service provider, of course. The display, while not so cool and "trendy" when compared to today's latest gizmos, is fairly clear, uncluttered and user-friendly, if not always economical in getting you from one place to another. At times getting to a particular feature means clicking your way through an infinity of menus and submenus. Whatever... [I'm lazy, it's not my fault...]

The Siemens M35i has a vibration mode, as requested, as well as the possibility of keeping both vibrate and sound mode active. This turned out to be particularly useful when in a noisy environment, since although I might not hear the beeps, I'd feel the vibration (seeing as I keep my phone clipped to my belt). Also, the volume can be set to increase gradually, starting off with a discreet sound (in case you're in church, say, and have forgotten to switch it off!). This once again is a very practical feature.

Fourth on my
wish list: looks. I must admit, this smart little number was pretty impressive at the time, and even today it looks quite perky and trendy for its age (I'm told that in mobile phone time, two years are a generation apart). Fitting snugly in the palm of a hand, it has a slight curvature down the middle, making it very ergonomic and highly suited to one-finger dialling and typing (if you're that way inclined).

Text messages are easy to send and receive on this phone, and this Siemens was one of the first phones to make use of the now-ubiquitous T9 technology whereby the phone tries to guess what you're trying to write, therein saving you a great many clicks. This is perfectly useless for those of us who communicate in a language other than English, of course, but afore-mentioned laziness has meant that I've taken to sending text messages in English... What is slightly irritating about the M35i's tackling of text messages is the loooooong time it takes to clear the screen of a message after you press "delete". The phone lingers on each "message is being deleted" screen, no doubt covering up for the phone's anemic speed.

The four buttons just below the screen change contextually to provide different functions and features depending on the menu the user is in. As far as menus go, the M35i has practically everything (including a never-utilised WAP feature). There are the usual office gimmicks: calculator, converter (this is quite handy, actually, especially when I'm travelling abroad - what I do is assign a number shortcut to it and access the converter with the click of a button), alarm, games and chronometer. Other menu items include a facility for keeping track of call charges, the mandatory zillion ringtones (mercifully it isn't compatible with the downloadable trash available just about everywhere...), and a facility for setting profiles for different uses (noisy environment, quiet environment). <
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It's also worth mentioning that the publicity for this phone proclaims that this phone is shock and splash resistant. I'm pleased to confirm that it really is. For a change, something which claims to be splash resistant is in fact so. I've dropped my phone countless times, yet it's always recovered nicely - at max sometimes requiring a tweaking to the SIM card in case this has become dislodged.

So really, this phone does have everything you'll need. The whole works, basically.

However - and this is where my complaints department opens its doors - there is one major glitch (and a few minor ones) in this phone, which nearly ruins an otherwise very good phone. The minor glitches, not really life-threatening but nonetheless irritating, include the absence of a receipt confirmation facility, an uninspired address book and a maddeningly uncomfortable battery/SIM cover at the back (basically, there's no slide-on/off cover as in other phones, but a screw that has to be undone with the help of a coin). The major fault with this mobile phone, though - a fault which will lead me to NOT recommend this phone to anyone - is its horribly and impractically short battery life. Without exaggeration, the battery for this phone has to be recharged every one-and-a-half days - unlike other phones that, with similar levels of use, will easily last between four and five days!

In the mistaken belief that the fault lied not with my phone but with the battery, I had the battery replaced (at extra cost), only to find that the same problem occurred. Even moderate use (read: few minutes, no more) of the phone will result in the battery consuming itself faster than the lifespan of a Tory leader. This might not be a great problem for those who work from home or otherwise have their chargers always at hand. For me, however, this infuriating defect means that my phone is down many a time when I'm away from the office with no access to my
charger.

I'm not too sure if this is a defect pertaining to this model alone, or whether it extends to all Siemens phones, however I'd highly recommend that anyone considering a Siemens check the *real* (as against POS-indicated) battery life.

That's all, folks. In summary, the Siemens M35i is a very good phone, having all the features you're bound to need - and probably nowadays you can grab hold of it at a bargain price -, marred however but an abysmal battery life. Don't say you haven't been warned!

........

Oh by the by: of course there's no "fly" mode...

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