A worthy stopgap? (Siemens MT50)

Member Name: tomshanks

Product:	Siemens MT50
Date:	27/12/03 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderful blue screen, Java games and GPRS, Excellent keypad

Disadvantages: Looking a little on the big side, Now surpassed by newer Siemens models, Ringtone selection abysmal and still too quiet

With my Ericsson T65 seemingly on the blink after refusing to switch itself off in the cinema and dropping more calls than I have had mobile phones, I was forced to look for a cheap replacement which would see me through to Christmas, when my mother was to give me some money to buy a new phone. At only 40 GBP on Ebay, and coming from a long line of phones that I have bought for a similar price on the aforementioned site, the Siemens MT50 which arrived at my accommodation in France was destined to do the trick. For me, this was something of a retrograde step, having just sold my old C45, and already owning a C55, but I was intrigued by the feature-set and the blue screen. Fortunately, the MT50's talents had greater depth than merely a nice screen.

The first thing I noticed about the MT50 when it arrived was its size. Although it could not be called large, I was starting to feel that my old Ericsson T65 was big, which is actually not the case, and to have a phone that was taller than that, and which did not do all the things which my fancy Sagem MYX-6 camera phone does, and was about the same size, did was a slight shock. However, this soon passed after I had briefly used the phone itself. The keypad was a revelation. After the slow-texting T65, I found that I was breezing through messages with no problem at all, and I have to say that the two best phones I have ever texted on have been the Nokia 3410 and the MT50. Having had so many phones, I think that I may be able to say this with some degree of conviction. It brought home to me how a really good text messaging interface could be ruined by a poor keypad, which was the case with the C45, as the MT50's interface is identical. The support of text messages superior to 160 characters was something which I had got to with the C55, but it was a pleasant surprise to see this also on something which was of a previous generation. The battery life, however, was still rather poor.

It turned out that
the seller had given me an old battery for a C45, which is Nickel Metal-Hydride, as opposed to the better lithium-ion one as found on the standard A50 and MT50, and with the phone in more constant use than my C45 had been in the UK (I only use the one phone when I am in France), the standby time of one and a half to two days was unacceptable. The new lithium battery which I bought for the phone has now cured the problem, but this would reinforce the idea that more things on the phone leads to higher power consumption. I am glad to now have moved on from the MT50 for that reason alone. The reception quality, however, appears to have been slightly improved over the C45, and I could get a signal just about anywhere someone with a Nokia on the same network could in France with the MT50, whereas with the C45 it was not always possible.

The blue screen is marvellous to behold, and is probably the best feature of the phone. I could not say whether this alone is responsible for a higher power consumption than the previous models, but it does look the part. Despite being rather an old phone in many respects, the MT50 still turned a lot of heads due to its blue screen, so much so that others were soon demanding that I procure the same model for them! With the weight reduced from the lithium battery, the blue screen, and a much better set of covers than the C45, the MT50 got away with its old origins in a way in which the Nokia 3410, rather a similar Java phone launched at about the same time, did not. This is also due to the lovely animations which accompany things such as starting up the phone, opening text messages, and checking my balance, and the standard racing car one suited me to a T. It is obvious that, where the C45 was meant to be more of a girl's phone, the MT50, although built on the same platform, is meant to be for the chaps. The Java capabilities and GPRS would serve to reinforce this.

Although there is only one game pre-loaded on the MT5
0 (I am not sure if this is the case for every single model, but it was certainly true for me), it does show what Java programming is capable of. Moorhuhn Jagd, a German game created by Phenomedia, is enjoyable, as it has a good game resolution, a true element of skill, and 'feedback' through the use of the vibration function. I would have liked more, but it seems that most Java phones are like this these days. No doubt more could be downloaded from the Siemens website if I had the time and money! The GPRS is also a surprising feature given that the phone has such an old basis, and makes the Internet run at a reasonable speed. The Siemens Internet browser does appear to be unchanged from its previous incarnation, but I do not suppose that this is a problem, since there never was much wrong with it. Another improvement is the sheer quantity of EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service) pictures on the handset. I never would have thought that there could be as many as my old T65 (which had about 50), which is true, but the quality appears to be excellent. The C45 did support EMS, but only about 12 icons could be used, which limited its appeal somewhat. These days, it is a little more usual to use it, so it is good to find that this feature has been expanded.

The major gripe that I have with this model is the lack of decent ringtones. I remember having an old S25, which had about 40 ringtones, and the MT50 has the same quality of ringtones, but far fewer. The S25's were also very loud, which meant that the vibration alert did not have to be used, but with the much later MT50, it is a surprise to find that not only the number of ringtones has been reduced, but that their quality is much diminished. The C45 had exactly the same selection, and there were only about one or two I liked, so it was back to square one with this phone. What makes things worse is the excellent polyphonic selection on the C55 and A55, which really goes to prove my point. They can be d
ownlo
aded and edited, but just to have some decent standard ones is always a plus.

The built-in Organiser for the phone is also very limiting. Although not quite as bad as the laughable birthday reminder thing on the C45, which was the only way of actually setting things to be remembered in the phone, it is still light years away from the sophisticated organiser in the Ericsson T65, Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse or even the C55 that I have owned. I know that this is supposed to be a basic, fun phone, but something to allow me to remember when I should hand my essays in would be good! The alarm clock function, however, does work well.

The build quality of the MT50 is just as good as the C45, if not slightly better, but again, this has been superseded by the C55. If anything were to sum up this phone, it would be this. Although it was exactly right for the time when it was released in June 2002, it has dated very quickly, and the reason for this has been the surprising amount of new models to come from Siemens own factory in Munich itself. If it is not necessary to have polyphonic ringtones, and reliability, a good screen, easy text messaging and Java are basic requirements in a phone, then this makes an excellent buy.

Summary: