Go buy it (Siemens S35i)

Member Name: alanrim

Product:	Siemens S35i
Date:	05/08/01 (428 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perfect size, Good features

Disadvantages: Only one personal ringtone

The Siemens S35 is my second Siemens mobile phone. I upgraded from a C35 to gain infrared capability, but I gained so much more.

The phone includes voice activated dialling, however this needs to be activated each time by a side-mounted button before saying the name to call. The good thing about this is you don’t accidentally phone someone, and if you have a lot of entries in your phonebook its definitely quicker than scrolling the phonebook list. A function I love on this phone is the option to have the keys lock automatically after a short period of non use, cool no more laughs for the last person you called when you accidently call them!

Other features include a 20-second memo (voice) recording facility; again this is quickly accessed using one of the side-mounted buttons. A calendar is available and thanks to the large screen a full month can be displayed in one go, the calendar allows entry of appointments although as you would expect the amount of information that can be recorded for each is limited. Other features are pretty standard across mobile phones in this price band.

The speech quality is excellent, the size of the phone makes it small enough but not so small that it is unusable for those with less dainty hands. The S35 does not have an aerial poking out of the case, so it fits in the pocket easily yet still has good reception.

A number of different ringing tones are included in the phone, along with the ability to record one personalised ringing tone. A little tip here, you don’t need to buy ring tones, just download MIDI files from the internet then use the infrared link from your laptop (or PC with infrared) to drag and drop to your phone….. sorted. On the subject of the infrared link its great, you can download shareware software from the internet that will allow phone management, including writing SMS messages and phonebook saving and modifications (why don’t Siemens provide software fo
r free with the phone?).

You can also use the phone for data calls, and this works really well. Using a data enabled SIM and most standard internet portals internet access is simple, just install a 19200 bps standard modem driver that uses the infrared port and set up your internet account. Internet browsing is slow but not unusable, but if your on the road the biggest advantage is for sending and receiving emails, again it’s a little slow, but not a great deal slower than a standard 56k fixed line connection.

I have also used the S35 with a Psion Revo PDA, again this works well over the infrared link, allowing phonebook, calendar, SMS, and email to be carried out from the PDA.
One other important feature of many of the Siemens range is the sharing of accessories such as; phone charger, hands free kits, data cables for phones such as the C35, S35, SL45 so you don’t have to throw away your old accessories.

Summary: