It's big thing is being a small thing (Siemens S55)

Member Name: damworker

Product:	Siemens S55
Date:	08/05/03 (2209 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small size, quality

Disadvantages: detachable camera, the opposition

Thinking about the reviews I’ve done so far, all have been along the lines of ‘It’s ok, but…’ and it would be nice to do a ‘it’s just a great product’ with the Siemens S55. Well, I’d like to do that but… I can’t.

I work in the mobile department of a large software company. We don’t make software for phones so I don’t have a professional bias for the review. Any prejudices are purely personal.

I’ve used most of the modern more expensive phones e.g. 3650, P800, 7250 and never keep them long and absolutely NEVER put up my own money to buy them so this review ignores value for money.

I needed to leave the land of the free and go to the USA and needed a triband phone. The S55 was available in the office so I took that and have had it about a week now after returning.

The S55 isn’t a symbian device (symbian is the OS used by all of the big phone manufacturers on their high end smartphones). It uses a proprietary OS that supports Java (J2ME) – mostly this just means you can play games on it. I am a bit of a fan of Symbian.

The S55 is a small and stylish phone from Siemens. Its big thing is definitely about being a small thing. It’s great if you want small rather than functional. The other feature is the detachable camera that comes with it. The camera is powered by the phone, stores it’s pictures in the phone memory and attaches to the end of the phone to take pictures. It’s about 2/3rds the length of the phone. It has a separate viewfinder and a flash. The VGA quality is the same as the competition (3650 and P800).

If the camera sounds like a daft idea it’s because it is. What am I supposed to do with the camera when not using it? It can’t stay attached as the attachment is too flimsy. If I detach it I know I would never actually have it with me when I need it. Alternatively you could buy a cre
dit card sized camera from one of the gadget shops which would do the same thing.

So forget the S55 if you want a phone to take pictures with. I was skeptical of picture phones but they can be quite fun. Cynically it looks like a bit of a stop-gap product to ‘compete’ with Nokia/Sony until Siemens SX1 phone arrives. This has a built-in camera but is much pricier and more functional.

In its favour, the S55 feels very well made, better than any Nokia I’ve seen except maybe the communicator (which I like despite a LOT of failings). The keys feel positive but it’s sometimes easy to press the wrong ones. Gorillas need not apply.

It has bluetooth and gprs but a lack of memory upgradability also limits its use. The phone I had had only one game (the squares game where you move tiles to make an image) which was too dull to play and an odd map program which tells you about time zones. It may be that someone in our office had already deleted the other games so you should check that.

So treat the S55 as just a phone. Ok, but Nokia et al have a raft of equally small phones that really just act as phones. I would think that any decision just comes down to price and personal preference. I’d probably pick the Nokia 7250 over the S55 – it’s just as small but the camera is built-in – though you lose the flash and viewfinder. Alternatively go for a more functional phone like the 3650 or the excellent P800.

Summary: