S55 - a gem of a phone (for small fingers!) (Siemens S55)

Name: thenumnum

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Product:	Siemens S55
Date:	11/01/04 (852 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality, Software, Functionality

Disadvantages: Button Design

I'm a bit of a mobile phone buff, I've been known to change my mobile every 6 months to ensure I get the best of my current 'feature of the year' or what have you. So I think I have some merit in giving this opion, and hope its of use to you.

I previously had a Panasonic GD87 - my first camera phone. I bought that one based on the verdict that it had the best camera/screen combo at the time (see my review on this site). The problem was, that Panasonic just didn't have user friendly software. It was impossible to easily manage your phonebook, and it was a real pain texting - you'd end up having to delete an entire word because the T9 didn't work well.

So I decided to change, and change I did - to using a brand new Siemens S55. I've had this for a good 5 months now (new change impending ;-) and this review is based on that 5 month affair.

Size:
The S55 is a perfect size for those of you who wish to have a phone that can hide away in a trouser pocket or handbag, but yet retain a good size to get the mic near your mouth. The problem with small handsets is that they dont get close to your mouth, so in noisy places you end up cupping the mic to allow sound to travel unhindered to the mic. Anyway, the size aspect of the S55 is perfect. It is even rounded in the right places, and unlike the T68i (another one of my previous phones) it has a very ergonomic shape to it.

Screen:
The screen is so-so in the scheme of things today, but I found it to be fantastic compared to just greyscale. Its a 426 colour scren, so its enough to allow you to have nice Themes and get things differentiated.

Buttons:
The worst part of the phone in my opinion, and its bugging me to no end. The S55 is the same size as the M55 from Siemens. Yet the M55 has FANTASTIC buttons, whereas the S55 keyboard layout looks nice, but has a very large degree of 'slip' built into the design. For instance, if you go to pr
ess '6' you could so easily press '3' or '9' and not know it. So dialing has to be a careful activity, but most importantly, Texting is a trial!

SMS:
Lets admit it, everyone texts nowadays, its easier than having to call. So you need good smsability. The Panasonic GD87 fails on that front, but the S55 has superior software. The T9 on the S55 is flawless. Picks up words, lets you change a word in its entirity when editing, and allows you to save new words to the dictionary. It even lets you 'scroll' through the dictionary based on 1 or 2 letters, e.g. if I were to add "pl" to the sms, I could scroll through all the words beginning with "pl" to avoid me having to type any further letters in. Seems weird at first, but speeds up texting.
The reason it helps on the S55 is the keys - as mentioned above the button layout is the most appaling ive ever had.

GPRS:
Flawless GPRS and a good email client - just wish the email client downloaded headers rather than the whole message - though you can specify maximum message size in K so as to avoid huge downloads.

Bluetooth/irDA:
Both are again of excellent siemens quality. Never drops connections, and both work with all devices.

Software:
Standard Siemens Software with what I term the most useful things in the world! I really like Siemens UI, its designed for a fast power user (shame they didn't think of the buttons ;)

Battery:
Excellent performance. Tips for other users : use a dark screen and set the screensaver to PowerSave - you'll get a good 5 days standby even if you use the phone 1 or 2 hours a day! Yep, the biggest drain on batteries these days is screens, and luckily the S55 doesnt have a million colours to display and so the battery lasts ages.

Handsfree:
I love this. I wish all phones had this. No need for a headset as the S55 implementation is excellent. No echo, clear voice both
ways. Just rest the phone near the steering wheel and its sorted.

Other good things:
Volume control on the side, fast dial buttons, my menu shortcut, voice memo recorder button on the side (lets you record part of a voicemail to let you dial a number easyily).

Bad things:
BUTTONS! oh if it wasn't for this I'd keep this mobile - but my texting is suffering - those buttons are just not ergonomical! boohoo.

Summary: