The Siemens A50 is a good entry-level phone: it only does the basics but it does them well. More importantly, it does them at a recommended retail price of AU$219.

The phone looks good, being a colour described as 'blueberry', but if you don't like it there are clip-it covers available. Changing the covers is pretty easy, although getting the battery out is harder than with most phones.

The A50 measures 10.9 x 4.6 x 2.3 cm and seems remarkably light; it weighs in at 97g, which is lighter than a lot of phones. As well as the normal keypad it has a call button, which will take you to the last number dialled if you have no number entered, and end call button, which doubles as power on/off and triples as a back button when navigating the menu. The phone also includes the phonebook button we were so impressed with on the Siemens C45.

On top of these are two soft keys, which double as arrow buttons. The right soft key takes you to the menu and the left soft key is programmable- we set ours for "New SMS", because like a lot of other people we use this more than the voice calls. We found the layout intuitive and the buttons easy to use, with the slight exception of the two soft keys. Since the arrows shared a button with the soft keys you sometimes got one when you were chasing the other.

Function-wise the phone is easy to navigate and the call quality is good. Holding the asterisk button will turn off all ringer tones, which makes it really easy to do in meetings or at the movies. The SMS was easy to type with predictive text, including the oft-tricky job of capitalising letters. You also have the option of sending SMS messages to groups of predefined people, such as VIP, Leisure, Office and Family. The A50 is EMS capable, so it can send and receive pictures and tunes from other Siemens phones.

The phone is WAP enabled, and access to the Internet is through "Surf and Fun" in the menu section. This also includes the bitmap viewer and melody manager, and the Games folder. The games on the phone are Stack Attack and Balloon Shooter, which should be familiar to anyone with a Siemens phone.

The battery of the A50 lasted for a full 7 days of normal usage, which is pretty good. It's advertised as having 250 hours of standby time and five hours of talk time.

For an entry level phone the Siemens A50 is hard to go past, especially if all you use a mobile for is talking and SMS. The price is right too, and Siemens has indicated it's being sold as a prepaid handset, making it great as a Xmas gift.

Siemens A50
Company: My Siemens
Price: AU$219
Phone: 13 72 22

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