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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Siemens MC60 October 31, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/mobiles/soa/Siemens-MC60/0,139023387,120279999,00.htm
This is Siemens' first handset with an integrated camera and a colour screen. It also sports a funky design and unique, circular keypad. Will it just be a fad or have Siemens come up with a gem? Read our Australian review.The distinctive design of the M55 made Siemens mobile phones popular with the younger, phone-are-fashionable market. It seems Siemens have taken the generation x target market a bit too literally this time as they've splashed a nice big "x" across the keypad of the MC60. Our test model came in a stylish, two-toned silver case and the handsets all support clip-on covers and exchangeable keypads. It's a moderately small handset measuring 109 x 46 x 21 mm, which is only slightly bigger than the Sony Ericsson T610.
At first we assumed the four-way rocker at the top could be used for four-way navigation, but found out quickly it only scrolls through the 3x3 icon-menu up and down, as the left and right keys are reserved to perform other functions. It takes a while to get used to the closeness of the 2 and the down keys and may not be suited to people with large thumbs. Similarly, the 8 and the 0 are a bit too intimate for our liking. In the keypad's defence, we like number 5. Aside from being the only regular shaped button on the MC60 it acts as a camera shortcut key. Holding it down for a second turns the screen into the viewfinder and then it takes a photo on the second press. From here you can view the photo on the 4,096-colour screen, shoot off an MMS or simply delete the picture. A "high sensitivity" digital camera, as Siemens visibly brand it, is on the back of the camera positioned similarly to the integrated camera on the Nokia 7250. After taking a photo you can then manipulate it using the image editor on the handset. With a few clicks you can add warp, add moustaches, hats or luscious lips to people in your photos. Subjects strangely appear in a sepia tone when the screen acts as the viewfinder for the camera during our tests. Thinking this may have been a special effect we were surprised to find it can't be turned off but thankfully the colours looked fine when viewed on a monitor. Pictures can be taken at four different resolutions ranging from 160 x 120 up to 352 x 288. Aside from the colour tone of the photos in preview mode, the screen has only 101 x 80 pixels and does not do the otherwise impressive MC60 much justice. It is extremely hard to see in outdoor conditions and virtually illegible in direct sunlight. The contrast and brightness of the screen are adjustable, however we could find no ideal setting to counteract this. Applications on the MC60 include an organiser, stopwatch and alarm clock, which are standard these days and a couple of games is always a nice touch. One game called Contest Arena ran painfully slow on our test model but seems like it would be an engaging platform shooter if the mobile phone could process the graphics faster. There is also a puzzle game called Magic Photo which takes one of your pictures, cuts it up into a heap of square tiles for you to put back together, jigsaw puzzle style. We lasted about 15 seconds playing this before getting extremely frustrated by our lack of skill and shutting it down. Approximately 30 polyphonic ringtones and sounds come installed on the MC60 with more available to download from the my-siemens Web site. A great feature is the ability to record new ringtones through the microphone. The MC60 supports 16-voice polyphonic ringtones and also has the ability to play wav files. Unfortunately there is no Bluetooth or infrared connectivity to quickly transfer sounds and photos to/from your computer. A data cable is available as an additional extra and MMS can be used to email photos (of course, carrier MMS prices apply to this). The phonebook on the MC60 is not as thorough as the one found on the SL55's. The only additional field you get by storing numbers in the phone's memory (as opposed to on the SIM card) is an e-mail address. All entries can be assigned to groups (eg. friends/family/business) and each contact can have a photo assigned to them that will display when the person calls. Battery life during our test was a fairly standard average of three days before needing a recharge (which took about two hours). Siemens mobile phones have progressively improved over the past year and they now have quite a respectable line-up. Introducing 4K-colour screens was a good start and the addition of an integrated camera should see them grab even more of the market share from their dominating rivals. Siemens MC60
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