The Siemens C45 looks better than it performs, which isn't saying much on either account.
The phone has serious problems, not least of which is the fact that our review unit spontaneously turned itself off twice during the course of our testing.
The screen is also slow to respond. After pressing a button for a menu function you sometimes have to wait around two seconds for something to happen. That might not sound like a long time, but most people expect simple items like phones to respond instantly when a button is pressed.
This problem is compounded by the fact that sometimes the buttons don't seem to respond at all, despite being easy to press. Taken with the slow response time, sometimes you sit looking at the screen waiting for something to happen, and sometimes you press the button too many times and end up in a menu you don't want to be in.
Siemens is marketing the phone on its customisability, citing a variety of covers, ring tones and screen icons to suit any personality. In fact, you can go to a Web site and design your own cover for around AU$100.
The phone does look good, and the screen has some nice animations on it. From a layout perspective, the buttons are excellent. We especially liked the dedicated -phonebook" button, as this function is probably the most used on a mobile phone.
The right hand softkey takes you to the menu, which is fairly standard, while the left hand button can be customised to take you directly to the function of your choice. The menu itself is different from the standard we have come to expect, with headings such as -Get in touch" and -Surf & fun". It took us a while to get the hang of it, and simple things like changing the time were initially a daunting task.
One cool feature is found in the Audio menu. The Ringer setting allows you to turn off all alert tones, instead of having to do 'incoming call' and 'sms' and so on individually. There is also a heading labelled My menu, which allows you to enter your most used functions. As well as menu functions, you can also enter phone numbers and URLs.
The SMS functions are pretty standard. We did get frustrated with the inability to easily capitalise characters, something we never did figure out. Some SMS users may not care about capitals, but we do.
Mobile phone games are increasingly important to users and manufacturers. Since the success of Snake, companies have tried a variety of games. The C45 contains Stack Attack and Balloon Shooter, neither of which are likely to take off to stellar heights.
The third game is BattleMail Kung Fu, which is designed to allow you to play opponents via SMS. It's a basic game, where opponents enter six attacking and six defending moves and see who wins. Since the service isn't available in Australia yet, we could only play against the phone, in practice mode. Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan estimates the world wide gaming market generated US$436.4 million in 2001, and expects it to reach US$9.34 billion by 2008. Siemens claims BattleMail Kung Fu has 800,000 e-mail users already, and is obviously hoping for a large slice of the mobile gaming pie.
The battery lasted from 9.30 Friday morning till 2.00 Monday afternoon. That's a total of 76.5 hours of normal usage, or just over three days. We've seen better in other phones.
All up, the Siemens C45 is a great concept that needs improving. The phone looks good and is easy to navigate, but the slow response time to keystrokes mean we'd give it a miss.
Siemens C45
Company: Siemens
Price: AU$299
Phone: 13 72 22
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