The Siemens C55 is Siemens' version of a mid-range feature-rich phone, and we think they've done a pretty good job. Like most lower-priced mobiles the C55 is heavily customisable, to appeal to a younger audience.
The 80g mobile measures 101x44x21 mm and has a glow-in-the-dark cover, which can be spooky late at night if you're not ready for it. The keys are laid out simply, and are easy to use. Those of us with fat thumbs are especially happy with it.
The customisable features include the ability to choose the logo and screensaver, as well as assign pictures and ringtones to specific people in the phone book. The phone comes with a set of pictures, animations and sounds, and users have the ability to download others from the net. Or, in the case of sounds, record their own ringtone.
The ringtones are polyphonic, and the usual suspects are provided: roosters, ambulance, Symphony no. 5 and Turkish March. Although we could record 18 seconds of sound, we couldn't get the volume loud enough to be of any real use. Perhaps the sound being recorded wasn't loud enough, or perhaps the microphone isn't good enough to pick up anything besides shouting.
The messaging feature of the C55 is pretty cool. Although the phone is only set up to send SMS, you can add pictures, sounds and animations to it, making the message effectively multi-media.
The 'Messages' menu also has an archive section to store messages you don't use, but want to keep. We especially liked the feature that allows you to see the remaining capacity.
You can create predefined text, but only up to 32 characters. Also, you cannot delete or edit the examples that come with the phone, which we think is a bit silly. We don't think we'd ever send the message: Could not reach you - please call back! We'd just SMS what we wanted to talk to them about. This feature could have been improved by providing space for more than 32 characters and 5 users created examples.
You cannot easily send an SMS to a series of people in a row without going all the way back to the message and starting from scratch. You can send a message to a predefined group, by going in through the Groups menu rather than the Messages menu. You don't have to send it to everyone in the group, which is good.
A conference call among up to five people in a group can also be set up, depending on whether your carrier supports it.
The 'Surf & fun' menu that is found in Siemens phones contains Internet, Games & more, Bitmap viewer and Sound Manager. The Internet takes you to the WAP browser and the last two options are self-explanatory.
The two games are Java based, something which is becoming more popular in mobiles these days. On the plus side, the games are a little more exciting- in this case there's a spaceship shoot-'em up and a cut-down version of classic PC game "Prince of Persia". The minus side is the excessive time it takes to load the games, and the energy they consume. After playing the games for a while the battery counter dropped significantly.
That's not a huge issue though, since the battery lasted eight days and seven hours under normal usage. That's almost 200 hours of uptime, which is quite impressive.
All-in-all, the Siemens C55 is a fun mid-range phone that performs all the necessary features well.
Siemens C55
Company: My Siemens
Price: AU$399
Phone: 13 72 22
2%
4%
I waited so long ot buy one. I have a Samsung CDMA and thought it was the bee knees til I got this prepaid GSM glow in the dark gem of a phone. I have my favourite ringtones associated with a person who it reminds me of. Many of my old cartoon favourite tunes have been annexed for use on my phone and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!