Buyers not looking for all the bells and whistles should check out this handset. It's a mid-range, tri-band mobile phone that supports a clip-on camera and has a colour screen. Read our Australian review.The C60 is quite a light mobile phone, weighing in at 85 grams. Measuring 110 x 47 x 23 mm it is slightly bigger than the German manufacturer's entry-level phone, the Siemens A55. What the C60 holds over the A55 is a 4096-colour screen that displays 101 x 80 pixels. We can't rave too much about the display; it is very hard to see in bright sunlight.
There is no integrated camera on the C60 but it supports Siemens Quick-Pic camera which costs AU$175. The seperately sold accessory clips on to the bottom of the handset and is powered by the phone's battery. We noticed the camera would not work when the battery level is low and the user manual states the battery must have at least a 30% charge to operate the flash.
We found using the camera guzzles the battery power, especially when using the flash. Camera aside, the battery is pretty enduring as it lasts about four days of average use.
Once again we see the same quirk with the picture quality setting as we first saw on the Siemens S55. Taking a high quality (640 x 480 pixels) photo will produce two photos, one in high quality and one in low quality. It is one of the slowest cameras we've seen as well. Capturing a picture is almost instant but the time it takes to load the flash and display the image is considerably long, about 15 seconds for each. There is an option to send the photo as an MMS after taking it.
SMS messages up to 760 characters can be sent from the C60, although they are split up into multiple parts and sent as individual messages (the limit on individual SMS messages is 160 characters). By default, the left softkey starts a new SMS but can be changed to other shortcuts such as games, calculator or Internet.
In the Surf and Fun menu option there is a WAP browser and two games pre-loaded. Stack attack is a basic platform game where you clean up a warehouse from falling boxes according to colour. We found it unexciting and slow to respond. The other game is a mix-'em-up square puzzle that doesn't rouse us either. Thankfully, more games and applications can be downloaded for the C60 from the Siemens WAP site.
Our review model has ten mediocre polyphonic ringtones loaded that blare through the loudspeaker when set at the highest volume. There are different styles of ringtone such as classical, techno and traditional.
The phonebook on the C60 allows you to store up to 50 email addresses and you can assign 50 contacts a picture that appears in the display when they call. Groups can also be specified and a different ringtone can be assigned when a group member calls.
The front and back covers of the C60 can be changed but looking through the Siemens fashion accessory guide, we have our doubts as to whether plastic covers labelled grey flannel, orange denim and brown cashmere will entice people to buy the phone.
Buyers looking for an average mobile phone might be attracted to this offering from Siemens. If you're looking to purchase a mobile for your kids, a similarly priced phone with some interesting tricks is the Nokia 3100.
Siemens C60
Company: Siemens
Price: AU$329
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 665 366
1%
4%
this phone is lack of function & customization! it also doesn't support chinese menu!