The Siemens ME45 is touted as the mobile for active people. A major selling point is its resistance to water, shocks and dust. Oh yeah? Prove it.
Siemens doesn't quantify exactly how resistant -resistant" is, simply saying the 99g ME45 is 30 percent more durable than other Siemens mobile phones. While they have done tests to confirm this, those tests are internal and haven't been made public. For that reason, we didn't test the limits of the ME45 because it would have necessitated the destruction of at least one phone, and we are an environmentally friendly organisation (look-no paper).
We did notice that the warranty that comes with the phone is void for damage caused by -food or liquid spills" or -immersion in liquid". Since part of the advertising campaign for the phone is that you don't have to worry if you spill something on it at the dinner table, we're hoping the company will go a bit above and beyond the warranty when dealing with repairs.
A spokesperson for the company said each warranty case would be considered separately. We call on Siemens to improve the warranty for this phone, release the tests and quantify exactly what -resistant" is.
The ME45 has the same underlying hardware as the Siemens C45, and therefore has all the same menu functions, with a few differences.
The ME45 boasts 38 ringtones as opposed to 20 for the C45, and the address book seems larger, holding 500 contacts with 14 entries for each contact. There are a few other functions, such as -notes" and -tasks". The main absence is the multi-player game -Battlemail", which Siemens hopes will be a hit.
The main differences are in the actual physical casing of the phones. We found the buttons a lot easier to press on the ME45, possibly because the case isn't designed to be changed.
The ME45 has a four-way navigation button between two soft keys, an -answer" key and a -reject" key that doubles as an on/off button. It doesn't have the dedicated address book button of the C45, which we think is a pity. However, it does have volume buttons on the left-hand side, and a button for recording on the right-hand side. The recording function allows you to save up to one and a half minutes of sound.
One thing both phones have is the hash key doubling as a -Ringer on/off" button. This means you don't have to go into the menu at all to turn all tones off, or settle for a short beep, which we think is a great feature.
In the box with the phone comes a -Quick Start" guide describing all the main features, which we found useful. It also comes with a and a mini-CD advertising the ME45 and the S45, which we didn't find useful. Well, the CD also allows you to manage the memory of your phone from your PC, once you download some software, and there's a phone/DB9 serial-plug lead to connect your mobile to your PC.
You also get a little box containing little rubber bits, which fit into things like the device interface, presumably for increased protection. To us, these seem to be fairly easy to lose, and even though there are spares we wonder if it would not have been better to actually attach it to the phone.
Connectivity-wise, the phone has GPRS, WAP and infrared, which is fairly standard these days. The battery lasted about the same length of time as the C45, almost dead on three days of normal usage.
All in all, we liked this phone a lot. It worked well, having clear reception and no screen problems, although the phone does sometimes wait a bit before responding to a pressed button. As near as we can tell, this is so it can tell if you plan to press the button more than once. We prefer to have the screen change each time you press the button - at least you know you have.
If Siemens toughened the guarantee on this phone, or at least gave some indication of exactly what it is resistant to, it would be one of our top recommendations. As it is, we recommend it if you lead an active lifestyle or are careless with your phone, but don't expect any guarantees.
Siemens ME45
Company: Siemens Australia
Price: AU$499
Phone: 137 222
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