Siemens S55 Review

Overall Rating

Calendar, Group SMS function, Looks, battery life, weight and size, storage capacity

Keypad poor, all too regular slowdown when txting which leads to missed letters and malformed words, poor ringing alerts

I've had my Siemens S55 mobile phone for nearly a year. Its a love/hate relationship.

Its an awesome phone, the features are all brilliant, the interface fantastic. The calendar is incredibly versatile (repeating appointments, birthdays, locations, and so on) and useful, the txting interface great (hold down a key for a second and the number appears). Group txting is wonderful too - invite 20 friends to the cinema with one text, and just click through who you want the phone to send it to using your phonebook. I use the countdown to time my cooking and rest periods at the gym. I used the email facility to pick up my work email while I was on holiday in the alps. Amazing! All great stuff. Its more an organiser than a phone. There's more, but those things I use regualrly and would really miss.

It can also be a very frustrating device. The keypad feels cheap and when you're txting quickly letters FREQUENTLY don't appear. This is immensely annoying. If you've got 50 txts in your in&outboxes you get slowdown too, which compounds the previous problem. Sometimes its fine, other times it seems like its out to get you. After 10 months my no.2 key fell off, but I have a spare phone (the excellent Siemens ME45) so I wasn't too worried. It was sent for repair on friday afternoon and was back with me before 9am on monday. Good customer service siemens! Another bother is the ringer. Its bloomin quiet. I miss a *LOT* of calls. I am someone who hates polyphonic tones (I just want it to beep!), so I am using the Siemens downloadable normal ringer tones. It seems the phone struggles to power the ringer and the vibrate function simultaneously. You can hear the ringer fade in and out appallingly. Its a big downer.

Call quality is great, battery life also great. The screen is fine, but not good for viewing photos or pics. But then the camera attachment is pretty naf, so thats no bother. Besides I want a phone/organiser, not a games device/camera. But thats me.

So all in all its a phone with stunning functions and features which looks great. People often compliment its looks. BUT, its hard to remain patient when I miss a lot of calls and mistype every other txt word because keypresses get missed all the time. I love it and I hate it. I would buy the sequel in a heartbeat if it didn't slowdown, miss letters and had a beepy ringer. But I wouldn't recommend the S55. Its a flawed gem, but fatally flawed, which is a real shame.

Siemens, if you're listening - faster processor and better keypad. Puh-lease!