Siemens S65 Review

Overall Rating

- Great Screen Size and Color
- Menu - Features, Software
- Easy to Use
- Fair Memory Size + Expandable Memory
- Reception
- InfraRed Port
- Blue Tooth
- Camera 1.3 MP
- Design, Firm Build
- Small Bottoms (I like) some people may not...

- Does not play MP3's
- Lens of the camera keeps dust
- Speaker is not clear when hands free is on + when ringing loudly
- Battery Life
- Quite Large
- Freezes up
- Connection Problems (to pc via cable)

I have owned this phone for about 8 months now. I love the design and color (black/silver). The build of the phone seems to be quite strong, does not make noises even when held firmly. However, there is a gap between the top and bottom plate, surprisingly there is no dust trapped on the screen yet and I do not use any pouch, just carry the phone in my pocket. Screen is rather large, with sharp colors and images and adjustable brightness. Has a large screen, but this means a larger sized phone in general and lower battery life. Screen is quite scratch resistant and there are no significant scratches on the phone after 8 months of everyday use and as I said there is no protection on the screen. Bottoms are well lit with great visibility under any light conditions. Bottoms can be set for fast access of different functions or settings. There is easy access to everything through the well organized phone menu - this is my personal opinion, some people say they have a hard time using a Siemens because of its organization. I have been using Siemens phones for a few years now and got used to their layout. The joystick is another great feature for easier use of the phone and for those who like to play games. The way the joystick and camera are built in is well done from a design point of view, however it isn't too practical as both collect dust which is difficult to remove. This phone comes with approximately 10MB built in memory which is useful with the 1.3MP camera. On the bottom of the phone there is also a slot for a memory card in case the 10MB is not enough and you want to expand it. The phone comes with both an IR port and Bluetooth. I have used BT only for data transfers therefore have no idea how well it performs with headset. To my surprise this phone does not play MP3 files, which I consider to be quite significant omission since almost every other phone these days does, and MP3's take up much less space then wav files. When any kind of ring-tone is played on the loudest you can hear that the speaker was not built for that kind of volume as it produces some kind of cracking noise throughout a song or a tone. On occasion this phone manages to freeze up and sometimes takes a little longer to return to the main menu when interrupted while dialling a number. When it freezes it is necessary to remove the battery completely as it will not turn off by pressing the on/off bottom. I purchased this phone for $200 CND. It is unlocked and therefore can be used with the majority of providers. I am using it with Fido but have it used in Europe over the summer (not sure about the provider any more). It is a great business and travel phone since it comes with features like an Emergency Phonebook that contains list of countries with their emergency phone numbers, Time-zone settings, appointment organizer, task organizer, and the two I like the most are the dictating machine (recorder) and of course the Cocktail Manager which contains recipes and mixing instructions for creating tasteful drinks :P. Overall for the price I paid I think this is a great phone.