Siemens SL42 Review

Overall Rating

Small, Get as many logos as you want, ringtones.

Battery life, volume, cost, crashing, reception, slow sms.

Well to be honest this Siemens SL42 mobile phone is a piece of junk. I wanted one because i thought it would be cool and play mp3's and the rest but really it was just a waste of money.

The phone crashes and turns itself off every so often for no reason. The reception is very poor and i have wanted to smash my phone on the floor every time it cuts out on me.

The sms system is very slow so if your into sending sms this phone is a no no. It makes you very angry. The 16Meg MMC holds next to nothing when it comes to MP3. Plus you need to buy headphones which are expensive and a MMC reader for decent transfer speeds.

This phone has a lot of good features but most of them are too hard and time consuming to bother using.

Please heed my advice and don't go for this phone just because it can play MP3. Buy a MP3 player and a phone for calls, sms etc.

Members' Comments onNathan Campbell.'s Review

• too late.... on 15th Aug 2002

  decided to get this phone and traded in my nokia 8250...was a mistake... this phone hung on me the 2nd day i got it.. and the response time is so slow... transfering data on a serial cable is turtle slow.. really regreting my decision ... should have gotten 8310 instead.. but i was enticed by the MP3 player in the phone .. to my horror.. 16mb... you can hardly put anything in it... for me it's only 2 mp3... that's all....and getting in it the card itself take ages... SMS is a definitely hassle... slow compared to the nokias... besides being fully packed with features... i think siemens should improve on interface time and usablitily...

• CW. on 20th Aug 2002

  I don't agree with the review I find the phone easy to use, has great reception and hasn't hung on me once. Maybe I'm just lucky. Surely buying a phone just for an MP3 player is a bit silly.

• AJ. on 20th Aug 2002

  I agree with CW, it's got great features on it, has always been reliable even though i've droped it too many times! It has never hung on me, and find the menu interface dead simple 2 operate, you have to be pretty dense not to be able to. Also, looks much better than the boring common nokia phones!! As with CW, I dont c the point in just buying a phone for an mp3 player, just get a portable mp3 player idiot!! The mp3 player is a bonus, and its better with it than without! Also, if you haven't realised, you can upgrade the memory spec on the phone to 64megs and hopefully soon even 128megs!!!

• Nathan. on 22nd Aug 2002

  But at what price. The phone it worth a mint its self.

• Akuma. on 10th Nov 2002

  Saying the reception is poor is totally rubbish because it totally depends on which Phone Network your with!!

• sam. on 22nd Nov 2002

  sl42 is a cheaper sl45, thats why it only has 16m

• VJ. on 29th Nov 2002

  I just got the phone on a free upgrade mainly tempted by the mp3 player! ;/ Initially I got a fright when I found out how much the official leads and headset cost BUT one can get a £9.99 hi-fi lead for it which can then be used to connect your own headphones to it. And you can get a USB-MMC writer for under £11 now too, so it is not so bad after all... and memory is getting much cheaper now too ;]