Siemens SX66

I'm a Cingular Wireless customer in San Francisco, and bought the Siemens SX66 in January 2005 when it first came out via Cingular's telephone sales force for $700 after a $50 reduction for a one year renewal contract. (I've seen lower prices on this unit in recent days). The Motorola Earbud was another $100. Even then, when it was just being released, the Siemens site had an announcement of a firmware upgrade to the unit that should be downloaded to the unit (using extreme care, as they said, to avoid damaging the unit).

I'd never had a Pocket PC "Smartphone" before, and appreciated finding the Siemens website's tutorials with many separate chapters detailing how to use the unit.

At first I bought a limited 3 kilobyte per month Internet access plan, but 2 mos ago got dinged w/a huge monthly bill ($171 add'l fee for Internet access!) once I was using MS Internet Explorer and on websites a lot, so switched to Unlimited Internet access (Cingular's rate for this is $24.99/mo)!

The large screen is wonderful for viewing various sites. Some of the buttons can be programmed to your desire, and I've changed the top front right one (button 2), originally set to bring up the Outlook Calendar, to now switch the screen from portrait to landscape and back again just with one push of the button!

Polyphonic ringtones can be downloaded, and maybe wallpaper downloads can, too, although recently I couldn't get the "tribal" wallpaper to download properly from Mediaplazza. Their customer support contact (Veronica) was very friendly and helpful and she has asked their tech. dept. to see about this issue.

When in the office, it's always in the cradle and synching with my desktop Outlook 2003 now (with my server soon). Whenever out and about, I have the Motorola bluetooth earbud on my ear which works remarkably well considering its flip-open speaker part is only about 1 or 1-1/2 inches below my ear, nowhere near my mouth. The earbud has a button to push to answer an incoming call or to turn on the phone to make an outgoing call. The unit has caller ID (among many other features) so you can tell who's calling.

The case that comes with the unit holds the unit in a horizontal direction as it clips onto one's belt. But, that clip does not have a ridge along the bottom of the clip. My Levi's leather belt is rather wide, and the end of the clip just barely meets the other edge of my belt. When I've got the unit in this case and am out walking, I tend to frequently check to see it is still securely in place on my belt by pushing downwards on the case. When running, this would be a serious matter to remember! I purchased the aluminium case accessory item, which comes with a spring-loaded belt-clip, but this case holds the smartphone in its vertical direction. Due to the overall size if that holder, I find I must use extreme care and hold the case up in a horizontal direction as I'm hopping into my Jag XJ8 " :-))" to keep the case from getting caught on the edge of the driver's seat.

I have heard that, due to the substantial cost and value of this smartphone and the earbud, it is a target for pickpockets and thieves, so when one is out and about, or on public transit, it is very important to keep a hand on the SX66 and be alert and aware of who's nearby.

I have configured the unit so that after some period of time the unit locks and I need to type in my code on the large telephone display on the screen to unlock the unit. I do still have an unanswered question about the Secure Digital (SD) memory card that the unit uses for add'l memory and storage. Is there any way to have the SD card configured so that if it were to pop out of the unit when the unit accidentally falls on the sidewalk (as it did one evening as I was walking around Union Square on a break) no one who might find the card could put it into a card reader and have access to information and files on it??

Oh yes, the Querty keyboard ... well, its a cute addition I guess, definitely a conversation piece, and does have (small) raised buttons with a backlight to the keyboard which my smaller sized fingers can use ok. My main problem is finding the numbers on it, and in finding which keys to push to switch from small to upper-case letters or to get to special characters. I find using the stylus and the keyboard that one can access along the bottom of the screen works quite well. If typing a lot, I'll definitely switch the screen to landscape mode so the base of my hand doesn't keep hitting the navigation buttons at the bottom of the unit.

One can also make handwritten notes with the stylus, or one can try to have the unit learn the user's handwriting style so it can convert same to standard keyboard lettering - good luck with that! There also is a button on the left side to press to record spoken notes on the fly!

One odd thing I noticed, which may relate to having used the Samsung S-307 cellphone previously, was when my phone contacts from that unit were copied over by a Cingular Store rep. to the SIM card in this unit, the formatting of the phone numbers vanished, resulting is just a string of numbers without the usual (xxx) xxx-xxxx format found here in the U.S. As I find time, I copy the plain numbers from their current location to another location, like the fax number spot, and upon pasting there, the format returns. I then cut and paste the formatted number back into its correct spot for each Outlook contact.

The ActiveSync software is one of the best features for me, as it keeps all my clients and friends phone numbers and email addresses current and available to me when I'm out of the office. In the next week or so, my IT Company will be setting up the Exchange Server component on my Dell office server running Small Business Server basic edition 2003. I'll then, using my always on GPRS connection at Cingular, be able to sync up with my office every 15 minutes or so to check for messages and reply back by email or call back by phone from where ever I may be at the time!

One final note: The Siemens SX66 smartphone does NOT have a camera feature built into it. But, for me, that is just fine, as my small Canon S10 IS digital camera is a far superior choice for taking pictures! And I do love to take pictures!!