Siemens SL65 Triband GSM 900/1800/1900 Camera Phone Review (5)
Bluetooth 21 Oct 2004

Pricing Info US UK

Conclusion

The Siemens SL65 can be said as a scaled down sliding version of the S65 which we review a month ago. Most of the functions are similar except that there is no bluetooth, external storage. The camera embeds a standard VGA camera instead of the 1.3mpixel used on the S65.

The phone has an easy to use messaging and calendaring feature. This allows one to retrieve mails via GPRS without much configuration. Compared to the S65, the SL65 has a smaller screen. The ringtone is exceptionally loud and is comparable to the Samsung. The only difference is the MIDI sounds a bit too digital. MP3 playback / ringtone is not supported on this phone but you can use WAV file as a ringtone.

The built-in camera  allows you to take above average VGA size photos. The phone allows you to zoom in digitally by up to 5x and the White balance can be changed for the environment you are in. There are 5x digital zoom but doesn't include night shots capability. There is also a video recording capability built in recording in 3GP format.

In SMS mode, there isn't much lag in the entering of text. In fact, i find it quite easy to enter test using the T9 input. You can enlarge the font size display and it won't strain your eye trying to read the text on the screen.

Although Bluetooth is missing from the phone, we have no problems transferring WAV, JAVA and JPEG files. Whatever being transferred is sent into the INBOX and you can decide to click to install or save the file to the respective folders created.

From what I can see, this phone is a challenger to the Samsung E800 series. Both has a sliding mechanism. The Samsung E800 has a smoother semi automatic slider compared to the Siemens SL65. In terms of connectivity, both do not have Bluetooth but incorporates Infra Red and GPRS for transferring of ringtones and pictures. Siemens SL65 has an upper hand as it can receive files beamed direct from infra red port of PC, phone, pda. The Samsung E800 needs an installed software on a PC before you can transfer ringtones/images in/out of the phone. Java midlets can be easily installed into the Siemens SL65 by beaming it in, you can't achieve that on Samsung E800.  The only disappointment is the 10MB memory space compared to a 40M on the Samsung.

Overall, the SL65 is a well built phone with a super strong vibration alert + ringtone. It would be good if the SL65 incorporates some of the functionalities like MP3, WMA playback as ringtones. There is also room for improvement for its user interface.

Pros :

• Screen visible under strong sunlight

• JAVA, MMS, GPRS

• IrDA

• Speakerphone

• Ringtones are LOUD

Cons :

• No Radio

• No MP3 support

• No Bluetooth

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