| Siemens S45i |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 |
| Announced | May 2002 |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 109 X 46 X 20 Mm, 69 Cc |
| Weight | 93 G |
| Display |
| Type | Monochrome Graphic |
| Size | 101 X 80 Pixels, 7 Lines |
| | - Navy Key |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Monophonic |
| Amount | 38 + 4 Custom |
| Customization | Composer |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 500 X 14 Entries |
| Call Records | 10 Dialed, 10 Received, 10 Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 8 (4+1 Slots), 32 - 40 Kbps |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Infrared Port | Yes |
| Usb | |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms, Email |
| Browser | Wap 1.2 |
| Clock | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Games | S45 + Raceace |
| Colors | 2 - Titan Silver And Royal Champagne |
| Languages | 20 |
| Camera | No |
| | - T9
- Currency Converter
- Calculator
- Stopwatch
- Organizer
- Voice Dial
- Voice Memo
- User Profiles |
|
Siemens - S45iThe Siemens S45i is a solid tool for business
The S45i is a workhorse of a phone. Not the prettiest, not the smallest, not the lightest - but it looks all business. It has the appearance of a good solid tool, especially in the color scheme that my review unit had. A nice dark metallic gray. Toss it in your toolbox, it would look right at home.
But you probably aren't in the market for a pair of pliers right now. You want a phone. Lucky for you, the S45i from Siemens is a very capable and affordable phone. It builds on the success of the original S45 (and its cousin, the ME45), and adds an email client and other refinements. Like its predecessor, it can be had often for minimal or no extra money with a new contract.
This ain't your daughter's mobile phone.
Everything about the S45i is 100% pure telephone. There is no music, no color display, no digital camera. But there is pretty much everything you would expect from a modern mobile phone. It has a nice big readable display, a good menu layout, GPRS data for WAP or for using the S45i as a laptop modem via IR or cable, and it can synchronize with your computer.
It is reasonably small and light (109mm x 46mm x 20 mm, 93g), but not too small. It is comfortable to use, fits nicely in your hand. When you don't want to hold it in your hand, you can use the speakerphone option. Also lending itself towards business use is the voice message record button on the right hand side for when you want to make a quick note. A rocker button on the left hand side allows you to select a profile (timed profiles are not supported), or to adjust volume up/down when in a call. That same rocker switch will let you scroll up or down in the menus, too.
Could you please take a message?
The S45i has a nice SMS/EMS system with some features that I really kind of like. The SMS Samples system is a perfect example. SMS message templates are nothing new. They save you time for those commonly sent messages, like "Sorry, I'm running late." What the SMS Samples system does is take that one step further. You have the same kind of templates, but you can have blanks left in the message. When you use one, the cursor starts in the first blank space. Type in the name/time/whatever in the blank, and then press right on the direction pad to skip to the next blank. Really cool, really fast. I only wish that you could add your own Samples templates.
The T9 predictive text input system is standard fare and works well. Simple to use, fast. No complaints. There are SMS profiles you can use if you need to switch service centers and such frequently (for using a 3rd party SMS gateway, for example).
One of the new additions the S45 that is part of the "i" designation is the email client. It is a simple and straight forward app. It works well. Sent an email suprisingly fast over GPRS (faster than my iPAQ can do it, that's for certain). The display is big enough to read email without too much pain, but it certainly won't take the place of a PDA. T9 really doesn't cut it for writing out anything but very short emails. But all in all, the email client was top notch. Configuration could have been a wee bit better organized, but you only need to do that once anyway. Good for the businessman on the go, in general.
In addition to the ability to record a voice message, as I mentioned before, you can also use voice dialing for numbers that are stored internally in the phone or in the SIM card. Unfortunately I found the setup of these voice dial commands to be a pain. Literally. The prompt beep that signals it is time for you to speak the name of the person is way too loud. It is loud enough for the phone to be in your pocket and get noticed. I don't need it that loud when the phone is pressed up against my ear. My right ear still hurts. To make matters worse, I had to record the name over and over and over again. I was trying to record the name tag for me, Michael. The S45i would beep, I would wince a bit, and then say, cleverly enough: "Michael". It would accept that and then beep again for me to say it a second time. I'd wince again and say "Michael" again. At this point it would tell me that it sounded too much like the first time. Well, of course it does. I don't randomly mutate my name each time I say it. But in an effort to give the phone what it wanted, I would try to say Michael differently, moving the stress around or something. Well, when I did this, the phone would complain that the second recording was not close enough to the first one!
Eventually, since I needed to test the system, I gave up on referring to myself as Michael. I'll not tell you what name I did manage to get it to accept, because small children could be reading this. Armed with my new non-flattering name, the phone did manage to dial my home number via voice command. I just wish I could have used my own name. Now that I think about it, maybe the S45i was trying to tell me something....
Waiter. Menu please!
One of the things that has been growing on me over the last few months is the Siemens menu system. I never thought it made sense with the older phones (and the newer A50 even), but since Siemens started putting a 4-way direction pad control on its phones (except for the A50), it all makes sense to me. The old button layout of the M/S/C35 always had me confused. Never an issue with the newer phones like the S45i.
But one of the great innovations in the Siemens devices is their fast access keys system. Merely hold down any of the number keys (except 1) and it will prompt you for setting it to a phone number or a menu option. Almost any of the major menu options can be assigned to a button this way. it is great. And when you organize your Favourites menu properly and assign that to a keypad button you have fast access to just about anything you need. You aren't stuck with speed dial or phonebook lookups now. You can have the buttons do what you want, and that is the way it should be.
The 4 directions of the d-pad also work as shortcuts. Hold up to get the voice command prompt, down for the address book, right takes you into the main menu, and left brings up a nifty little GPRS info screen. It tells you how much data and time were spent in WAP, or email, or other applications. Pretty cool. The first time I have seen GPRS usage broken down by application.
I'll put you down for Lunch on Tuesday.
Essential for a business phone anymore is the ability to synchronize with a PC, and with MS Outlook in specific. The S45i comes through here by including a Siemens specific version of XTND Connect (the same software Sony Ericsson supplies with their phones). With XTND Connect, you can sync your S45i with MS Outlook or Lotus Notes. Not just phone numbers, either. You can sync the calendar app, your notes, and your email.
Yup, your email.
Setup was a breeze, and it worked great through my laptop's IR port. If you don't have an IR port, you can buy the Siemens data cable and accomplish the same thing over a serial port. I did have a few contacts show up twice in the phone and was unable to figure out why that was since they were only in Outlook once. No big deal, I suppose.
And since I just mentioned them, I suppose I should talk a bit about the Calendar and Notes apps. The Calendar is pretty nice, offering both weekly and monthly views. The Notes app can store various text notes, of course. There is also a Tasks app, alarm clock, stopwatch, and countdown timer. One of the cooler things is the Missed Appointments list. It works like the typical list of missed calls, except it lists appointments that you failed to acknowledge. This might be enough to save your life if you forget about dinner with your girl/boyfriend....
Like any business phone, the S45i supports real contact management. You can assign multiple phone numbers to a single name. Tack an email address in there, a street address, and even a URL. Additionally, you can assign a person to a group, and then later have the phone restrict inbound calls to people in a particular group. Contacts assigned to the VIP group can be made to show up at the top of the list of contacts, too.
But is this thing any fun?
Well, a game machine it is not. But it does offer some entertainment value. 3 games are included in the phone: Balloon Shooter, Race Ace, and Stack Attack. The first two I found to be kinda fun, in a simple kind of way. There are over 40 different ringtones and a composer, but since they are not polyphonic, you won't be impressing any clients with them.
That's about it, though. After all, the S45i is a tool, not a toy. When was the last time you a great time with a wood plane, for example? On second thought, don't answer that.
Just know that the S45i is a great utility phone that, while it might not inspire you, will not let you down. |
| Common misspellings on this brand: siemenws , siemenjs |
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