Siemens SF65 review: Joint venture

Siemens SF65 is an elegant clamshell phone of a modern design, a spinning display and a megapixel camera. The construction, though, has been taken over from Philips, which comes to reveal that this brand's favorers are to expect a lot of changes and surprises.

Car manufacturers merge into big multinational corporations. They use the same components to create several models of different car makes for the purpose of lowering the expenses on production. The automobiles produced in this way have more or less the same parts. What differentiates them, though, is the design, which is to meet the requirements of the make given.

Such practice has already become standard for the mobile phones business as well. The new Siemens SF65 works on the same constructional principles like Philips 760. Both telephones are equally equipped with the outlook being the only feature that differentiates them. A quick glance is enough to reveal that this phone has been developed in Philips' workshops and that the only job Siemens did was to design cover versions and user's environment of its own.

Key benefits

* Stylish design and a construction with a spinning display
* A very good quality megapixel camera
* TFT display, 128 × 160 pixels, 65K colors
* Built-in 21 MB memory

Main drawbacks

* No character counter when writing SMS
* No video recording
* A second small display would have come in handy
* No MP3 support
* No Bluetooth support

Apple is an inspiration

One would hardly deny that the new Siemens' SF65 elegancy is remarkable. The even glossy covers with their slightly oval edges and decently embedded elements give the strong impression of an integrated and compact device. There is no doubt that this smallish cuboid will become a thorn in the flesh of many manufacturers of luxurious and stylish mobile phones for this is the first time that Siemens makes a serious step into their "territory". Nevertheless, it once again proves the old statement that power comes with simplicity.

The phone is going to be launched in two color versions - black and white; just like the music player Apple iPod, whose design may have served as an inspiration for Siemens developers. The famous designer Ora Ito has also let himself get inspired by the same device when creating the new Sagem myX-8. To cut a long story short, the "ala apple" design is cool these days.

When closed, the new Siemens takes up space of 91 × 41 × 23 mm and weighs 97 g and thus fits into the common average class of mobile phones. Its cuboid form has been carefully elaborated with the edges being slightly round. Under the detachable cover, which actually serves as the phone's back cover, you will find a Li-Ion battery of 660 mAh capacity, which is expected to supply the phone with energy for up to 240 minutes of calling and up to 400 hours when in a standby mode. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to test phone's real durability time, but according to our first establishments it must be quite tolerable - do not forget that it is a dressed up Philips we have the honor to deal with.

The construction gives a solid general impression. No creaky sounds were to be noticed when opening the clamshell or spinning the display and the moving portion would always gently bottom when closing the phone. However, when I constricted the device, the front and the rear covers gave out some quite unpleasant sounds.
The majority of all Philips clamshells suffer from a bit strange infirmity - the display portion is usually so heavy that it does not allow the phone to stay still on its bottom part when in an open mode and it outbalances easily. The new Siemens SF65 is no exception from this rule.

source:
http://www.gsmarena.com /siemens_sf65-review-32.php