Siemens C65

By Scott Rhodie on 01/09/2004

More Siemens reviews , RRP: TBA

The good:

  • 65,000 colour display
  • Integrated CIF camera with digital zoom, brightness, self-timer and optional flash

The bad:

  • Joystick is very fiddly
  • Poor sound quality

The bottomline:

Featuring MMS, and an integrated camera with attachable flash, the Siemens C65 gives you some of the performance and abilities of the high-end phones at a reasonable cost.

Buying choices:

Users' rating:

9.5/10

Tags:

c65 | joystick | mms | newmms | siemens | phone

Design
The Siemens C65 has a simple layout, a gorgeous little 65,000 colour screen and is being pushed as the company's MMS phone - with 'NewMMS' actually part of your screen so you always have the option to impress your friends with this relatively new feature.

It comes in a blue and silver design with a small joystick just below the screen -- very similar to the Sony Ericsson T68i, although it doesn't work near as well as the Sony Ericsson does. It's very fiddly and at times you have to really push it down to select an option when browsing the main menu screen.

The menu screen is again similar to the T68i. It has nine folders which you select using the joystick. One feature which we found useful was that Siemens have put messages as your first option on the menu -- allowing you to instantly access your SMS and MMS, rather than your phonebook. Very useful for those who use their phones more for messaging than for calling.

Aside from the standard keyboard of numbers and answer and end call buttons, the C65 has a number of shortcut buttons built in by simply pressing 3 through to 9 you will be able to skip the menu system and go straight to whatever you want from games to WAP 2.0 browsing.

Another useful feature is the Inbox -- simply pushing the joystick to the right will bring up a list of all SMS/MMS and calls received for that day.

Features
The Siemens C65 phone comes with a standard CIF camera, which takes nice but small pictures. You can pick up a flash as an accessory for the phone which would make those quick pub pics come out a lot crisper as like most digital cameras on phones it has difficulty in even slight darkness. The camera takes pictures in 352x288 pixel resolution only and has digital zoom, brightness as well as a self-timer for those moments when you want to be in the picture.

The phone book is capable of holding over 1,000 numbers along with home and email addresses. You can arrange people into certain groups -- which can help prevent those 3am calls to your boss when you meant to call your friend with the same first name!

The organiser is a simplified version of the more expensive Siemens phones but works quite well. It has a daily, weekly and a monthly planning option, as well as variety of alerts to remind you of those important dates.

Performance
The battery life for the C65 is around 5 hours of talk time and a stand-by time of 250 hours to begin with -- perfect for those long days where no one calls you. However, when you do receive a call you will feel slightly disappointed in the sound of the call. The sound levels don't seem to be that high a quality and at times you will find it difficult, especially when outside, to hear what the person is saying even with the volume at max.

It's pretty much a jack-of-all-trades phone but a master of none. It gives you some of the performance and abilities of the high-end phones but at a reasonable cost. The phone's biggest rival will be the Nokia 3200, as both combine many of the same features with each phone having its own advantages. In the case of the Siemens C65 the camera and screen quality are much better than the 3200, but the FM radio and flashlight could lure users towards the Nokia.

For the price and abilities you couldn't go wrong with one of these nifty little phones.

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sabbirahmad
01/11/2006, 09:12 PM

rating
9
/10

good organizer, phone book, messaging system, editing options are great.

Pros: cheap
fast
photophone book
java

Cons: battery life
camera quality
sound quality
display and casing eventually detoriates fast
loose casing
with old FW camera freezes

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07/01/2006, 08:44 AM

stylish,slick,standard

This phone is just a must have . FORGET all those phones with mp3's and stuff look at this rare beauty!!

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18/09/2005, 06:30 AM

this phone sucks!!!!!!

My first phone ever sucks! I am not just saying it to be mean but give me a break:I just got it yesterday,went to take a picture and it froze on me. I called the phone company but all they said was to take out the batteries(by the way i have no idea how to take them out!)You shouldnt waste your money to buy this expencive piece of junk!! if any one has any suggestions can you please email turquisturtles@yahoo.ca

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12/06/2005, 09:29 AM

Brilliant little gadget, Looks awesome

Pretty good camera, all right games, great sized memory. 2000 phone book capacity COOL!

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m
08/06/2005, 01:59 AM

Nice phone with bad battery life

I haven't had it too long, so I haven't tried out the fanicer things like the WAP, etc., but after a month or so I'm pretty happy with my phone.

The biggest problem I've encountered is the battery life. I don't use the phone very much--maybe a short call or two a day and a text--but have to recharge it about every other day. I'm fiddling with the screen savers and settings to see if that helps...

Call quality and hearing voice messages also aren't the best, but I'm not sure if that's the phone or my service (T-Mobile).

The menues are generally intuitive and things are fairly easy to find and organize. The screen is quite nice and the buttons are laid out well (though sometimes you have to hit the soft keys a couple times to make it take). The camera is ok for a phone, but I get annoyed by the sound when it takes a pic (no way to turn it off?).

All in all, it's a pretty good phone, but definitely not perfect. Maybe some firmware updates would help. The big test will be when I travel abroad through several different countries to test out the tri-band GSM with local SIM cards--crossing my fingers....

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alibabba
20/04/2005, 12:08 AM

GReat

Its a great phone to use and i recommend to buy it

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Phone Buyer (Still looking)
29/11/2004, 08:43 AM

Baddddd!!!!

Buggy firmware.. An Simens themselves actually admitted it because the bug can cause SERIOUS HEALTH HAZARD.. in terms of hearing loss..

I suggest u visit simens or arrange a firmware update which will solve the problem.

But will it solve all the problems..

Taking off the back is nearly impossible.. so dont even try it.. So basically u are network locked not only by firmware.. but also by the case..

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21/10/2004, 01:06 AM

bub
10/10/2004, 09:21 PM

?

It My new phone i am getting off virgin for free beacause i am such a good spender??




PS: its a very good phone bloody virgin had to tell me that!

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