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Review GSM phone Siemens CF75Package:
The company of Siemens issued an update for its Siemens CF75 in the person of the CF62 model. It seems right to say the design has not been changed at all, and we see the same rather large clamshell with two colour screens and a strap hole on the top. The alternating point is splay corners of the body, and hence this handset looks not as angular as its predecessor. 
The device got slightly larger (94x47.2x22.2 mm against 82x45x22mm), and the weight increased a little - 91.5 grams against 85 for the CF62. This handset lies well in your hand, however it somewhat projects out of a trousers pocket. Opening it with one hand will cause no problems, and even rather a deep hollow rounds the body for comfortable opening. 
Its covering of qualitative plastic is smooth and resistant to abrasions and scratches. We had no complaints of the assembly, all details join very closely. Two colours are ocean blue and pearl black. 
You can use a coupled button on the right-side surface to change volume during your conversation. And in the standby mode it is responsible for activating a camera (the top part of the button) and PTT (bottom part). A fully functional IrDA is placed on the left side, and a strap hole traditionally features the bottom. 
A small cSTN display can be found on the upper part of the clamshell; it has the resolution of 64x96 pixels (21x15 mm) and is capable of 4000 colours. You will see the quality of the display is rather middling as it completely fades in the sun getting hardly readable. 
A photos and a name of a user are shown at incoming call (1/3 of the whole screen). When taking a self portrait, you can use the external screen as a viewfinder. The bottom of the cover features a VGA-camera objective, which is not deepened into the body, thus you won't avoid scratches. Opening the phone, we see a middle size cSTN display with the resolution of 128x160 pixels (27x34 mm) capable of 65K colours. I found the picture quality not good, however acceptable for a low-end phone. It still fades in the sun, but here you can read some data. 
The keypad is rather comfortable due to large buttons and their exact response to pressures. Quite good size of the 4D navi button also allows comfortable work. The only remark is the covering seems too glossy and easily soiled, however it makes no great problems. 
Number keys are also large and placed close to each other. Both Cyrillic and Latin characters are drawn on them; all the symbols are well read in the dark. 
About the whole back of the phone is taken by the battery cover. It is firmly fixed, and I think backlashes are unlikely to appear. However, there is a thing I disliked. The cover is made of thin plastic that seems not to stand even a slight pressure. 
The battery supplied with the phone is Li-Ion 600 mAh. As the manufacturer claims, it is enough for working for about 250 hours in the standby mode and up to 150 minutes in the talk one. In Moscow the test device lasted for approximately 3 days in case of 15 minutes of talks a day and up to 20 minutes of using other functions. This is quite average for a low-end phone. Recharging the battery takes about 1.5-2 hours. MenuThe main menu is represented with three vertical rows of icons with three in each. They look better than in the AX75 for they are better drawn. Submenus performed as lists allow one or five items on the screen at the same time; it all depends on the selected font. Number sequences serve for navigation. 
I found the localization really bad due to abbreviations and incorrect translations. Easy text input is provided with T9 for both Russian and English languages. The left functional key and buttons from 2 to 9 allow assigning fast access to this or that menu item. Fast dial of a number can be bound to any number key besides access to the menu. In general about 10.5 MB of memory are dynamically shared among applications. Phonebook. Phone memory can contain up to 1000 contacts (depending on the number of used fields). You can keep a name (31 characters), a surname (31 characters) up to 3 phone numbers and two fax numbers for each name. Besides, two e-mail addresses, home page URL, company name, country, city, postal index, address and a birthdate (can be sent to reminders instantly). Also it is possible to save user's nick and the number of his internet pagers (two in general). You can set a contact to one of the groups and assign a picture (both of uploaded and taken with an integrated camera). 
You can edit the phonebook by erasing or adding some items. When viewed, contacts can be filtered by some field. For instance, selecting e-mail address, you get only contacts with this field filled. Contacts are viewed separately from the internal memory and SIM one. Search in the phonebook is possible by the first letter. 
It is possible to change name and select a picture for each of the present eight users' groups. Also you can assign a personal melody to each group but only through the "Call melodies" item. Messages. Up to 100 messages can be saved into the phone's memory. This phone supports EMS and hence several little animations and pictures are preset. You can create personal templates and long messages (maximum 760 characters). There can be several addressees of your message at the same time (select of groups). 
MMS editor is plain and comfortable in work. You can create several slides. 
Mail client supports up to 4 accounts and is close to the ones integrated into other Siemens' phones. As usual, Russian codings are not fully supported, so you should select a mail server with conversion installed carefully. The supported one is UTF-8. 
This handset allows creating personal templates or, if you wish, text presets for any case. Concerning a message theme, the device is not bad and reaches the level of the best models. A pleasant extra feature is selection of a font-size when viewing messages (standard, large, small). Call lists. Call lists stores data about received, missed and outgoing calls (each list contains 10 numbers). Calls from (to) the same numbers are combined into one. Call timer is also present here. You can check the duration of the last call, all incoming, and all outgoing, however total time is not provided. 
Extra functions. Here is a plain calculator, unit converter, a stop watch and a timer. 
Sound recording. This is a plain dictaphone, which allows creating records in the standby mode. Entries are limited in duration by free memory only. 
Alarm clock. Only one alarm clock is present, and it can be set for action on certain days. 
File system. That is nothing else but a file manager. 
This item contains everything concerning synchronization of the device. SyncML technology is used for remote synchronization (you can read about it here). 
My stuff. My stuff is the same thing as File system, which is a file manager. 
Organizer. Monthly, weekly or daily views are possible. You can select a type for an event - note, call, meeting, birthday and anniversary. Input field changes depending on the event type (description, number or name). Each event can be set recurrent - daily, weekly, monthly or annually. Missed memos are marked in a special list. 
Meetings. Everything is the same as in the calendar. Tasks. Almost the same capabilities as in the calendar, only here you can set priorities. 
Notes allows creating text notes (maximum 160 characters). 
This item provides a duplication of a dictaphone. 
Time zone. That is actually a world time function. 
Settings. You can adjust each of the five present profiles to your liking. Also there are two fields for creating profiles and an "aboard" profile, which switches off the phone functions. 
You can set any picture as a wall-paper, also one of the four colour menu schemes can be selected. Besides, it is possible to tune backlighting brightness and contrast, set font-size (select of two). A screen saver can be picked for standby mode, which is clock, a picture or animation. 
Phone Pilot is an interactive helper for phone navigation, also it reminds of birthdays and other events. Allows uploading characters. This menu item contains other phone settings as well. You can switch IrDA on and off in the "Data transfer" item. Internet and games. Here is WAP browser version 2.0. The handset allows working with Java and 3D Java applications, which are installed into the main memory. You can upload a Java application through WAP, IrDA or a USB cable. Operating speed is not high, and JBenchmark tells the same:
Seven preinstalled games are stored in a folder called Games, they are: Dirk Noitzki, Magic Photo, Photopet, Sea Battle, Speed Chaser 3D, Sumo Smash и Super Bomberman. Besides, an Applications folder keeps three applications: Blogging Client, Download Assistant (download client) and Photo Editor (photo editor written in Java). 
Camera. Both internal and external displays can be used as viewfinders. Photos of the following resolutions can be taken: 640x480, 320x240, 160x120 and 132x176. Besides, you can use x5 zoom (moving the navi button back and forward), adjust brightness (moving the navi button right and left) and white balance. Using MMS and IrDA, you can send taken photos to other devices. 
Video. This handset allows recording vide clips not longer than 30 seconds both with sound and without it. 
ImpressionsThis phone experiences no problems in poor coverage zones, thus the connection quality is rather good. You will find the microphone sensitivity and loudspeaker volume quite enough for almost any condition. The 40-tones polyphony sounds well, call signal is rather loud, and the call is heard even if the phone is in a bag. The power of the vibracall is slightly above average. And a speakerphone function works rather well. 
So, if you find the appearance of Siemens CF75 uninteresting, then have a look at its functional part - a fully functional IrDA, one of the best address books, and wide synchronization capabilities, including remote one (SyncML). The advantage of this phone is good filling with preset content. Disadvantages include slow work with Java, and the fact you can't set MP3 composition as a call signal. The device takes an intermediate position between AX75 and CX75 both in functionality and price. In Moscow Siemens CF75 cost 180 USD at the moment I was writing this review. Vladimir Fokin ([email protected])
Published — 2 November 2005 Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]
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