Review GSM phone Siemens AX75

Siemens AX75. Live pictures

Package:

• Handset
• Батарея
• Charger
• Manual

Now we acquaint you with Siemens AX75, which is a more functional version of the yesterday Siemens A75. The size of the new model is a bit exceeding the А75's one (101 mm x 44 mm x 20 mm) and features 106 mm x 47 mm x 18 mm, at the same time the phone is 2 grams lighter - 76 grams. The body design gives away the younger model, but looking more presentable. Two colours are available for you - Ice Blue and Cream Stone. Also the AX75 wins in the plastic and assembly quality, it lies well in your hand, all the details fit each other closely and nothing makes backlashes.

A small black insertion on the right side hides a fully-functional IrDA, and the left side features the same decorative insertion for the symmetry means. Traditionally an interface connector is on the bottom of the device.

A small 65K colour cSTN screen is on the front panel, its resolution forms 128x128 pixels (26.5x26.5 mm). The quality cannot be called good, but is acceptable for a low-end model. Fading in the sun, the screen still allows reading information.

The keypad is comfortable to work with, since all the keys have proper size. The 4D navi button is about 1 mm higher than all the others, so more comfortable to work with. Number keypad with average size buttons allows no accidental pressures. Both Latin and Russian characters are inscribed on the keys. The backlighting is even and orange highlighting all the characters well.

A 600 mAh Li-Ion battery is placed under the cover taking almost the whole back of the phone. According to the manufacturer, the handset works for up to 220 hours in the standby mode and up to 300 minutes in the talk one. In Moscow, it worked for about 3 days in case of 15 minutes of talks a day and up to 20 minutes of using other functions, which is quite acceptable for a low-end phone. Full recharging takes 1.5 - 2 hours.

Menu

The main phone menu is represented with three vertical rows of icons with three in each. The icons are the same as in the A75, though looking better. The submenu is tips, depending on the selected font five or one item can be shown on the screen. Number navigation allows fast access to a necessary item.

The localization is rather middling. Incorrect translation and abbreviations are present, besides, the font itself is not very good, it concerns English version as well. T9 for Russian and English are provided.

You can assign access to this or that menu item to the left functional key or keys numbered 2 to 9. Fast dialing numbers also can be bound to the number keys.

The handset features 1.32 MB of dynamical memory.

Phonebook. Up to 500 contacts are stored in the phone's memory (depending on the number of used fields). Each contact allows name (up to 31 characters), surname (up to 16 characters), up to three phone numbers and two fax numbers. Besides, two e-mail addresses, home page URL, company name, country, city, area code, address and birth date (which can be instantly transferred to reminders) can be specified. Also you can set your contact to one of the groups, assign a picture or a tag for voice dialing. Search by the first letter is possible in the phonebook.

You are able to edit the phonebook as you wish - delete or add this or that item. Contacts can be filtered by a field for viewing. For instance, you select e-mail address, and then only contacts with e-mail address specified will be shown. Entries from the internal memory and SIM-card one are viewed separately.

There are 7 groups in the phone, and each can have name changed or a picture selected. Only via the "Call melody" item you can assign a melody to a group.

Messages. Up to 100 messages can be stored in the phone's memory. EMS standard is supported, and even preset animations and pictures are provided. Preset templates are there and you can also create own ones. Concatenated messages up to 760 characters in length are possible. A group message is at your disposal.

MMS editor is plain and comfortable in work. You can create several slides.

Call lists. Call log of missed, received and dialed calls (10 in each). Calls from (to) the same numbers are combined. Call counter is also here. Duration of the last call, all incoming or all outgoing calls is for you to view. But total time is not provided, count it yourself.

Melodies. All the sound settings are here. Vibrating alert can work with a melody at the same time. Assign a melody to a group and adjust alerts from here. A phone record can be set as a call melody, the max duration is 25 seconds.

Extras. A plain calculator, a currency converter, a stopwatch and a timer are here.

Also "Voice commands" used to assign voice tags to menu items or numbers is in this section. Totally up to 20 tags are possible. And the quality of voice recording is quite good.

Only connecting an external camera you can access the "Camera section".

Own files. Folders with melodies, pictures and colour schemes are here. Received from other devices files are stored here as well.

Settings. Profiles. Fully configured by a user five profiles are here. There are two fields for creating profiles by yourself and an "on board" mode, which turns off the phone.

Any picture can be selected as a wall-paper, and one of the four colour menu schemes is for you to choose. Besides, you can adjust backlighting brightness and contrast, select of two font-sizes. You can select a screen saver for the standby mode - clock, a picture or animation.

Other phone settings are gathered here. You can turn on/off IrDA in the Connectivity menu.

Internet and games. Here is WAP browser version 1.2.1. Java applications are supported; they are installed in the general memory. Uploading them is possible via WAP, IrDA and USB cable.

There are three preinstalled games, they are a logical game Marble Crossing, Wappo 2, Sea Battle. Also you can use a phrase-book Survival Dictionary, unfortunately, Russian is not supported.

Java-applications are processed very slowly. Preinstalled programs are opened within 20-25 seconds. A productivity test using JBechmark showed a general score of 310 points, which proves its sluggishness, for instance Siemens CX75 got 1044 points in the same test, and Siemens A60 330 points.

Organizer. Only one alarm clock is present.

A calendar allows monthly view or shows all the events. Possible event types are notes, call, meeting, birth date and anniversary. Fields for data input change depending on the event type (description, number or name). Events may be set recurrent (daily, weekly, monthly or annually). A list of missed reminders is recorded.

Meetings. Everything is similar to the calendar.

Notes. You can create text notes (150 characters max).

Time zones. You can view time for any lace in the world.

Impressions

The connection quality is good, it easily copes with poor coverage zones. In any condition the loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity will be enough. The sound of the 16-tones polyphony is middling and the volume is higher than average, you'll hear the call even keeping it in your bag. The vibrating alert is also a bit higher than average in power.

This handset seemed quite interesting, and good functionality and not high price make it a good choice. The advantages to mention are fully-functional IrDA, good display, well-realized phonebook. The disadvantages include slow Java, sometimes incorrect translation of the menu items, which can confuse a user. Now an average price for this phone forms 110 USD, which is 15 USD higher than for a less functional Siemens A75.

Vladimir Fokin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published — 26 August 2005

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