Siemens S45

We already have 100GB hard disks and 256MB memory chips. What would you say about a phone that not only gives you a whopping 360KB of onboard storage space, but an adjustable one to boot? We half expect phones to follow in Siemens' footsteps in no time, sporting even more powerful and larger onboard memory that may one day allow MP3s to be downloaded as ringtones.

Generous Memory
The 360KB internal memory on the S45 works like a hard disk on a phone. The storage space is accessible both from the phone and via a computer connected to the handset. You can store phonebook entries, melodies, messages and voice recordings on it. To help you manipulate the phone's memory from a desktop, Siemens has supplied a phone-to-serial cable with the retail package. The necessary programs can be downloaded from the Siemens Web site, although it would have been more convenient had this been made available on the included CD-ROM.

Once the Siemens' Data Exchange software is installed, simply fire up Windows Explorer and, voila, you can now drag and drop files directly to and from the phone. We found this pretty cool as the phone could be treated like a external floppy disk.

Manipulating The Phone's Memory
Here's a neat trick to the Siemens S45: Like a normal hard disk, you can decide how you want to use the built-in memory. For instance, you can have lots of ringtone melodies and no voice recordings and SMS archive. The internal memory is good for almost 3 minutes of recordings. Alternatively, the memory should be enough to store more than 1,000 messages and ringtones, given that each is a few hundred bytes in size.

Be warned, though, about the SMS archival system. Despite the flexible memory system, the S45 can have only as many active SMS messages as the SIM card allows. So if your SIM card is full, you will have to archive the messages to the flexible memory. The problem is that archived items cannot be re-entered onto the SIM card, except by a resend.

We're aware that the SL45 is able to similarly manipulate its storage space, but this is done on an external MultiMediaCard and not on fixed internal memory.

Making File Formats Compatible
Siemens has done something simple but incredibly useful. The German company has taken the internal file formats from its phone and made these compatible with the computer's traditional file formats such as text, WAV and MIDI.

We saw this earlier in the Ericsson T39, which accepts background GIFs. The S45 takes this a good many steps further. The Data Exchange software comes with a function that converts Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages to text files. You can then archive the text messages on your PC's hard drive. Years after you've thrown away your mobile phone, you will still be able retrieve and read those text files. The conversion also works the other way, so you can draft a text message on your computer, download this to the S45 and send it out as an SMS message.

Similarly, sound files can be converted between WAV and S45-compatible .vmi formats. We recorded some dialog using the phone's voice recorder, and played that back during a conversation. You could try ripping a WAV file of your favorite song, downloading this into the S45, and using it to add some interesting background music to your phone conversations.

For those who can't quite get enough of ringtones, you can download MIDI files from the Web and copy them to the phone as ringtone melodies. Remember that you store up to 1,000 ringtones if that's what you wish for.

With another program, the Siemens Quick Sync Software V2.0.5a, downloaded from the same Web site, you can also sync the phone's organizer with the Microsoft Outlook calendar. However, a major downside to the programs is that these are not compatible with Macintosh or Linux operating systems.

Siemens' First GPRS Offering
This is Siemens' first Global Packet Radio System (GPRS) phone in its stable, which gives the S45 an edge over its forebear.

Setting up the GPRS was quite easily done, as both GPRS operators SingTel and M1 have provided step-by-step instructions online.

Once up, surfing with GPRS proved relatively fast, taking less than 5 seconds to load a page. This translates to a quarter of the time it would have taken with a non-GPRS WAP browser. The S45's high-resolution screen, which can accommodate up to seven lines of text, was also a boon for Net browsing on the phone. For nighttime viewing, the phone comes lit with a restful amber backlight, a blessed change from the ubiquitous blue blacklight.

Long Talktime, Decent Voice Clarity
Call quality was acceptable, although this was occasionally punctuated by unidentified background hiss. With the optional handsfree kit attached, the other party was clearer to us than vice versa.

Reception was overall decent, while battery life offered a manufacturer-claimed talktime of 6 hours and standby of 300 hours on a Lithium-ion battery. On a test run, we went four days on light usage before the phone needed to be charged. According to the user manual, you can disable GPRS to increase the battery life slightly.

SL45 "Lite"?
Inevitably, comparisons would be made between the S45 and the SL45. On the physical side, the S45 is slightly heavier (93g vs 88g) and bulkier (109x46x20 mm vs 105x42x17 mm). But thanks to an internal antenna, it actually appears smaller than the SL45.

However, the S45 is no poor cousin to the SL45.

Both phones bear the same silver finish, sleek curves, navigation key and exceptional keypad buttons that are a real delight to use. Both handsets also come with digital voice recorder, organizer, melody composer, predictive text input, and voice dial. The phone menus are largely the same, although oddly, for all its large memory, the S45 offers only two games--the addictive Stack Attack and rather dismal Balloon Shooter--and no option to save a game in progress.

Significantly, the S45 trades the SL45's MP3 capability for GPRS and uses an internal if flexible memory to the SL45's expandable MultiMediaCard feature.

The Verdict
Some may balk at spending S$498 for a mobile phone, while the more exacting consumer will probably compare the Siemens S45 to the Ericsson T39 which has Bluetooth capability and is kinder on the pocket. But if you are going to spend S$500 on any phone, you can scarcely find a better choice than the S45.