Last weekend, I saw two gorgeous models strutting outside the Heeren. In the unrelenting noon sun, they were dressed like characters from the Police Academy movies. When a lanky civilian sporting bleached hair approached them, a lady "cop" pounced directly in front of him and, to his bewilderment, gave two sharp blasts on her whistle. This was part of Siemens' C45 commercial release, the latest handset to be targeted at the youth market, with the theme "Dare to be DiFFerrent". So was it?

Conventional Good Looks
From the outside, the 107g phone doesn't look very different from other mobiles on the market. It's attractive enough with a compact size, curved profile, integrated antenna and a five-line screen, but there won't be any jaws dropping to the floor. Our review model was a very safe combination of blue, black and silver. However, users can purchase a choice of optional interchangeable covers called CLIPit, which come in rainbow hues, black-and-white Light Steel, bright-yellow Fresh Lemon or warm red Hot Magma.

Siemens expects a set of front and back covers to cost more than S$20, which makes this more expensive than Nokia's front covers retailing for about S$15. Perhaps eventually third-party manufacturers will help push the price of the CLIPits down.

Design Your Own Covers
Since this is a phone that touts itself as different, Siemens has added two innovative features to the C45. One of them is the ability for users to personalizing their phone covers. You can go online at http://www.my-siemens.com/city/ and design covers with your own uploaded graphics. For the egoistic, you can even have a phone cover with your face on it. However, all this comes at princely sum of 59.99 Euros (S$98), including delivery from the United Kingdom. The whole process is expected to take less than three weeks.

Game For Kung Fu?
The other key feature of the C45 is its BattleMail Kung Fu game. This uses an SMS-to-Internet gaming platform for C45 users all over the world to virtually fight with one another.

For each game, you define your attacking and defensive moves, and then issue a challenge by SMS. The game server then matches you up with an opponent playing the game from another C45 or Internet-connected PC. The challenged user than sends his own set of moves to the game server, which calculates and forwards the results to the players. You then see the match re-animated graphically on your C45.

It's a simple concept, but the game has proved itself popular on a play-by-email platform, and highly addictive as players fight to rise to the top of the rankings.

On a mobile phone, though, it's a different proposition altogether. The main issue lies with the cost of playing the game. Users will have to pay a tariff for playing the game on mobile airwaves. The cost is being worked out, but Siemens does not expect this to be finalized by the phone's November 3 release. However, we reckon that anything costing more than S$0.20 may be too much for 30 seconds of small screen entertainment. If you get yourself addicted to a few matches a day, you could burn a big hole in your pocket, particularly if you are on a pocket allowance. You may want to stick to non-interactive games such as Stack Attack instead.

They've Changed The Keypad Layout (Again)
Siemens has the odd habit of playing around with the layout of the keypad. The S45 and ME45 had significantly different keypad designs. With the C45, the manufacturer has done it again. However, we had no complaints. The rubber keys felt soft to the touch, while the new keypad layout proved easier to maneuver around the menus.

Other Features
The standard features are available as well, including group SMS, predictive text and vibration alert. Our review unit was a European version, but the local variant of the phone, the C45/2118, will support Chinese text input. You can store 50 contacts on the phone, which contains 20 preset ringtones and four customizable ones.

There is also WAP capability and Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS). The latter allows users to download bitmaps and melodies or assign icons to callers using the Calling Faces feature. Siemens has also given the C45 the same amber backlight as the SL45, S45 and ME45.

Battery And Reception
Unfortunately, the first batch of C45 phones will come with nickel-metal hydride batteries. These give poorer performance compared with Lithium-ion ones, and also suffer from memory effect. According to Siemens, further shipments of the C45 will probably see the use of Lithium-ion batteries, which will shave 10g off the phone's weight and extend cell life.

For C45s carrying a NiMH battery, Siemens expects the phone to last 5 hours on talktime and 200 hours on standby. In our tests, the handset powered on for slightly more than two days. We had no problems with the reception of the phone, and conversations came through loud and clear.

Conclusion
Siemens is positioning the phone as a mass market phone, and has priced it accordingly at S$278 with a two-year contract. There should be a willing audience for the pleasantly handsome C45. However, the cost of playing the BattleMail game and personalizing your covers may prove to be significantly deterrent enough to make these dare-to-be-different features largely redundant.