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Review: Siemens SL65, A Forgotten gem?

by David Ross on 7 August 2005, 00:00

Tags: Siemens

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabma

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Conclusion

If anything I have to say I was surprised after spending a few days with the SL65. Tt’s really not that bad and I feel Siemens may have tried to run before they could walk in terms of developing their mobile products.

The potential is there, for sure, but I think BenQ are going to have to bring their influence to the table quickly to see a change in fortunes. As a result of the impending new releases and the change of ownership there seems to be a clearout happening in the mobile channel, meaning the SL65 can be picked up for as little as £129 including a Sim Card. What’s more, the phones are unlocked straight out of the box, a verative bargain considering the style and function.

As far as functionality goes, the SL65 is lacking some key ingredients. BlueTooth in this day and age should be a necessity for this market segment, but for the size, portability and ease of use you can be half forgiving for this omission.

Overall, a bit of a surprising package. Sure, it has its weaknesses, like any mobile, but if you are looking for something really small, to make and take calls and the odd picture you could do far worse than the SL65.

Pros


Compact size
Relatively cheap sim-free price

Cons


No BlueTooth™


Where2buy


Available for £129.99 on o2 in the UK, it even comes unlocked for any network at The Link.


HEXUS Forums :: 2 Comments

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From a sellers point of view it was a crap phone. The software was terrible in terms of layout, colour-tones and bugs. More than one came back out of the ones we ended up selling. Also it's quite chunky for a vga slide not small at all, especially when you compare it with an e800 vga slide which is now the same price. For the extra cash towards a D500 you will get 8 times the memory, a mega pixel camera, a smaller handset that displays 200 odd more colours and actually has a god build quality. There was a reason that certain gem was forgotten… Black magic? Black plastic and not much else to be honest. I can understand why there is a load still needing to be bought up by reluctant retailers as distributors are left with crates of the crappy things that have been superseded. You want to know a real forgotten gem from siemens? The SL42 remember that? What a handset! One of the first to sport mp3 player with upgradeable SD card memory (which wouldn’t catch on for a year or two) and was solid as a rock! One of the best phones I’ve ever had or sold in the last 5 years.
My boss had that one before his first XDA, it was a nice phone. I can remember Siemens started their fall from then on in.