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CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 03/02/2005
The 2-inch-diagonal screen is large and vibrant, although the 65,536-color display is a bit chintzy for a phone of this caliber. The screen occupies most of the mobile's real estate, so there's a slight trade-off in terms of the controls. Though the five-way toggle and navigation keys are well sized, little room is left for the dial-pad keys. The buttons are small even for the daintiest of fingers, though they are sufficiently raised from the unit to simplify touch dialing. Conversely, the five-way joystick, the two soft keys, the Talk and End buttons, and the dedicated camera key that sit just below the display are quite easy to use. Navigating through the animated menus is a breeze, and shortcuts are allowed to user-defined functions. Or, to back out of a submenu, simply press the joystick to the left. The menus themselves are logical, so you shouldn't spend a lot of time figuring out where everything is. Even AOL IM gets its own menu option, rather than being buried under Connectivity.
Other exterior controls are few. The infrared port is on the left spine, while a multifunction control for changing the volume, scrolling thorough menus, activating the sound recorder, and using the camera is on the right spine. The back of the handset holds the camera lens--there's no mirror or flash--and you'll find a MultiMediaCard slot in the bottom of the device. Take care not to accidentally remove the card without using the Eject Card function from the MyMedia options menu, or else you will probably wipe out all of your stored data. The only other serious complaint is that it's difficult to remove the SIM card. Instead of a sliding lock to hold the card in place, the card simply snaps into the slot. When it comes time to remove it, it helps to have fairly long fingernails to get underneath the card and slide it out with your opposite thumb.
Not only is the Siemens S66's feature list extensive, but everything is well implemented. The phone book can hold 1,000 entries, each of which includes room for street addresses, birthdays, and pictures (the SIM card holds an additional 250 names). Contacts can be organized into caller groups or be paired with a picture or any of the 12 polyphonic (40-chord) ring tones. Additionally, whereas some phones require you to save the basic information first, then add details later, with the Siemens, you can instead enter all of this information at once. Other features include a vibrate mode, a calendar, text and multimedia messaging, a voice recorder, a stopwatch, a countdown timer, an alarm clock, a calculator, a currency converter, a task list, and a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. Business users will appreciate the S66's Bluetooth, speakerphone, infrared port, e-mail support (POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP), and USB connectivity. Also, you can use the handset as a modem, and with a free download of the Mobile Phone Manager from Siemens's Web site, you get the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.
The S66 is very much a multimedia phone. Pressing and holding the key on the right spine of the handset brings you to the 1.3-megapixel (1,280x960-pixel) camera, which takes pictures in five resolutions with decent color balance. It's worth adjusting the white-balance setting for indoor or outdoor use, as colors tend to be slightly richer than with the automatic setting. You can make basic adjustments without entering the menu; simply move the joystick left or right to adjust the brightness and up or down to adjust the 4X digital zoom. You can also record as much as 30 seconds of video at a time in 3GP format at 15fps. Don't worry about where you'll store all these files; the S66 comes with a 32MB MultiMediaCard, and you can always purchase a higher-capacity card.
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