Siemens S56
Average Ratings
Good, Good, Good...
Excellent phone !!
Pros.
-Good size for a pocket
-Reception in almost all areas nokia doesn't reach
-Connectivity 100% (BT, USB and IrDA)
-Battery last almost a week talking 30 min/day
Cons.
-256 colors for taking pictures??
-Speakerphone is a mess !!
This is the only reason i changed this phone, the display, at least siemens could dote it with 4k colors.
Perfect
I've always been a flip phone guy because I hated locking the keys. My most recent phones were Samsung e315, s307, and e105 ... all of which were good phones but I decided to look for a light weight phone with Bluetooth and speakerphone, I really didn't care about a camera, they add too much weight. I had a Motorola V300 that felt like a brick in my pocket, and all the Motorola bluetooth phones weigh a ton. So I find the S56, small, light weight, laundry list of features ... but it's a bar phone. I bought it anyway and LOVE it! It has an automatic keypad locking feature and an easy one button unlock ... problem solved.
Pros:
-Small
-Light Weight (barely noticeable in shirt pocket)
-Bluetooth
-speakerphone
-GSM 850
-Solid Construction
-Voice Memo
-Selectable days for recurring alarm
-Large Screen
-IR
Cons:
-Speakerphone could be a bit louder
-Awkward shaped and sized keys
-That annoying dial sound when making a call
But the pros definitely outweigh the cons and I would recommend this phone to anyone who wants a full feature phone without a camera ... which can be bought as an option though ... but my camera doesn't make phone calls, why do I need a phone to take dark grainy pictures.
Not as good as specs might seem
Pros: great form factor, decent feature set
Coms: low sound volume, poor battery life
First, the size and weight of this phone are just right - I like to carry the phone in my pocket, and it's perfect for that. But, after using this phone for about a year, it's got some serious drawbacks. First, despite the advertised long standby time, it needs recharging every three days or so, whether you've used it or not. Worse, the battery seems to drain even when the phone is turned off (I shut it off fully charged as I left for a week-long vacation, when I got back into the US, I turned it on at the airport, and the battery was nearly drained). But that's not the worst - the biggest problem is the sound volume is simply too low - while talking, I can barely hear it while driving (my car is a little noisy), or in a loud room (e.g. restaurant) even with the earpiece. This is even with the phone on its "Noisy Environment" profile. I NEVER had this trouble with my old Nokia 8260. The speaker phone is louder, but nearly unintelligible. The midi-tone ringer is also very quiet, and the "stock" ringtones don't include anything other than cutesy music clips - I'd like the choice of a few "traditional" phone rings also. Signal strength seems weak, more dropped calls and inexplicable network dropouts. I certainly hope newer Siemens models have corrected some of these shortcomings.
Cute But Not Worth It
I've had constant trouble with this little phone. The software is buggy; it tends to forget settings changes for awhile, then they show up again the way you set them, then they disappear. The screen background, for example, is hard to change and then get the change to "take."
Reception is bad. The speakerphone is poor audio quality. Voice dialing is very finicky. Menus are labyrinthine. I don't know about other phones, but it's got to be simpler than this to do simple things.
Big cool factor though: Everyone wants to look at it when they first see it. "Is that a phone? Cool!" I like the size of it. It's just poorly executed.
To top it all off, my keypad started falling apart one month after warranty expiration. Grr.
Good for hammering in nails
Are you serious? Dont even think about this piece of junk You cannot dial properly with this phone, the buttons are too cloe together and you end up hitting the wrong ones. Bluetooth features are ridiculous: You need to transfer the call to bluetooth (if you are driving try not to get killed in and accident since the menu is so hard to use!) to get it to work. There is no way to program in extra numbers for voice mail access codes. (Even old samsungs could do that!)
Bottom line: don't buy it!
Hot Garbage!!!
This phone was the worst phone I have ever had. I have had many phones by many carriers and this one is by far the worst. The only good thing that I can possibly say about this phone is the size. Initially when I took it home from the Cingular store, I was impressed by the quaintness of this phone. It was very cute and fit just about anywhere. Now I am assuming that the reason the phone is so terrible is because of the size. I constantly dropped calls because of the bad reception. The phone is not durable at all. I dropped the phone once. My face plate is now cracked, part of the face plate is missing (which I did not know that a piece of the face plate could come out) but it did. I have never had to envoke my insurance, but I had to in this case. I have only had my phone 6 months and it is in such bad shape I would not give it away. It has some feature on it they call speaker phone however it is not. Last I checked speaker phone should be loud enough to hear it. This speaker phone is more like an extension of the regular speaker. In order to hear the speaker phone you need to put the phone on your ear, which really defeats the purpose of having a speaker phone. If anyone is looking to get this phone....Don't waste your money and don't even take it if it is given to you as a gift. You will regret this decision until you get a new one.
Oh my god...
I cannot get reception on this phone no matter where I am...I was in a cingular store and the clerk could not even get a reception...I have had this phone for about 4 months and have had it switched out 3 times now (because of the contract i'm under) and each phone just gets worse...The latest phone has no reception and the speaker phone does not work...I can't believe I bought this phone...
