| Review of the Siemens A65 |
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This new Siemens phone is another iteration of their otherwise excellent platform. Sadly they haven’t addressed any of the issues in the former designs, such as low earpiece volume or the noticeable background noise, but it retains all of the goodness that made the previous A56, C56, and M55 all worthwhile GSM phones.
The Siemens A65 is available on Fido Last Updated: 13-Mar-2005 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
On first viewing the A65 seems to be a color version of the A56 or C56 model,
but in fact the A65 contains some notable extras, including MMS, data
connectivity, picture ID, and an attachable camera. This model is tri-band, but
one of those bands IS NOT 850 MHz. Instead the phone supports 1900, 1800, and
900 MHz. This means that you won’t be able to take advantage of the Rogers 850
MHz channels when roaming on their system. This is a definite disadvantage in
rural areas.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: Like all of the other Siemens
models I’ve tested the A65 has very good RF sensitivity. However, it doesn’t
quite match my old Nokia 6310i, which I use as
the reference for all 1900 MHz phones. The differences aren’t that great, but
the A65 just can’t quite maintain solid reception as long as the 6310i can.
Personally I wouldn’t consider the difference great enough to choose between one
phone and the other, but for really picky people I believe that Siemens could do
better.
Over-the-road Performance: Once again the A65
continues to provide the same excellent over-the-road performance to all of the
other models I’ve tested from them recently. Handoffs are graceful (perhaps more
so than just about any other GSM phone on the market right now, including
Motorola) and while this phone can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, it
can make some network problems sound at least tolerable.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Tonal Balance: This is one area where Siemens has
gotten it right time and time again, and the A65 is no exception. The tonal
quality of this phone is very good, with a nice mix of lows, highs, and
midrange. Just about anyone you talk with on this phone will sound natural and
pleasant to listen to. However, they could stand to improve this aspect
slightly. I can’t put my finger on it, but the audio just seems to be a bit less
stellar than some of the other phones I’ve tested to which I’ve given high
praise for tonal balance.
Sound Reproduction: It seems that Siemens found a
magic formula for audio reproduction and they’ve stuck with it on each of their
models (that I’ve tested). That said however, I will admit that there is a bit
more background noise than there should be. I never found the background noise
particularly distracting during phone calls, but it would be a crowning
achievement if Siemens could rid the phone of it completely.
Outgoing Sound Quality: Overall it’s quite good,
but the tonal balance just isn’t quite as smooth and as natural as other GSM
phones I’ve tested, including the Nokia 6310i. One of the big issues here is a
penchant to pick up a lot of background noise. I recorded a series of test
messages at Square One using the A65, the Nokia 6310i, and the
Motorola i730 (using its internal microphone
and my Samsung earbud). I’d expected the i730 with the earbud to pick up the
background noise the most, but surprisingly it was the A65 that was the most
annoying in this respect.
Earpiece Volume: Like all of the Siemens models
I’ve tested since (and including) the A56, the earpiece volume is a bit low. In
most environments it sounds loud enough, but for those situations where the
background din is exceptionally high (such as out on a noisy street or in a busy
shopping mall) you might find it difficult to hear your caller. This goes doubly
if your caller happens to be faint to begin with.
This low volume becomes an even bigger issue when you are roaming on Rogers, as
their audio level is somewhat lower than Fido’s. Now that Rogers allows Fido
pre-paid to roam on their network I was able to test this by forcing the A65
onto Rogers and comparing the volume of various test sources.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: None of the Siemens I’ve tested has
ever really scored well here, and A65 doesn’t improve on this. The available
ringtones just aren’t loud enough to hear in a noisy environment, especially if
the phone is far away from your ear (such as in a purse or pants pocket). All of
the provided ringers are recorded sounds that play through the native earpiece.
As this model has no speakerphone, it doesn’t have an auxiliary speaker to
provider higher volumes.
Keypad Design: Like most Siemens models the keypad
sports a very traditional layout, with only the two exceptions. The two softkeys
are tied physically to the TALK and END keys, which makes their use a little
confusing at first. I would personally prefer that all the keys were all
independent (with the exception of the 4-way cursor keys, which seem well-suited
to being placed on the same key).
The keys on my test model were a little stiff, but they all pressed with
assuring clicks, and so they gave excellent tactile feedback. The keys are a tad
close together, but this isn’t something that can be avoided in such a small
design. People with really large thumbs might find this keypad a bit awkward.
Headset: The A65 does not include an
industry-standard 2.5 mm headset jack. I was therefore unable to test the
headset functionality, as I would have needed a model specific to the Siemens
line. The connector on the bottom of the A65 is identical to that of the other
Siemens models I’ve tested, so a headset for any of those units would likely
work with this one.
Phonebook: The phonebook is rather rudimentary,
providing only one extra field (email address) beyond the stock-standard name
and phone number. It also doesn’t provide a hierarchal storage scheme, which
means that you can only store one phone number per name. If you have multiple
numbers for the same people, you are forced to create multiple entries with
subtext to distinguish it from all the rest.
Despite this lackluster scheme, it does provide a few perks, including picture
ID (for up to 50 names in your phonebook) and groups. The latter is similar to
the scheme introduced by Nokia in the late 1990’s and is used to provide custom
ringtones. However, you cannot assign a specific ringtone to a specific caller.
You may only assign ringtones to a group, and then associate callers with one of
those groups.
Display: The color display of the A65 is very
similar to the one offered on the M55. Siemens continues to be the only
manufacturer I’ve encountered who allows the user to select the backlight
brightness. The brightness is selected in 10 steps from off to full, though the
top 3 seem to be the same. You can assign a different brightness to each of the
Profiles (quick ways of changing phone attributes such as ring type, ring
volume, etc).
The display is quite visible in DIRECT sunlight, but it looks a little dark in
non-direct daylight. This seems to be the norm for TFT displays, so in this
regard the A65 is about average.
Conclusions
I’ve always come away with a good feeling about the Siemens GSM phones I’ve
tested in the past, and since the A65 is virtually identical in terms of RF and
audio performance, there’s no way I can avoid being impressed with this one too.
There is certainly room for improvement on just about all fronts however, but in
terms of overall performance it is really tough to find another GSM model that
has the same combination of qualities. The only aspect of the phone’s core
functionality that is decided substandard is the poor audio volume. This is one
aspect that Siemens needs to concentrate on in future phones.
The real disappointment is with the support features, such as the lame
phonebook, low ringer volume, and lack of a 2.5 mm headset jack. If those lesser
failings don’t bother you, the Siemens A65 is certainly on of the best economy
phone currently offered by Fido.
