Siemens SK65 review
Siemens turned some heads (pun sort of intended) last year with their announcement of their SK65, a pretty radical form factor departure from the regular QWERTY keyboard-equipped mobile communicators out there. And what's more, they produced a version with BlackBerry Built-In (a fancy way of saying it's got a bunch of BlackBerry software, and runs with BlackBerry servers and services). But, as you may have heard, Siemens's cellphone business at home and abroad has been languishing lately, and there was some concern that the SK65 might never get produced in any large number. And would you know what? We got our greedy little mitts on one and gave it the once over-click on to read what we think!
The specs
So let's get down to the nitty gritty; here are the essential specs you're going to need on this thing:
- 2-inch 132x176 pixel 65k color TFT LCD screen
- Tri-band GSM/GPRS
- Full QWERTY keyboard (in our case, AZERTY, the Euro version of the same)
- Bluetooth
- MPEG4, H.263 playback
- Up to 250/5 hours standby/talk time
Twist and shout! (Sorry, we couldn't resist.)
Quite a bit larger than the hefty little MPx220
When we first saw the press shots back in August last year, we were just as awestruck and impressed with the SK65's
innovative design as anyone. But having one around the office, the reality sunk in pretty quickly—it's a pretty
freaking big candybar when it's not twisted open, and when it is open you've got a whole lot of phone both
vertically and horizontally, which makes the tinyness of its 2-inch screen only that much more acute.
We will be the first to admit that the device feels very brawny and sturdily built without feeling too weighty. Its
hinge is definitely built for heavy use, but the positives end here. The keys on the front feel like they may pop out
at any given moment, and what's more, its defining feature—the QWERTY keyboard—wasn't even that much of a pleasure to
use. You'd think with all that horizontal space they'd venture to make the keys horizontally oriented (being that the
thumb's orientation in-grip is horizontal here), but they went with vertical (part of the same problem that makes the
Samsung i730's keyboard so difficult to use). Good on
them for making those keys reasonably large, but they just weren't that easy to type on—the tactile marks on the F and
J keys were too thin to help orient the thumbs, and the vertical ridges on the keys were confusing to the touch. In
other words, don't expect to soon type without looking on this thing. And yes, we type on our QWERTY-cellphones without
looking.
We might also mention that this design may also be a bit intrusive for the turbo-thumb tapping typers out there (you
know who you are). Those who thumb-type quickly on their keyboard often cross one thumb over to the other thumb's side
if it will be faster to hit a key in succession. With the screen between the two halves of the keyboard (just like in
the Nokia 6800-series) you're prevented from
"crossing over".
Believe it or not, that SIM is damned near impossible to get out. Thanks Siemens.
The software
It didn't take long playing around with Siemens's proprietary OS before you could tell a couple things; first, it
wasn't very well laid out. Its three softkeys were poorly placed—attached to the call and hang-up/cancel/back
buttons—and poorly used in the system. On the by and by, the interface was less than intuitive, and not to terribly
easy on the eyes, since that low resolution causes some severely aliased icons. Those familiar with BlackBerrys will
get the general gist of things as the nav layout is somewhat similar, but you won't hear us claiming that it's anywhere
near as straight-forward.
Siemens did include a few value-adds that made the phone a little easier to swallow, like a unit converter, file
system manager, themes, and even a European survival dictionary, but the real winner here is clearly the BlackBerry
Built-In.
To its credit, the device can play back MPEG4, and H.263, but you won't care very much about that with no media slot
and a miniscule amount of internal memory; we're left wondering why they even bothered adding support for the
codecs.
Who thinks to actually bother making you confirm a power on?
You'll be seeing that screen on the left quite some bit in 3-minute intervals.
Email search and mail client options.
Conclusion
If you are one of the few who have an SK65, you're almost undoubtedly not an American (unless you're sitting on
Siemens' board of directors)—but you shouldn't worry too much about that. Suffice it to say, we just don't have very
much postive to say about the device; when it showed up, we really wanted to fall in love. And it does feel solid ( the
hinge is built very well), but outside that, the screen, interface, graphics, and keyboard are severely
lacking. If you find yourself in a position to drop whatever the asking price is for one of these (right now anywhere
between $500 and a g, we hear) we humbly suggest you pass and plunk down for something a little more realistic, like a
Treo 650 or maybe waiting for HP's new
hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Communicator.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul Leiba @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Interesting formfactor, however the glaring omission of an SD slot and miniscule internal memory are critical short falls. Also where is the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Quad-band?
Going with a prepriotery O/S seems almost arrogant. Instead they should have chosen a major smartphone O/S such as Symbian, Palm or Linux. This way they are giving their consumers the options of many great 3rd party apps.
Kudos goes to Siemans for introducing what maybe really the only orignally designed phone since the Treo 600. I hope they can muster up some sales and engineer a 2nd gen version with added features.
Gillian White @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
It's a nice phone, I don't think it'll appeal much to regular Blackberry users because of the narrow screen size. You should also note that not all versions of the SK65 have Blackberry Connect built-in.
Gillian,
druja @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
It was my understanding, from a friend who has one in the us via Malaysia and Fedex, that the battery life is also very poor on the phone. So bad that with medium use it won't make 24hrs between charges.
Vinh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I got an SK65 in last week. I totally agree with this review. I was going to use it to replace my BB 7100, but after one day's use, I went back to the 7100. The screen is so small that you can only see the first 3 characters of email subjects.
I also got one with the AZERTY keyboard, which was hard to use. There isn't even a key (or a SHIFT+key or an ATL+key) to make a PERIOD! Are you kidding me?
Siemens really disappointed me with this device.
jah75157 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Anyone call that number shown on the last pic yet?
jah75157 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Anyone call that number shown on the last pic yet?
iskra @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I've had a few Siemens phones in my hands (as I'm from Europe) and it's no wonder this one has a bad battery life too - all Siemens phones have low battery life.
Thumbs up for the looks and thumbs down for whats inside.
Lonny Paul @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I am in the US and already have this phone, nor am I on the SIemens board of Directors. I actually bought it two weeks ago at over at TigerDirect.com (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1166005&CatId=1627) and got it in two days, i thought it was smaller than I expected, even from looking at the images in this review. If you look at the detail at http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1166005&Tab=1&NoMapp=0 you should get a little better perspective. It's small. I mean, sure, it's not a MX200, but then again, an MX200 flips open and is BIGGER than this......
This phone rocks. Blackberry - wish the US GSM carriers would support PTT, then that feature would be so freaking cool!
I am dying to use PTT, but think Nextel is swag. But they are getting all upgraded courtesy of the PCC for FREE to GSM soon.
The keys are a little small, but then again, so is the phone. I demand a larger key and although these were small, they were manageable, much more so than on the MPX300 even.
So, I liked it.
TrueDis @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Is it possible to make it behave like a QWERTY keyboard even if the physical layout is AZERTY or are you stuck with AZERTY if you buy an AZERTY version? Thanks.
Daniel Wallace @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Is there a phone out there that has WiFi capabilities?
Andy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
The QWERTY version w/ blackberry installed is available for AU$130 (~US$95) from all Optus resellers in Australia. It sure is better than any other phone going around at that price.
Good:
The innovative design with full keyboard is great for those of us with clumsy thumbs, screen is better than what I'm used to, and it's great to see bluetooth and blueberry on a phone this cheap. Hinge is built to last.
Bad:
MP4 is a little buggy, and internal memory is insufficient.
Ugly:
It's a BIG phone. You can't carry this one round in a shirt pocket.
The review says that if you can buy one, get a Treo650 instead. I just can't see any comparison between a phone at $130 and one over $750. Sure the Treo may be better, but i could have five SK65's for that price.
Bottom line: better features than anything else at this price level.
angelo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I agree with andy, i have had mine for 3 days now. a friend of mine who purchased one with me has bought another 2 for his kids. value for money and an exceptional design and strong. i moved from a nokia 3650 (with video camers) - no regrets. and battery life is fine - charged for 2hours when i bought it - and its still full!
Hans @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Lucky for us aussies who get to get them for $129 (originally was $799). just got mine this morning. I'm lovin' it!
(though i still miss my Nokia 6800 :( )
Carl @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Battery life is really bad - not even a very busy day on the phone and I killed the battery in a morning from charged up the night before.
Does help having the screen on energy saver.
Takes a little getting used to - not sure if I'm going to keep it
atzan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
i'm offered a recently used unit by a good friend for 100 Aussie,n its in mint condition,is that a good buy? i dont really need a big memoty space nor the cam,as long as it supports general Bluetooth..what do u guys think?oh n i do a LOT of smsing,mmsing n emailing,is it worth getting?
Eyce @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I recently got the phone for $AUD129, and love it. Mainly because it already comes with a PC Linkup cable and software, so you don't need to waste upwards of $AUD30 a month on those stupid Text for Ringtones/Wallpapers.
I'd reccommend it, and the keyboard is a godsend for quick text messages.
Gordo @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
I really amm desperately wanting to buy one but i don't know if its good enough.
A few questions!!
it sell here in Autralia for $129, does it come with Push To Talk(PTT)??
How much memory does it have??
Because alot of sites say the wrong thing and i can't choose to buy it or not,
Could you please respond ASAP
Since i am dying to buy it
Thanx
Gordo,
Nik @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
Does anyone know what technique is required to unlock these phones? Is it like the newer Nokias where a numerical code can be used, or does it need to be flashed?
QUenton @ Dec 19th 2005 1:04AM
WHta website can i get one from for 130.00 USD. Please give me the link.