Siemens CFX65 review: The chameleon clamshell

Organizer and other functions

For the busy users there is a well-arranged calendar where you can enter up to 100 records. It allows selecting from six types of reminders, including a voice record. It's possible to set an alarm and duration length to reminders. Calendar can be in monthly, weekly or daily view. In month view weekends are colorfully highlighted and days with an event are shown in rich orange color. After you select such a day, a list of events appears on two rows under the calendar. The same is with week view.

Calendar in different views

In the list of organizer functions the to-do list can't be left unmentioned. It's possible to enter four types of tasks, assign time, priority and even an alarm to them. There are also simple notes, which can't exceed 160 characters, and an application for computing the world time.

Calendar possibilities • complete organizer menu • application for computing the world time is graphically well done

In the Extras category you'll find an alarm clock. It allows recurrence in a selected day, which is the same as with other Siemens phones. There are also a simple calculator, unit converter, stopwatch and a countdown timer. Don't forget the voice recorder, accessible by the side button. There is nothing surprising in the Extras functions.

Alarm clock, calculator, unit converter and stopwatch…

The choice of Java games in the phone is limited - there is just one game - but it's possible that it'll be enriched until the start of sell. Anyway, MarbleJam is an interesting logical game, where you sort color balls.

Only one game was in the menu of the tested phone • MarbleJam game

By the list of functions I should mention also the Wap browser version 2.0. With GPRS class 10 you can browse quite fast the Internet. Also you can connect your PC to the Internet, using a data cable or an infrared port.

Camera

The integrated camera can make pictures in maximal resolution 640 x 480 pixels (VGA). Comparing to other camera phones picture quality is below the average, mainly from the sharpness point of view. It's possible to decrease the resolution in three steps. The lowest resolution is meant for taking pictures used as display background.

Camera viewfinder and settings possibilities

To improve brightness ratio in the view exposure compensation is used and you can also set a white color balance for inside or outside. 3x digital zoom is available; it works on the principle of crops. If you would like to try creative photography, you can choose some of the classic color effects. You can also try handling with self timer or stylish, animated frames.

Sample pictures

The lightning diode placed on the front cover, right beside the camera lens, can be used to light up a scene in dusk. However more often it will find its use as an emergency torch.

The diode will light up the scene

Pictures and all data, including schemes, messages in the Archive or sound records, are saved in the 4 MB share memory. You can control the memory thanks to the well-arranged manager that is similar to a PC file manager. All the data is saved in different folders as files. It's possible to rename, delete or create new folders. You can also move files between the folders, delete them, etc. Moreover you can take more files at once and send them via infrared port to your PC.

Memory manager

Another women's clamshell?

Siemens CFX65 is a phone, which won't attract everybody. Those of you, who like square shapes and combination of grey, chrome and chameleon blue, will certainly be happy with the phone. The function set is sufficient and I dare to say that most of the people who will enjoy the phone will be female. The phone will be sold since the fourth quarter of this year and we expect a price that will be below the prices of the competitive phones. If we stay with clamshells, the main rivals are Panasonic X400 and Motorola V220.

Pros and Cons

+ stylish clamshell design
+ nicely hidden antenna
+ comfortable keypad
+ sophisticated address book
+ low weight

- plastic look
- dualband only
- slow passive display
- emails can be received only
- camera quality below the average