Siemens C65

Discontinued
18th March 2004

The Siemens C65 is pitched firmly at the value end of the market, continuing Siemens effort to bring interesting low-cost phones to this market segment. Similar in specification to previous Siemens handsets, the C65 has a 130x130 pixel display and a basic digital camera.

It's not a groundbreaking phone, but then the C65 is built down to a price. It's reasonably fun though, with CLIPit interchangeable covers and Java for games support. An interesting feature is the "Photopet" which is a Tamagochi-type virtual pet that needs to be fed photos to be kept alive, which is kind of cute.

It's a good looking phone, and it's practical too, offering 5 hours of talk time and a massive maximum 17 days standby time. Plus there's MMS, Polyphonic ringtones and all the usual features you'd expect in a phone.

The camera is a little disappointing, being a 352x288 pixel CIF device. However, the screen is fairly small too, so it's firmly pitched at the low-end market. Treat the camera as a bit of fun rather than a serious photographic device, and you'll probably get the idea.

This is the third new "65" handset announced by Siemens on the same day, and is the latest in a long line of well-specified handsets offering the competition something to worry about. Is Siemens the rising star of 2004? On current form, we certainly think so!