Siemens CX70

Discontinued
20th August 2004

Although almost identical to look at as the Siemens CX65, the Siemens CX70 is the first Siemens handset to feature Push-to-Talk (PTT) - although confusingly Siemens insist on calling it "Push and Talk (PaT)".

From the outside the CX70 is indistinguishable from the CX65, and indeed most of the specifications are identical. It has a large 132x176 pixel display in 65,000 colours, VGA resolution camera with video capabilities and 5X digital zoom, weighs 90 grams and measures 108x46x18mm. Battery life is quoted as up to 5.5 hours talk and 12 days standby, which is impressive.

Crucially there's no Bluetooth, but like the CX65 this is really a consumer phone. Siemens promise that all their midrange handsets and above will feature PTT.. err.. PaT from next year, so perhaps we can look forward to the Siemens S70.

Slated for a Q4 release, the CX70 enters a remarkable uncrowded marketplace. At the time of writing, only Nokia are shipping a PTT handset with their slightly odd Nokia 5140. The hopefully-soon-to-be-released Motorola V400p is a PTT handset too (check out these articles for some more background on PTT). Siemens stated Q4 release date should give it an advantage over the competition who still haven't got round to a major PTT rollout.

Other than PTT or whatever Siemens want to call it, this is a pretty average but competent phone. Like the CX65 this borrows a little of the now-classic T610 look, although the interface appears to have been spruced up. Inside is 9.5Mb of memory, tri-band GSM with GPRS, an email client, a WAP 2.0 browser, Java support, 3D graphics and you can connect it to a PC via a USB cable, serial cable or infra-red.

The phone looks good, but the VGA resolution camera is only so-so and we were really hoping to see some more megapixel units coming into phones. But overall this is a useful improvement on an already good phone, and it builds on the Siemens reputation of well though out phones, such as the Siemens SK65). Alongside a very good looking product range for the end of 2004, it looks like Siemens might well be the manufacturer to watch going into 2005.

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