Siemens CXF65
Discontinued 20th June 2004
The Siemens CXF65 is a compact clamshell
camera phone that looks distinctively different from
most other clamshells on the market. There's nothing
particularly groundbreaking with the CXF65 in terms
of features, but we think that Siemens have put together
a good package that demonstrates their growing confidence
and competence in the mobile phone market.
This handset has a 128x160 pixel
main display in 65,000 colours with a 96x64 pixel external
monochrome unit, a VGA resolution digital camera, with
built-in camera flash/torch but manages to squeeze all
of this into a handset weighing just 88 grams and measuring
97x48x23 mm including the external loop antenna.
We've
seen this loop antenna before, most recently in the
Siemens CF62
but first in the Sony
Ericsson Z200. In fact, there are several bits of
the CXF65 that look a little familiar, the keypad has
a touch of the Motorola
V600 about it, the raindrop motif on the outside
of the CXF65 looks a little like the styling found on
some Panasonics, but this is combined with a big dash
of Siemens in-house styling to come up with something
that's distinctly a Siemens but also something that
learns from the competition. We think it looks great.
The software is pretty competent too,
with Java support, PIM functions, polyphonic ringtones,
POP3 email support, and WAP. Network support is tri-band
GSM with GPRS.
In features, the CXF65 doesn't look
too hot compared to a lot of recent announcements, but
when you bear in mind that this phone is slated for
release in mid 2004, and a lot of the "announced"
phones are still months away, the CXF65's feature set
then looks more competitive. Don't forget that all of
these features are in a handset weighing just 88 grams.
What's baffling here is that Siemens
did an excellent job at a fully featured lightweight
handset with the CXF65, but when they designed the SL65
they managed to get something with less features than
the CXF65 into a larger and arguably less attractive
package.
However, we like the CXF65 and think
that it's a well-packaged phone with good looks that
should be a useful handset to consider if you're looking
for a lightweight clamshell that stands out a little
from the crowd.
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Siemens
CXF65 at a glance
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Available:
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Q3
2004
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Network:
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Tri-band
GSM
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Data:
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GPRS
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Screen:
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128x160
pixels, 65k colours
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Camera:
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640x480
pixels with flash
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Size:
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Compact
clamshell 97x48x23mm
/ 88 grams
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Bluetooth:
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No
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Infra-red:
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Yes
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
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Yes
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Battery
life:
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3 hours talk / 8 days standby
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