Siemens ME75 and AP75
Expected November 2005 18th
October 2005
BenQ-Siemens have announced three new
handsets over the past couple of days - the ruggedised
ME75 handset, the low cost AP75 Bluetooth phone and
the deathly dull AX72 which appears to be identical
to the AX75.
You can discuss these new handsets in our forum.
Siemens ME75
At first glance, the Siemens ME75 is a dead ringer
for the M75
ruggedised phone, but in fact the ME75 is physically
a fair amount smaller and about 85% of the weight of
the M75.
It's a pretty basic phone though, but broadly competitive
with the Nokia
5140i. the ME75 has a 132x176 pixel display,
a VGA resolution camera, a WAP browser and email client.
The Siemens ME75 weighs 95 grams, and measures 105x46x18mm..
which seems quite large, but the size and weight is
partly due to the ME75's rubbery bits.
Compared to the Nokia, the ME75 has no FM radio but
a better display. However, the 5140i also comes with
EDGE, a built-in thermometer, compass and a flashlight,
all features missing from the Siemens ME75. The ME75
seems to have pretty good battery life though.
How much market penetration the ME75 will get is
questionable. The M75 is allegedly available in some
European countries, although you'd be hard pressed to
find one. The previous model, the M65 didn't hang around
for long either. In fact, it's hard to see why anybody
would choose the ME75 over the Nokia 5140i in any case.
Siemens say that the ME75 will be available from
November 2005.
|
Siemens
ME75 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2005
|
Network:
|
Tri-band
GSM
|
Data:
|
GPRS
|
Screen:
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132x176
pixels, 65,000 colours
|
Camera:
|
640x480
pixels
|
Size:
|
Standard
"candy bar" size 105x46x18mm
/ 95 gramss
|
Bluetooth:
|
No
|
Infra-red:
|
Yes
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
8
hours talk / 18 days standby
|
|
Siemens AP75
The Siemens AP75 is another rebadged BenQ handset,
in this case it's a Bluetooth enhanced variation of
the BenQ M300, which also made an appearance
as the O2 X1i
(without Bluetooth) and the O2
X1b (with Bluetooth).
The O2 variant of this phone is unloved and feels
quite cheap, but then then the O2 X1b is just about
the most affordable Bluetooth handset on the UK market,
so you can expect the Siemens AP75 to be similarly inexpensive.
It's pretty basic though - a 128x128 pixel CSTN display,
CIF resolution camera (a measly 352x288 pixels), WAP
browser, Bluetooth and really not much else. At 86 grams
the Siemens AP75 is lightweight, and the 5.7 hours maximum
talktime is pretty reasonable.
Overall though, this is a cheap phone with not much
going for it. A much nicer, low cost Bluetooth phone
is the Nokia 6021 which dispenses with the camera completely.
Siemens say that the AP75 will be available from
November 2005.
|
Siemens
AP75 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2005
|
Network:
|
Tri-band
GSM
|
Data:
|
GPRS
|
Screen:
|
128x128
pixels, 65,000 colours
|
Camera:
|
352x288
pixels
|
Size:
|
Lightweight
"candy bar" 102x44x18mm
/ 86 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
No
|
Battery
life:
|
5.7 hours talk / 6 days standby
|
|
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