Siemens SL75
Available
now 1st July 2005
The Siemens SL75 is the replacement for the SL65 handset, which in turn was meant to be the replacement for the SL55. Now, where the SL55 was a hugely popular handset because of its attractive "girlie" looks and highly compact size, the SL65 was a much larger device with some fairly brutal styling details. In short, we loved the SL55 (even though it's a very basic handset), but the SL65 failed to impress.
So, the SL75 is Siemens's latest attempt at a fashionable compact slider, and you can tell right away that the phone is much more curvy than the SL65, perhaps taking a styling cue from the older SL55, but it's still just as heavy as the SL65 at 99 grams, compared to 79 grams for the SL55. But where the SL65 was a big, bland phone, the SL75 manages to squeeze in quite a lot of features.
The camera is a 1.3 megapixel device with flash and video capture (up from 0.3 megapixels on the SL65), a 132x176 pixel transflective
display (up from 130x130 pixels), 52Mb of shared non-expandable memory (up from 10Mb), plus Bluetooth, EDGE and an MP3 player - features that the SL65 didn't have at all. In specification terms, the SL75 is a bit like a cut-down Samsung D500 (although with a poorer screen and less memory).
It's a much, much better handset than the SL65, and technically hugely better than the SL55. However, the SL75 still looks a little bland in either black, silver or white and it can't match the SL55 for looks. Even two years after its introduction, there's still a market for the SL55, mainly appealing to people who value the SL55's looks and small size. However, the SL75 is a pretty good handset and it seems to be pretty well equipped for its market segment.
The SL75 will be available from October 2005 for an recommended unsubsidised price of around
€400/£280/$500, although realistically it will probably drop below
€300 fairly quickly.
Subscribe
to our newsletter for more news on
upcoming releases
|
Siemens
SL75 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2005
|
Network:
|
Tri-band
GSM 900/1800/1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE
|
Screen:
|
132x176
pixels, 262k colours
|
Camera:
|
1.3
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium
slider 92x48x23mm / 99
grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
5
hours talk / 12 days standby
|
|
|