Siemens mobiles enter a new ‘face’

Mobile phones will never look the same again as Siemens handsets enters a new "face" with the company introducing its latest and unique batch of mobile phones.

Siemens has unveiled four new phones – the A55, M55, SL55, and the unique SX1 – all targeted to suit a distinct kind of lifestyle.

According to Lavenia Revilla, Siemens Mobile country manager for the Philippines, these new phones are in line with the company’s promise to bring in only the latest, not-just-your-ordinary mobile phone, especially to a market that’s craving for a better, more diverse look, feel and function.

"We’ve always been on our toes in coming up with trendier phones with features that would fit a particular lifestyle," said Revilla.

"We also want to enable mobile users to get more of the information they really want, as well as make multimedia applications easier to access and more fun to use on their mobile phones," she added.

In a recent Gartner Dataquest report, Siemens Mobile Phones was said to have sold by end-2002 34.6 million of the total 432 million units sold during the entire year worldwide.

While the market shares of other mobile phone manufacturers have been gradually decreasing, Siemens Mobile Phones grew steadily in the past four years from three percent market share in 1998 to 8.2 percent in 2002.

Best-buy beauties

Offering more than just your basic communication tools, the new Siemens A55 gives more style, color and life to its predecessor, the Siemens A50.

Petite and light at only 82 grams, the Siemens A55 carries a more stylish form with a sleek chrome finish of either Garnet or Biscaya.

With hands-free speakerphone and central scrolling key for ease of navigation, the A55 gives the user the complete freedom to communicate and to flaunt with style, especially with its EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service) capabilities, polyphonic ringtones, exchangeable CLIPit covers, and extended talk time.

Exuding even more beauty and sophistication is the SL55, Siemens’ latest slider phone that combines ease of use and elegance.

With an attractive slider design, jewel-like keypad, and weighing a mere 79 grams, the SL55 boasts of a brilliant color display with a range of 4,096 colors perfect for sending MMS.

It has polyphonic ringtones, hands-free capabilities, tri-band functionality, Java technology and GPRS (Class 8), all packed into a compact device that literally fits in the palm of one’s hand.

An optional plug-in QuickPic camera with integrated flash allows moments to be captured and shared with friends over e-mail or MMS.

The X factor

Apart from beauty and sophistication, Siemens also brings the mobile phone market to its next "face" as the company also introduced two new unique-looking phones, which it hopes would catch mobile users’ attention.

The Siemens M55, for one, has six new striking metallic colors – with names ranging from Ion, Palladium to Thallium – that are incorporated into a modern design, with a distinctive X-shape on both the keypad and back of the phone.

The M55 also has the "Cubasis mobile" synthesizer application from Steinberg, allowing personal tracks to be composed and mixed on the move.

The personal sound file can then be used as a ringtone, inserted in a multimedia message, or sent to friends who, in turn, can remix them with their own M55s and pass them on to others.

Dynamic light effects on the side of the phone can also be programmed to add a special touch to incoming calls and highlight every call in the dark.

A tri-band phone with a high-resolution color display, MMS, GPRS, polyphonic melodies, voice control, Java technology and an e-mail client, the Siemens M55 is indeed a multi-talented all-rounder with a powerful combination of features and serious self-expression.

The next ‘face’

If the Siemens S57’s bridgeless keypad was one-of-a-kind, then the Siemens SX1 is certainly out of this world. With a unique keypad arrangement, it has strips of keys built in to each side of the phone, instead of an ordinary keypad, to give it a sleek shape.

This design innovation also shifts the large, 64K color high-resolution screen into the center of the device without compromising overall size as the SX1 weighs only 116 grams.

Embedded discreetly underneath the screen are central navigation keys which help make the features of the SX1 even easier to navigate in the usual portrait mode or, if the application supports it, in landscape mode.

Powerful as it is beautiful, the SX1 hosts the ultimate entertainment and business package. It also has a built-in video player, camcorder, music player and FM radio; rich unlimited gaming supported by Series 60 or Java (J2ME); a full set of business applications directly comparable to a normal PDA, including local and wireless sync.

By combining the latest entertainment and business technology, the SX1 is perfect for those who "work hard, play harder."

Built on the open-source Symbian platform, the SX1 also features a tailored Siemens mobile version of the Series 60 interface and application platform. This enables ease of use and also lets consumers personalize their phones with a huge choice of downloadable content and applications.

The new Siemens phones will soon be available at the Siemens Mobile Concept Shop in SM City Cyberzone North Edsa, QuickCom branches, Memo Express branches and other authorized dealers nationwide.