The very first smartphone from Siemens is in the hot seat as Jørgen Sundgot takes a closer look at the radio and MP3-enabled SX1 - powered by Nokia's Series 60 platform.
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Despite having been established as a major mobile phone brand for several years, and recently with a fair amount of success, Siemens has only recently taken the step up to offer a smartphone. Fortunately betting on an existing platform rather than creating a proprietary one, the German manufacturer's SX1 is powered by Nokia's Series 60 platform - which may prove to be a double-edged sword.
 | The SX1 serves as a warning to all handset manufacturers: quit messing around with keypad design
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Design
Perhaps more inspired by Bosch handsets in its design, a company Siemens acquired some time ago, rather than contemporary Siemens models, the 116 g heavy SX1 looks somewhat clunky - yet lies well in the palm of the hand. Understated rubber grips on both sides are a bonus, and the handset compares well in size with other Series 60 smartphones at 109 x 56 x 19 mm, however there is one major drawback: the unusual keypad arrangement.
Situated on both sides of the otherwise excellent, 16-bit display, keys 1-5 and the star button can be found on the left side, while keys 6-0 and the hash button are placed to the right. As was proved with Nokia's 3650, unusual keypad arrangements do not come recommended due to the learning curve involved, but the SX1 also makes the cardinal error of rendering input by means of one hand only impossible for all users but those with unusually large hands. Quite simply, reaching keys in the corner opposite one's thumb places a very uncomfortable strain on the hand, and poor tactile feedback does not help the situation.
Mitigatingly, the remainder of the buttons on the device - most of them placed below the display are quite pleasant to use - with the exception of the joystick, which is annoyingly devoid of friction thanks to its crome finish. On the right side, we also find hardware buttons: one initiates the camera application and snaps pictures, while the other activates the speaker dependent voice dialing feature of the phone. Incidentally, all of the front buttons of are lit brightly blue from the back - as they should be.
Moving on, the SX1 is devoid of any LEDs to indicate its status, requiring users to check their screen for updates - a user design snafu which is also present on Nokia's Series 60 smartphones, although that doesn't count as a mitigating factor.
A speaker grille placed centered above the display of the SX1 offers loud and clear audio, however tends to distort radio and MP3 audio when turned to maximum volume; this is fortunately not the case with the admittedly good bundled stereo handsfree kit. There is, however, one problem: Siemens utilizes a proprietary connector for its handsfree kit, so listening to audio with a high quality set of headphones is sadly out of the question. Still, we expect most users will be satisfied with the quality of the bundled handsfree kit although it could benefit from a slight bass boost.
Connectivity
The Siemens SX1 separates itself from other Series 60 smartphones in several ways, one of which is its ability to hot-swap memory cards. A spring-loaded contraption on the left side expertly receives MMC cards, although users have to remember to halt use of the memory card before extraction, or data errors could occur. Nevertheless, this is a major leap past competing Symbian OS smartphones, although Windows Mobile and Palm OS platforms have featured such functionality since their very inception.
A USB cable provides connectivity for desktop synchronization for the SX1, while the same is also possible by means of either a serial cable, its Infrared port - located at the top of the handset - or its built-in Bluetooth support. What concerns Bluetooth, the SX1 is well equipped with profiles and does not stand back to any other smartphone in the market.
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