A basic, no-frills mobile phone needn't necessarily mean a bad one. Join Anthony Newman to find out if Siemens' C62 is trash or treasure.
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It's been a while since Siemens have wowed us with a mobile phone: only the SL55 has given a real 'ooh' factor in recent years, with more exciting designs from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung stealing much of the limelight. Siemens aren't going to change this state of affairs with the C62, a budget phone with entry-level features. But has it got what it takes to make you part with your cash?
 | The C62 comes cheap, but even so it's lacking in features and ergonomics
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Exterior
The C62 definitely looks like a Siemens, which depending on your viewpoint may or may not be a good thing. We found it to be messy, with buttons at all angles shining in plasticky chrome. Siemens make this handset available in three colours; we were graced with the eagle white version, which is actually a pale, satin grey, with paler grey and white inserts. It's quite understated.
A small square screen sits of the front, with buttons arrayed below. Aside from the power / camera connector on the bottom, there's nothing on any of the other faces of the C62. This makes it look and feel deliciously smooth, but does of course reflect the lack of an IR port, camera and other features. We'll come on to that later.
Build quality isn't excellent. In particular, the battery cover is flimsy and very difficult to remove, and the SIM card is only held in place by the pressure of the battery on it. However, because the C62 only measures 10.1 x 4.4 x 2 cm, there's not much scope for creaking or flexing. The C62 weighs in at 85 g - fairly light, but not exceptional.
Ergonomics
The buttons on the C62 are absolutely rubbish, and quite possibly the worst thing about this phone. The two selection buttons and the call buttons are the worst culprits: they're so pointed they're almost sharp, and even though they've got jelly-like key travel, they still manage to utter an annoying, cheap-sounding click when fully depressed. The directional pad is marginally better, although it is practically impossible to press 'up'.
The number keys are transparent, all different sizes and separated by chrome strips. They're not that difficult to press, although harder than we'd like, but are inconsistent in feel and are generally outclassed by anything except the monstrosity that is the Nokia 3510.
Good thing the C62 feels so nice in the hand and in the pocket, or we would have thrown it out of the window just for the selection buttons.
Features
The C62 doesn't feature several capabilities that are currently percolating down into cheaper phones: Java, Bluetooth, IR or a camera. The omission of Java games in favour of two mediocre preinstalled titles is surprising; the others less so. However, for a handset that claims to be multimedia, the C62 should be embarrassed. Only 600 kb of storage space is free on the phone, which can store 100 texts, a restricted number of phone book entries and other data.
Siemens have given the C62 tri-band GSM, Class 4 GPRS, MMS and EMS, a WAP 1.2.1 browser, 16-tone polyphonic ringtones and the ability to add a clip-on camera. All well behind the times, but better than nothing - so it's not all bad.
The screen is, though. Some reviews may have told you that the C62 has a good screen: they're lying. At 128 x 128, the resolution is standard for a low-end phone. But it's only got 12-bit colour (chosen from a palette labelled 'milky'), desperately uneven lighting and it seems to flicker when the phone's in use. It's not even good in sunlight.
The polyphonic ringtones are average, although outclassed by offerings from Samsung, among others. There's a vibration feature, and a silent mode that's so difficult to access we simply turned the phone off instead.
Other software features include a fairly standard calendar application, calculator, alarm clock, stopwatch, voice recorder, file system browser and the usual array of basic settings.
Performance
With poor features on paper, we weren't expecting much from the C62. Surprisingly, voice quality was good, and reception was decent too. Life from the 630 mAh Lithium Ion battery is claimed to be 250 hours, but we didn't get anything near that: around 72 hours, or 4 days.
We found the OS of the C62 unintuitive: although the main icon-based menu layout is fine, the T9 implementation is non-standard, and there are plenty of other little touches that annoy in daily use. Siemens have inexplicably (for a phone with no camera) placed 'new MMS' instead of 'new SMS' on the main screen by default, although there is at least the ability to customise shortcut hot-keys. Less forgivable is the sluggish performance all round.
Availability
The Siemens C62 is available now in a range of markets for $150 USD.
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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