Siemens S65 review

Keypad look: as made of glass

The keypad takes approximately one third of the front surface. Numeric keys are broad enough, but their height is smaller than usual. To differ single rows of keys, Siemens milled 2mm grooves between them, so less space remains for the keys themselves.

The user gets used to the keypad fast; keys are made of hard, transparent plastic

You have to get used to typing, I was fighting with typing errors sometimes; the keypad block should be a bit higher. Some keys, mainly in the bottom row, are swinging but with no impact on typing. Keys are made of a solid material; you'll appreciate the proper press.

Soft keys are placed just below the display. They are not attached on each other and control goes well with them. Concretely there are two keys with call functions, two soft keys with three dots and a key below the joystick. This key is assigned to access WAP and it's not possible to change it. When you return back to the menu, e.g. to the messages, to-do list or notes, the phone offers you to continue your work, so you won't lose anything.

Five directional joystick and soft keys

The five directional joystick is accurate, Siemens embedded it below the level of the surrounding surface. There is a circle hollowed out around the joystick but just to tease it is not enough, you must press it with your finger. Pressing the joystick opens the main menu, single directions have fixed assigned functions: address book, camera, ringing profiles and events list (messages, missed calls etc.)

What else?

On the left side of the phone you can find only infrared port, rocker switch is placed untraditionally on the right side. You control the volume during a call with it, but in a standby mode both its directions are used for running the set functions. Down direction is assigned as default to the camera, up direction can be set.

Only infrared port window is placed on the left side

You can assign a special function also to both soft keys and to numeric keys 2-9. Siemens is still using quite illogical way of activation, by holding the button or pressing it twice. By pressing it once shortly it runs the selection of set function. I've never understood why it's not conversely.

Upper part of the handset with a holder outlet • rocker switch on the right side

The black component with a well in the upper part of the handset is used for placing the phone in the holder. The outlet for fixing a strap is in the bottom part; you can get there when you remove the rear cover. Under the cover you'll see a Li-Ion battery and a SIM card under the battery - contrary to some of the previous Siemens phones it's removable. I can't say more than the official values about the battery duration: in standby mode the phone lasts up to 250 hours or you can call for 300 minutes. Battery gets fully charged in about two hours.

Back elevation on the phone • removed battery cover • SIM card placement

External antenna connector is defacing the back part of the phone; Siemens should cover it with some suitable plug. In the middle there is a digital camera lens. Cover slide of the lens is hidden deep under the surrounding surface; I wonder how hard will it be to clean it from possible dirt.

Camera lens and the external antenna connector.

System connector is the same as with other new Siemens phones. Above the connector there is a small door that many people discussed about, when there were only pictures with no technical specification available. The memory card goes there.

Bottom part of the handset with the system connector