Siemens M50 and MT50 mobile phones seem to be almost identical. The
differences are minimal, mostly applicable in a different design of
keys under the display and a different mask the phone is shipped with.
M50 can be purchased with either blue or orange illumination. We
preferred the orange one, partially due to the keyboard being also
illuminated in orange. Dimensions were estimated well, keys are not too
stuck together so users with larger fingers wouldn't experience typing
problems. The mobile utilizes a Li-Ion battery, which aided the weight
decrease to some pleasant 97 grams. The implementation of the Li-Ion
battery into a mobile of this class is certainly commendable. The
battery itself, according to specification, provides 260 hours of
stand-by or six hours of conversation at most. Since the manufacturers
like to overblow these numbers, you'll hardly enjoy them in reality.
The
mobile features a Java support, with downloading possible via WAP only.
M50 can be connected to a computer using a cable, since no IrYes
capabilities were built in. But, you won't be able to transfer Java
applications using the computer. You shall have to download them 'Over
the Air' using WAP services. To speed up downloading of Java
applications (applications mostly mean games here), Siemens had built
the GPRS abilities in. If you are a prepaid user (VIPme or Simpa), you
can forget about GPRS due to it's availability only to subscription
users.
Hoods…The
phonebook stores 50 numbers (a specific picture can be assigned to
every number) that can be grouped, together with those stored on a SIM
card, into four groups that can be accessed by double pressing the
phonebook key. A group SMS can be dispatched to contacts within the
group, and a conference conversation can be made. Eight profiles are
also available, and five of them can be adjusted at will. The feature
we liked best is that we could set the specific profile up so the
mobile rings only for callers from the specific groups by adjusting the
ring volume for specific user groups. The remaining three profiles were
reserved for adjusting the options during the use of the headset and
the car kit installation, and the so-called Airplane mode, used to turn
the mobile off and disable the alarm activation. It is a very useful
option, and you shall witness it's advantages by going to theatre or a
similar place where mobile ringing would be perceived as extremely rude.
Composing
messages
is a joy, thanks to a very fast software and a good keyboard.
There is also an option of a T9 predictive text input that can be used
for entering certain English (or other language – regretfully excluding
Croatian) phrases, turned on and off by keying the '#' key. Of course,
if you are exchanging messages exclusively in German, English, French
or Italian, the T9 feature can be turned on or off permanently. The
owners of the former Siemens models would be delighted by the following
feature: if you accidentally press the red phonehook key during the
message composition, the message won't be erased – the mobile shall ask
for your confirmation, whether you would really like to abort the
composition and delete the message. The EMS feature is also supported,
so you can compose the messages of up to 760 characters, format text
(underline, align, increase font size etc.) and insert pictures and
melodies to enrich your messages. Just be aware of the fact that long
messages are charged more than ordinary SMS messages, depending on the
message length. Besides the message-reserved memory on a SIM card
(20-30 messages), M50 features it's own memory capable of storing
another 25 messages that starts filling in automatically after the SIM
memory is filled. Besides those 25 messages, others can be stored in an
archive. The archive doesn't have a fixed size, since it shares the
storage with Java applications. The memory is limited to a capacity of
228 Kb (for illustration purposes – one message approximately occupies
only 0,49 Kb of memory).
That's not all…Lots
of useful accessories were built in besides Java support (the mobile is
shipped with two pre-installed games that can be erased and replaced by
the newly downloaded ones). Organizer can remind you of important
timings, greeting cards remind of birthdays, anniversaries and other
important dates, even the short notes can be stored. If you would
prefer to be noticed amongst the crowd, you have 20 ring melodies to
choose from, with the additional four that you can alter at will,
receive by EMS or download via WAP. One of 30 pictures can be set up as
a background, and additional ones can also be downloaded from the
Internet using the WAP protocol. The mask can also be simply replaced
per liking.
If you don't need the business mobile equipped with
loads of functions you will never use and if you don't plan on paying
too much for a mobile – take a look at M50, you wouldn't be
disappointed for sure.
Pro et Contra+ Java, GPRS, EMS
- Java only via WAP
