The Phone

The design of the SX1 is different, although it is now not the only phone with sidekeys it was one of, if not the, first to be announced. Despite the innovative design the SX1 is a very similar size and weight to both the Nokia 6600 and Sony Ericsson P900.

The SX1 is very similar in size to other current Symbian OS smartphones.

The SX1 has a sophisticated feel and sits well in the hand. Keeping all the main controls, joystick, softkeys, call buttons, cancel and shift key together makes the SX1 easy to operate with either hand. The keyboard does take some getting used to, Siemens obviously realize this and one of the built in games, TypeGun, is designed to help user learn the keyboard. But like the Nokia 3650 the keyboard is going to be very much a matter of personal taste. For those who have never mastered touch typing on a normal phone keyboard the SX1 may be easier to use, given the letters are in a straight alphabetical order, however the keyboard will probably be a deterrent to those who know their way round a standard keyboard. The hardest part of using the keyboard is deciding on how to hold the phone when texting, evenly between two hands or mainly in one hand. We came to no firm conclusions which was best during the review.

Deciding how to hold the SX1 while texting is not easy.

Once you get used to it the keyboard is easy enough to use, although the clear key is inconveniently placed if you hold the phone in one hand while typing.

On the outside the other main feature of the phone is the MMC card slot. While it is necessary to run an option in the Memory application, found on the Extras menu, to swap a card it is much easier than having to virtually dismantle the phone which has been the case to date with Nokia's Series 60 phones, but recently fixed in the N-Gage QD.

The memory card can be easily swapped but does require a utility to be used.

Shortcut buttons are also provided to the Camera and the voice dial or handsfree functions depending on whether a call is active or not. The SX1 is turned on with the end call button.

Phone Home

The SX1 starts up in the phone or standby screen. Straight away it can be seen that Siemens has differentiated the SX1 from "standard" Series 60. (Strictly the phone screen is not part of the Series 60 platform but it does show Siemens are applying their own thinking to the use of Series 60.)

The SX1's phone screen is uniquely Siemens.

Firstly the icons style are quite sophisticated when compared to the more matter of fact icons used by Nokia. But more significantly the phone screen is far more functional than the equivalent phone application on Nokia's Series 60 phones. This is because it provides 15 shortcuts from the keyboard, softkeys and joystick. The out of the box the shortcuts provided are, dial to voice message on the 1 key, access to Calendar on 3, Messages on 4, Web on 8 and World clock on 9. The Radio and Video player can be accessed via the soft key buttons. The * key provides a switch between the Mute and General profile while the # key locks and unlocks the keypad. Moving the joystick up provides access to the call log and moving it down, or selecting, opens the contacts application. All the number and softkey assignments can be set up by the user (except for 0 which on a long key press gives the international call + sign) however only the assignments on the 3, 4, 8 and 9 keys get identified with icons.

The owner can set the phone screen shortcuts.

Applications

From the phone screen you naturally move to the menu using the page button, which is centered below the joystick. Here all the SX1's functions can be accessed. As many of them are standard Series 60 functions, such as call logging, messaging for SMS, MMS or email, diary, calendar, contacts and setup features, we will look mainly at the differences.

The main menu gives easy access to the SX1's built in and use installed applications.

Browsing

Before we look at the Siemens applications it is worth noting that the only web browser provided is the standard Series 60 Platform one, which is limited to browsing WML and XHTML Mobile Profile (MP) pages. This is a disappointment as it limits the sites that can be visited, however Opera or NetFront can be easily added to improve the web experience.

Imaging

The imaging applications are grouped under their own menu. Siemens have made much of the SX1's imaging capability, particularly the Video.

The camera is basicly "point and shoot" with no adjustment features such as a night or indoor mode found on some other phone, however the automatic adjustment seems to cope well with most situations.

The camera taking a Standard sized photo.

The images can be captured as 80x96, 160x120 or 480x640 pixels in High, Normal or Basic quality. One interesting feature is that the full sized picture (480x640) is in portrait mode rather than the more conventional landscape. The smaller images are cropped and scaled versions of the full picture, meaning they cover a smaller field of view.

A comparison of the three sizes for captured images.

The images are amongst the best we have seen so far from a VGA camera phone.

The video recorder is supplied by PacketVideo and works well but is limited to recording short clips with a maximum length of one minute. It has two quality modes High and Standard plus the ability to limit clips to a length suitable for MMS (10 seconds in High mode, 21 seconds in Standard). The player also includes a full screen replay option.

Taking a video which can be replayed using the whole screen.

RealPlayer is also provided, which provides a second video play back capability, and the ability to view and listen to streamed content, although without a full screen option.

One interesting extra is the Image Fun application. This application allows the user to add captions, borders or icons to images and blur or distort them. Images can also be created from scratch with the supplied icons and text bubbles.

Image Fun allows the user to get creative with their pictures.

Personal Information Manager

Getting a little more serious the calendar, task and notes applications are collected on the Organiser menu. In addition to the standard applications there is also a Today screen.

The Today application is limited but handy aid.

The Today screen is fairly basic, for example it only has the option to display a list of all current and future tasks or a single summary line, just listing today's tasks would have been useful. None the less a useful extra which would benefit from being added to the phone screen shortcuts.

The Voice Memo function is included in Organiser menu and it is worth noting that it can record memos of up to 2 minutes (the Nokia Series 60 implementation is 1 minute). This seems like an odd change as our experience suggests most voice memos are usually well under a minute in length and two minutes will be of limited use to those who would like to see the ability to record a memo of any length.

Just for Fun

The entertainment applications include an FM Radio, MP3 player and a selection of games. The FM radio only works only with the headset attached a natural limitation with the need for a longer aerial for FM Radio reception than the one built in to the phone. Up to six stations can be preset to the sidekeys and given labels.

The FM radio can store six preset stations.

The performance of the radio was good and did not appear to unduly drain the batteries. The MP3 player also provides good sound quality and a simple but effective playlist with the ability to reorder tracks.

The MP3 player is basic but lets the owner take their favorite music with them.

Sound quality from both applications is excellent over the headphone. Using the speaker the sound is also good (given the natural limitations on small speakers) but is only available for use with the MP3 player. The quality of the sound is helped in part by the fact that it uses the front mounted ear speaker.

Three games are provided as standard, Setris, a Tetris clone, TypeGun, something of a competitive keyboard tutor, and Mozzies. Mozzies uses the live camera feed as the game background. To target the Mozzie eliminator the phone needs to be waved around as the Mozzies move relative to the background image, this means that the game amuses not only the phone's owner but also any passers-by who will wonder what this strange person is doing waving their phone about. Setris includes a two player option over Bluetooth, Bluetooth is also harnessed for a text chat function.

Setrix, Type Gun and Mozzies provide a good combination of game styles.

Other Handy Extras

The last couple of additional features come in the Extras menu. Here there is a full file manager and a World Clock application.

File Manager lets the user access and manage their files right on the phone.

The SX1 has a sense of geography, a significant improvement over other current Series 60 phones particularly for the mobile professional. The World Clock displays the time in two cities in addition to the phone's current home. It also provides multiple alarms, which is much better than the one alarm provided as standard by Series 60.

World Clock and multiple alarms will be useful for travelers.

Connectivity

When it comes to local connectivity the SX1 is provided with USB, Bluetooth and Infrared connectivity options, all of which workedd well during our testing. The most obvious use of these local connection options is to access the PC Data Suite which provides the capabilities to backup, restore and synchronize the SX1, as well as copying photos and MP3s. Full access to the SX1 via Explorer is also provided. One very handy feature is the messaging application which allows SMS and MMS messages to be managed, created and archived on the PC. There is also a GPRS modem setup assistant, shortcut to Siemens on the Web and a photo editor.

The Messages application means messages can be composed on a PC and sent via the phone.

Conclusion

Overall the Seimens SX1 is a well featured phone with a unique design and distinctively styled user interface. It certainly shows that a Series 60 phone does not have to simply be a Nokia clone. The sidekey design will be a deterrent to some buyers and, although the keyboard is easy to master, the two handed typing will be a big negative for avid texters. The biggest disappointment is the lack of Opera or Netfront browsers as standard, but these can be added easily. Even so the SX1 is technology with style.

More information on the SX1 can be found here on www.siemens-mobile.com