Water seeping into back of phone through battery cover
Sales package (should
contain):
1 x ME45 handset
1 x ME45 standard battery (Li-Ion @ 840mAh)
1 x ME45 charger
1 x ME45 data cable (serial)
1 x ME45 application CD
2 x ME45 external antenna & base adaptor plugs set
1 x ME45 user guide
1 x ME45 quick start booklet
1 x ME45 GPRS supplement (multi-lingual)
1 x Siemens warranty information leaflet
Overview
This is not just simply another phone. The ME45 is a phone that bundles various features together that has yet been offered by other manufacturers so far. In addition, the phone is friendly to the hand (that is, good to hold) whilst weighing in at just under 100 grams, and adopts the standard Siemens menu system which, again, is easy to use. Good for those who have used the SL45 - but getting use to it is not a hassle.
A selling point of this phone is that it is protected against dust, bumps and water. The first thing that many of us would picture is this big, bulky handset that does just that. But the problem is that it’s just not feasible to take something around which is significantly larger than those used by other people (I am referring to the phone, of course :). Fortunately, the ME45 solves this problem with the phone being sized similarly to a Nokia 3310.
Yes, I did try to “bump it” and “soak it”. The phone is very rigid and solid, and before we even wanted to do some intentional damage to it, we knew that it would take any beating we gave it. On the other hand, when we tried splashing the phone with water, we found that some water had leaked through the battery cover (which was already insulated with a rubber sealing). Other places, such as the external antenna port and the base connectors, had the provided rubber sealants protecting these areas with no problems.
Having received the ME45 for review and doing an initial charge of the battery, I was ready to go trying out what the phone has to offer. The keypad was quite tactile and responsive to my keystrokes and the clicking key sounds gave me that assurance. And after not attending to the phone for a while, the screensaver comes on - featuring an analogue clock depicting the current time, and is very easy to read (a very useful function indeed).
"The
keypad was quite tactile and responsive to my keystrokes and clicking key
sounds gave me that assurance"
After the phone logged onto the network, the first thing I noticed was the words “GPRS” on the top of the screen. The availability of the GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) on the ME45 is another feature that I welcome with open arms - showing that Siemens is responsive to the needs of the market at the right time. I had the urge to try that out immediately - and logging onto the service was a breeze thanks to the preset WAP profiles that had already been loaded on (the unit tested had profiles for Optus, Telstra, Vodafone Australia and New Zealand available). Browsing the Telstra WAP pages through its GPRS service was fast in comparison to similar handsets that I have previously reviewed. Also, the 7-line display and the WAP page presentation by the browser made it easy to use and read the information received.
The ME45 also boasts a speakerphone feature that allows conversations to be conducted with the phone placed close to the user. Sound quality was good and I didn’t need to shout too loud to have the other person hear what I’m saying. This is another feature that I find useful if I had no hands to hold the phone (like when I’m under the table trying to fix something!)
The Li-Ion battery that comes with the ME45 allows for an average standby time of approximately 4-5 days and average talk time of 3-4 hours. As the battery has just completed only one charge cycle, these times will increase as more charge cycles are done.
Other features of the ME45 includes a voice recorder (or Dictaphone) function that allows around three minutes of recording, voice functions, WAP browser, profiles, two games, stopwatch and countdown timer, infrared port, EMS support, organiser functions, a dynamic phonebook, and a synchronisation feature linking the phone’s organiser with MS Outlook.
Overview (Page 1)
