Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Siemens SK65 Review (MobileBurn)

Siemens SK65 Review (MobileBurn): "When we first caught wind of the Siemens SK65, I said to myself what I imagine many people did: 'Huh. Why didn't I think of that?'

The the split body X shaped form factor seems so obvious to me now, especially after having used a Nokia 6820 for so long. But I suppose somebody had to actually think it up, obvious or not, and I'm just glad that Siemens not only thought of it, but actually did something with the thought.

SK65 Physical Design Make no bones about it: the SK65 is a large phone. It weighs nearly as much as a Sony Ericsson P910, coming in at 147g. It is long and thick, too: 123mm x 47mm x 22mm. But it still fits the normal candybar form factor, and as such, is very pocketable. The gloss black and matte silver finish is very attractive, but the black surfaces are very prone to smudging. The front of the handset is home of the large, bright 132x176 pixel 64K color display, the metal screen inlay speaker grille, and the keypad and controls. The keypad, though low on the SK65's body, is quite usable, has no odd quirks to it, and is lit with a soft white backlight. The directional controller, or d-pad, also works very well. It is both large and easy to control accurately. The dual softkey call control buttons on either side of the d-pad also work well as long as you don't press them too hard. Since the pressing on the top end of the keys is how you get the softkey functionality and pressing on the bottom the call control features, pressing too hard can sometimes confuse the phone as to which you wanted since they don't have a solid pivot point in the middle. But that really will only be a problem for button mashers."

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