View Best Sellers   Release Date: Q4 2002 Released For: AT&T - Discontinued The Siemens S56 makes professional and private life easier. The slender S56 supports multimedia messaging service (MMS), which expands text-messaging capabilities with pictures, video, graphics and sound. With Bluetooth, the S56 allows consumers to wirelessly synchronization to other Bluetooth-enabled PCs, printers, and PDAs. The S56 gives people the ability to personalize their experience by making some of the most valued features standard... [Continue reading Siemens S56 Review]

Technical Specifications
Network:	GSM 850 / 1900
Form Factor:	Block
Dimensions:	101 x 42 x 18 mm
Weight:	85 g
Antenna:	Internal
Navigation:	4-Way Keypad
Battery Type:	700 mAh Li-Ion
Talk Time:	6.00
Standby Time:	300
Memory:	1 MB
Expandable Memory:
Imaging
Main Screen:	256 colors (LCD) 101 x 80 px
External Screen:
Camera:	Accessory
Audio
MP3 Player:
FM Radio:
Speakerphone:
Push-To-Talk:
Multimedia
Wallpapers:	101 x 80 px
Screen Savers:	101 x 80 px
Ring Tones:	16 chord
Themes:
Games:	J2ME
Streaming Multimedia:
Messaging
SMS:
EMS:
MMS:
Email:	POP3 / SMTP
Chat:
Predictive Text:	T9
Applications
Phonebook Capacity:	500
Calendar:
To-Do List:
WAP:	1.2.1 / Openwave
Voice Commands:	20 names
Calculator:
Connectivity
Bluetooth:
Infrared Port:
High-Speed Data:	GPRS (Class 8)
Wi-Fi:
GPS:
PC Sync:	SyncML
More Information
Website:	Siemens S56 Website
Discussion:	Manufacturers Forum

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Decent Phone

I've had this phone since November of last year, and it's been decent for me.

I do have some issues with it though..

The ringer isn't very loud, and the stock ringtones aren't very phonelike. I would have given anything for a ringer that sounded like an actual phone. I've completely missed calls that I didn't hear, or the thing just didn't ring for.

Mine apparently has had some problems with reporting itself as active on the network, as sometimes I can call it from a landline, holding it in my hand with full signal, and it'll go straight to voicemail, and never ring. This happened when my girlfriend called me, quite a bit.

The screen is pretty crude. It's old school, like the other reviewer noted. Newer phones have it beat flat out anymore. I'm quite jealous of her and her pretty-screened Motorola V400..

The ear-speaker volume is decent, but being such a small phone, it can be hard to get positioned right to hear decently. Another level or two on the volume for that could be handy.

Never switch it to speaker and attempt to put your ear within an inch of the ear-speaker, as you'll suredly need those extra volume levels to hear anything when you turn the speaker mode off. I've been guilty of this a couple times.

The stock games on this thing sucks. Mine came with a sliding puzzle game, and some tennis game. I found myself longing for Snake, off my old Nokia 5600 series, since it was somewhat entertaining. So, instead, I usually thieved her V400 and played Bejeweled to kill some time when I needed to.

Internet functionality is decent, but the small screen combined with bad resolution make it not-so-fun to try and look for any real information. You'd be better off just sticking to the default site to find anything.

It does have some built in organizer stuff that I meant to try out, but with the lack of any real sync setup, I didn't do anything with it besides put some birthdays in it..

I'm now shopping for a new phone though, because this one has taken to losing connection with the network and never regaining it until I turn it off then back on. Even with that though, it loses it pretty quickly again.

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56 out of 73 people found this review helpful

Great phone with few drawbacks!

I have the s56, the American version, and this phone is excellent. Great RF, very customizable for my tastes, bluetooth, POP email access, this is just a great phone. I have 3 comlplaints about this phone:

1. Screen resolution - Old school...would be sweet if it was 65k TFT.
2. Headset jack - Have to use a Siemens headset, not universal.
3. Bluetooth - Seems harder to pair accessories with this phone than the T68i or the 3650. Maybe it's just me, but that's the way it seems.

Other than those complaints, this phone's got quite a bit of features packed into a small clean package.

-xj-

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101 out of 132 people found this review helpful

Mediocre Review

I have had my S56 since Feb. of this year. So far I have had issues with the buttons, speaker levels and hearing levels, in addition to what the other two reviews say about losing connectivity with the network. The buttons don't work properly after I have had the phone in my pocket for a little while. The send button makes the ringer levels scroll down, if I hit the end button they scroll up. It is insane. Especially if I have to make an urgent call or take a call, there isn't a way that I can because the buttons won't work properly for at least a half hour.

I had AT&T reset the factory settings and it is still doing it. So, I am thinking in the next month or so that I will have to go buy a new phone.

Oh, and the craziest thing for me is having the phone off and the ringer go off as if I had an incoming call, there isn't a way to stop it. And I take care of my phone, it has never been dropped or hit on anything.

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22 out of 38 people found this review helpful