Introduction

At first glance the Siemens S55 looks quite familiar. Not because you've seen in before. But that it looks oddly like the specs of the Sony Ericsson T68i.

For quite some time now, T68i users have grumbled about the lack of polyphonic ring tones, and J2ME games. Well... the S55 has both, and then some. Add to that full email client support and a hefty organizer and suite of applications and this phone packs quite a punch.

Design

In many ways the Siemens S55 is very similar to the Sony Ericsson T68i; from its color screen to Bluetooth to MMS. However if you take a closer look you'll notice that Siemens has taken the T68i's winning model and improved on the T68i's major flaws. Siemens added J2ME compatibility, a loudspeaker, and 16 instrument polyphonic ring tones. On the outside the S55 doesn't look all that impressive, but its strength lies on what it can do rather than how it looks.

While it's improved much of the T68i's drawbacks, other phone manufacturers have pushed the expectations of cellular phones forward. And much of the features that made the T68i so popular is now outdated. Siemens has failed to follow some of the changes and has stuck with technology of the past.

On a bright note, the S55 connects with an incredible amount of options. Infrared, and Bluetooth makes synchronization and transferring a breeze. Whether its downloading images and ring tones to your phone from a computer, or synchronizing your contacts and email.

One thing the S55 excels over all the competitors is its included digital camera accessory. You might want to consider it if you like the idea of a camera phone. The camera has the ability to take pictures at 640 x 480 pixels on high resolution. But what really sets it apart from the rest is it's built in flash. No longer will your pictures be dark and grainy.

Screen

The S55 comes with a 256 color 101 x 80 pixel screen. It's very similar to the Sony Ericsson T68i screen. While we praised the screen of the T68i, this falls short of expectations. Not because it's inferior, in contrary the S55 has a much better screen that the T68i. But that most phones coming out these days are 4,096 to 65,000 color screens.

The problem with DSTN screens are that ghosts often show up. A ghost is when the screen quickly changes and the residue of the previous screen is left for a brief moment on the new screen. It won't pose problems when you're using applications, however when you're playing fast action games, you might become a bit annoyed. The other drawback is in sunny conditions, you might have trouble reading your screen.

Controls

Siemens decided on a fairly standard keypad layout for the S55. Nothing radical. Not much can be said about the controls except that it's pretty standard. The design is clean and functional, so text messaging should by like you remember. The S55 also uses a 4 direction keypad for controlling the icon menu screen.

Battery

A 700 mAh Li-Ion battery is used with the S55. Siemens claims the battery will work for 6 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby, however those numbers are maximum times. Realistically the times are much lower.

Minimum Rated Standby Time: 175 hours
Minimum Rated Talk Time: 230 minutes

When reading our reviews, you should view the test results of mobile-phone battery talk time and standby time as relative information only. Some quote expected battery life ranges, and in this case you're probably safe to assume you'll experience at least the minimum rated range.

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