Mobile devices Toolkit

Siemens announces new handsets

Reuben Lee CNETAsia

Published: 18 Jun 2004 11:45 BST

The German phone manufacturer yesterday added two new fashion handsets to its European and Asian line-up this year, the SL65 slider phone and CFX65 clamshell.

At a regional press event held in Singapore yesterday, Siemens announced the CFX65 which is the German handset maker's first clamshell phone with integrated camera, while the elegant SL65 retains the slider model of the popular SL55 but with improved features.

"With the SL65, Siemens mobile continues to successfully combine design with state-of-the-art technology and the SL65 provides a worthy successor to the acclaimed SL55," said Joe Weller, Siemens' executive vice president for the mobile phones division in ASEAN, India and Pacific.

Targeted squarely at trendsetters and adopters, the SL65's most notable enhancement is the integration of an onboard digital camera which can be used to snap images of up to 640 x 480-pixel resolution. The camera doubles as a video recorder that lets users capture short 11-second video clips.

According to Siemens, the 10.3MB of onboard memory on the SL65 can store up to 100 video clips and more than 200 VGA snapshots.

What is lacking are an integrated flash unit and Bluetooth, two features found increasingly in the latest mobile phones these days. However, Siemens will be offering a flash attachment bundled as a standard accessory. The Siemens SL65 is expected to be available in various parts of Europe and Asia from September.

Meanwhile, the more fun-going CFX65 sports a loop antenna and a two-display design similar to the recently launched CF62. There is, however, an onboard camera and flash module, a first on a clamshell for the German manufacturer. Siemens claims the flash LED can also double as a torch.

Weighing just 88g, the CFX65 features a unique case that appears in different colours under different lighting conditions. Other noteworthy features include a 65K-colour display, 40-chord polyphonic ring tone, hands-free option and Java support.

At the launch, Siemens also showcased some of its concept phone products. One of them is a redesigned SX1 phone which projects a keyboard image onto any flat surface for text input into the phone, while the much-publicised Pen Phone translates handwritten notes into numbers and text entries. For ZDNet's review of the original SX1, click here.