Siemens SL45 sets a new benchmark in Internet-capable phones. It comes with an excellent manual which allows any user to work out how to get the most from this device. A CD-Rom enclosed with the phone comes as a detailed user-guide. The phone also includes a fantastic help facility within it. You have full-graphic representations of several functions, detailed descriptions of every menu item, all held together by active page links.
The Siemens SL45 has a logical menu structure and sensible arrangements of sub-menus. It makes for easy use of the SL45. The matt texture resists scratching from even the sharpest keys in the pocket and all the keys are well spaced. The screen is truly what sets this phone apart at first sight. The huge expanse of screen is well used and unsurprisingly never cramped. One of the neatest touches is the way the orange illuminated screen fades out on standby.

The phone is featherlight, the weight kept down partly by a relatively small 540 mAh standard battery which still seems to deliver a respectable talk and standby time, even occasionally using energy-sapping WAP and MP3. Despite the lightness, the phone feels sturdy in the hand and is well contoured.

Vital statistics

Screen size:
- 101 x 80 pixels/ 7 lines x 16 characters
- 30mm x 28mm (1.3" x 1.1")

Dimensions:
- 105 x 42 x 17mm (4.1" x 1.6" x 0.6)
- 88g (3.1 oz)
- 60-170 hours standby/1-4 hours talk time with standard 540mAh battery (1000mAh option available)

- 900/1800 GSM bands
- 32Mb standard memory on MMC card. Expandable to 128Mb
- 9 bookmarks
- 5 WAP access profiles
- UP 4.1.19i Phone.com WAP browser

Other features:
Modem (9.6kbs), vibrate alert, infra-red, 500 contacts (14 fields each), 7 games, currency converter, Dictaphone, combined charger/synchronisation station, T9, voice dial (20 numbers), MP3 player

WAP browsing

The large screen means that you have five lines of text to read in most WAP pages with status shown in the bottom line and page information in the top line. The bottom line neatly toggles between telling you how the connection or dialling is going. A press of the dial key brings up the well-structured menus for manipulating the bookmarks and browser.

The two greatest features of this phone are its MP3 music player and associated dictation facility. The MultiMediaCard capacity of this phone is potentially huge: with an 128Mb card you could have 5 hours of dictation. Even the supplied 32Mb MMC card holds around 40 minutes of music.

With the combination of features on this phone, it will soon become indispensable. You can kill time by listening to your favourite MP3 tracks, look up cinema times using the browser, check up people’s addresses or be reminded of appointments that you set up on your home PC.