Siemens CL75

I received this mobile two years ago and became the instant envy of all those who did not have a beautiful poppy design quite like mine. It is feminine-looking and would not look amiss with a majority of outfits or within a majority of bags, though very exclusive and may cause problems for men who actually like the design.

The mobile opens, imitiating, pretty much, a compact mirror. The main screen lights up brightly - useful when you're trying to find the keyhole to your car or door in the dark - and has a mirror sheen coating that enables you to discreetly examine your reflection, even in the busiest of places.

The keypad lights are blue and every button you will ever need to press in the dark is lit up for your convenience. You can enter the menu using a left and right button at the top of the control pad and navigate each sub-menu using a circular button with up, down, left and right arrows.

To make calls you press the left button with the telephone icon and to end calls or switch off the mobile or cancel actions you press the right button.

Bottom left button controls whether the main screen is lit or not and can be very useful if you would like the contents of your main screen private. Bottom right button connects you to the internet, though be careful not to press this and leave it for too long because it can be very determined to complete this action!

In the middle is a pink triangular button for selecting options on menus, whilst the number keypad below works as it does on any other mobile.

TEXT MESSAGES:
Wide punctuation menu and supplies accents for most foreign languages.

Writing a text can take longer than expected due to slow load time between options, such as View to Reply, and because running through individual letters (if you prefer not to use predictive text) is also slow. However, there is no danger of repeat texts, even if you press the enter button one too many times as the sending message icon is showing.

If you want to cancel a message you have just started, the menu annoyingly insists that you save it. But organising your inbox is easy, as if allows you to check certain messages and move them to folders of your choice, and to delete many messages at a time and only the ones you select for deletion.

To reach the text message menu quicker, it is recommended that you select it as a shortcut on the quick menu bar, which is located at the bottom of the main screen and very handy if you are in a rush.

CALLS
The phone book lists some important numbers for contacting your network service and arranges your contacts in several categories, like Friends, Family, Business, Office, etc., placing icons under each phone book entry to indicate what category the number is in. Other icons appear as you fill in information like home phone, office phone, address, e-mail, birthday, etc., and very useful if you want to browse entries that only feature certain information.

The signal is reliable and strong. I live in Aberystwyth, bang in the middle of the Welsh coast and still the signal is good.

However, the phone book loads too slowly at times, but it will make sure to ask you which number you want to call if an entry has too many phone numbers to choose from.

Volume for calls has five levels and different settings, though the louder settings tend to sound a little tinny, depending on the voice and the environment in which it is speaking.

CAMERA
Quality is satisfactory, considering the visual quality of the screen. It can take a while to settle down after moving it around too much, but it offers four different ways of presenting the photos you take, such as negative and sepia. Yet loading individual photos is slow and the actions Set As Wallpaper and Delete are too close for comfort - I have deleted many a good picture by accident because the cursor is that slow at moving from one option to the next on the menu screen!

A button is located on the left-hand side of the mobile as a shortcut to the camera function. Unfortunately, this is not as convenient as you would hope because the button is too easy to press and may take photos of the inside of your bag or pocket, if you aren't careful, decreasing memory capacity and possibly the speed at which the mobile functions overall.

CALCULATOR
I use this function a lot and have it as a shortcut on the quick menu bar, but I do not like the way it is laid out, making you select divide, subtract, decimal point, etc. using the circular button with arrows. This makes calculating sums in your head far more efficient!

GAMES
It has two or three games like a role-playing game with you as an angel character trying to avoid demons and collect halos. I disliked this game because the programming made it difficult to control the way the character moved around and was perhaps too advanced for the mobile.

Another game is a mini version of The Sims. Great, you might think, but it takes a while to load and does not look impressive on such a small screen with such low visual quality. Do not bother trying to play this game.

Games on mobiles ought to be simple exercises to keep the mind occupied for short amounts of time, which do not take long to load or assume that the person who owns the mobile has plenty of time on their hands.

RINGTONES
Mediocre selection and deliberately feminine to match the design. Audio quality is good, though. Especially like the real-life alarm clock tone.

CLOCK
Small screen on flip lid is a couple of minutes behind the time displayed on the main screen inside, otherwise accurate and in working order.

MICROPHONE
I did not read the instruction manual or even use this function for some months, and when I finally wanted to, it was a mystery to me how to do it. The microphone is located in the top-right corner of the back of the mobile, seen as two horizontal slits. Estimating the right distance can take one or two recordings, but the audio quality is reasonable, if not a little cloudy. Storing these recordings might take a toll on memory, however.

BATTERY
Rumoured to lose its performance after 6 months, but I've had this phone for over two years and it is still going strong - not as strong as it once did, lasting the maximum of four days before having to recharge - but going strong. If you have had a Nokia in the past, this battery will disappoint you.

TOUGHNESS!
I've dropped this mobile several times and it refuses to break. The back cover, which covers the battery, that is, can be fragile and easily comes off.

VERDICT
Not as easy to use as I thought it would be and certainly not as efficient. A good-looking phone, nevertheless, and seems set for a long life if you are patient with the slow menus and load time, and don't mind replacing the battery or not playing Snake.