I've had this great little phone for just over 2 years now and I still love it... it might not be top of range any more (not sure it ever was to tell the truth) but if you're not too bothered about all the gadgets that the latest mobiles have and just need something that's easy to use but still pretty stylish then this is a good one to look at.
Some basic info...
Dimensions - 109 x 46 x 21 mm - it's not a brick, but neither is it so small you can't see the buttons never mind use them.
Weight - 86g - fairly light.
Talk time - up to 300 min Standby time - up to 250 hours - My phone is now 2 years old but the battery is still great and only usually needs charging about 3 times a fortnight so is still able to manage this.
Display - 4096 colours, 7 lines, 101x80 pixels - ok, so its not great resolution, but as long as you're not banking on taking award winning pictures its fine.
Built in camera - this is a nice extra but I would definitely not recommend buying the phone just for this.
Games - to be honest these are pretty rubbish but then again no one I know ever really uses the games on their phone at any time but the first few weeks before the novelty has worn off. If you do happen to be an avid gamer you can always download some from the internet as this is a WAP enabled phone.
Polyphonic Ringtones - pretty good sound, but you can't design your own tunes.
Tri-band GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - can be used in America.
The look...
I think this is one of the big advantages of this phone as it really makes it stand out, even now that it is a fairly old model. It has a very stylish 'X' shape on the front... its pretty hard to describe - I'd recommend looking at a picture... Basically it incorporates coloured plastic to the left and right of the screen and the keys into an 'X' shape. Not only does this make the MC60 unique, but it also means
that the keys on the keypad are arranged in a circle. This means it is GREAT for texting... so much easier than other phones where the keys are in lines... in fact its probably the main reason that I have stuck with this phone so long - I simply cannot find any other phone with a keypad styled like this.
The menu…
With the touch of one button you go to the menu screen where there are 9 pictures set out in 3 columns and 3 rows. Using the up and down arrows to navigate it is really easy to quickly select the area you want to go to. The 9 sections are:
Phonebook - a pretty obvious one… it's where your contacts are stored. You can also go here to add, edit and delete them.
Organiser - The most useful features here are the calendar, appointments section and an area for notes.
Extras - This includes any extras from your network operator, an alarm clock (which fortunately operates even if the phone is off and is VERY persistent), a calculator, stopwatch, countdown and currency converter. You can also record voice commands for your contacts or record a ring tone here.
Surf & Fun - Here you have 'Games and More' (includes the Picture editor as well as any games) as well as the internet. This is where I have one more small quibble as when you select 'Internet' it logs you on straight away which I found very annoying when I first got it as I went in by accident and (it might sound stupid!) but hadn't yet worked out how to 'exit' anything (apparently it's the big red button… I just didn't realise!) and therefore wasted a couple of pounds credit before eventually managing to turn the phone off. It would be much better if it had a screen after you had selected that to ask if you want to log on… but never mind…
Camera - Pretty self explanatory this one… you go straight into camera mode ready to snap away or you can also select 'options' and review ones you have taken as well as adjust camera settings (see camera section below for more info)
Messages - here you can write SMS / MMS, review your inbox / outbox / drafts and also archive messages (see message section below for more info)
Filesystem - Here you can change your colour scheme (personally I hate all of them except light blue!), look at all your pictures (ones you have taken as well as those already on the phone), access your SMS archive and find sounds. All the data on your phone file info is also stored here… but its not really anything you need to look at.
Records - In this section you've got all the stats about calls you've missed / received / dialled.
Setup - Here you can change, edit and create your profiles (loud, silent, vibrate etc.) you can also change the display settings (language, whether you want a background, logo, colour screen (again). You can also opt in or out of as well as select startup and shutdown animation, insert a greeting, switch between big and small letters and alter the contrast and illumination. If you want to help your battery last longer then it's a great idea to reduce the illumination - I have and it definitely makes a big difference.
How well it functions as a phone...
After all this is the main point of a mobile...! The phonebook is pretty good with space for:
100 contacts (plus whatever your SIM will hold) 50 email addresses 20 voice activated names
Its really easy to dial someone, you can either just type their number straight in or you can press the down button and then either keep pressing down till you find them, or search for the first letter of their name to help you get there faster. The phone also has a speakerphone which is easily activated once you have either picked up the phone to someone else, or dialed a number - great if you're being kept on hold and don't want to keep holding it to your ear while you wait.
How well it functions for texting...
It has lots of great functions for making your texts a bit more interesting... including allowing you to change the size of the font, underline it and of course add pictures.
It stores a large number of texts (100 on the phone itself and then whatever your SIM will take) which I find is fine. This memory incorporates texts stored in your inbox, draft texts section, unsent texts section and sent section. On top of this you have the option to archive any texts you want to keep (whether they are ones you've received or ones you've written) into another folder, which is quite useful if you get any really nice ones you don't want to delete. Another great feature is that, when adding a contact, you also have the option to put them into a group (family / friends / office / VIP / leisure / hobby / private / others / none) which is great if you're trying to text all your colleagues or mates at the same time and don't want to have to spend ages selecting their names individually - you just select the group they are all saved in and your message will be sent to everyone in it - just remember that you still have to pay for each person it is sent to!
The MC60 also has T9 (predictive text) meaning that it's great if you don't want to spend ages pressing all the individual buttons to type a word. However, it is this that I do have one small complaint about. As with practically all phones with T9, not all the words you want to use are in the memory when you buy it - for example unusual names. Now this in itself is not a problem as you can easily add the name or word to its memory. However, every so many weeks it seems to forget the words I have added - even if they are ones that I use in practically every message. For example, I sign my name at the end of most texts, but even though it must be one of the words I use the most, it still keeps forgetting it! Ok, so it doesn't take ages to re-enter it, but it still REALLY annoys me!
The Camera…
As I said before, it's not fantastic. However, if you just want to take silly shots off your mates then it's fine. You've only got to press one button to put it into camera mode and then one more button to shoot, so it's really easy to use too. You can adjust the brightness (sort of - it doesn't really make much difference to the picture), adjust the quality of the picture (there's low, medium, high and premium but the better the quality, the less you are able to save) and also change the white balance (3 settings: automatic, indoor and outdoor). If you then save the picture you take you can go into 'Picture Editor' and make little changes to it… for example I gave my sister a nice moustache!... and then save it. You can then set it as your background or the image you see when you turn your phone on or off (so don't make it too scary!)
Durability...
I don't know about you but my phone spends about as much time falling on the floor as it does staying in my pocket. Therefore it's a pretty good idea to have something that isn't going to fall apart every time it gets a little bump or scrape. It's a fairly robust rectangular shape with no little bits to knock off (if there were I can guarantee they wouldn't be on mine any more!) and also doesn't look bad when it does get the inevitable scratch (or worse!). It also doesn't seem to mind the odd swim... trying to keep it out the rain I once decided to push it up my sleeve... only problem was I was wearing a denim jacket which had an opening just above the cuff on the sleeve and needless to say my phone shot through it, diving straight into a muddy puddle. However, apart from a little mud that you can still see under the keypad if you take the cover off, it was none the worse for wear!
Prices…
I got mine in January 2004 from the Carphone Warehouse on Virgin Mobile for just under £100 but you can now get a new one (unlocked) for about £30 - 40 on E-Bay… its definitely worth it.
In summary, it's a fab phone with lots of great features all packed into a very nicely designed cover. However, I should warn you that it has now been discontinued so if you like what you've heard you'll need to get your hands on one pronto!
Hope you have found this useful! Would really appreciate it if you could rate this and leave comments on how you would like to see it improved. Thanks!
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Advantages: Great price, easy to use, nice design, improved siemens keyboard Disadvantages: can't play mp3, low quality pic preview... but hey, not huge memory
markusstamina 27.08.2004 (27.08.2004)
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Review of Siemens MC60
Feb 24th, 2006
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