Siemens CF62T Phone (T-Mobile)

Rating:
Summary: Cute little phone but Basic
Review:
Siemens CF62

When I got this phone I was skeptical about not having some of the high-end features that were already out when I bought this phone. I got it for 100.00 because I had to buy it without activation because I already had T-Mobile. But hey 100.00 is not alot to pay for phones these days...that is if your not activating them.

I opened the box and took the phone out and I charged it for about 1 hour and a half, and it was fully charged, thats not along time compared to my Nokia 3595 which took almost 3. I flipped it open and looked through the menues. I learned everything on the phone almost instantly. The controls are really easy and everything it set out great making it really easy to memorize where all the stuff is and just basically learn the phone.

I programmed my phone book and immediatly began making calls. The reception on this phone wasnt to shabby but the T-mobile reception wasnt as good as Verizon. I was able to use this phone as a PDA type thing. It was able to store peoples numbers, emails, and addresses including house and buissness addresses. I got 120 contacts in my phone book but that wasnt even half full. One thing I didnt like though was the fact that I couldnt do a custome ringtone to each of the people in my phonebook.

Something I liked with T-mobile was the Tzones. I was able to download many ringtones, wallpapers and games. The best part was they were only 1.49 and didnt take long at all to download them and unlike my Nokia 3595 it saved it to the right directory in the phone but with the Nokia I had to pick where to place them and I would accidently place them in the wrong folder so I would have to go back and move them to the right folder. The phone does take awhile to load the games and its a little laggy playing them too, o yes and the phone only comes with 2 games preloaded on it. Now also the games and ringtones and wallpaper are 2.00 so I dont buy as many.

Some of the extra features where not so extra and some where. It has a Call Log, My Stuff, Sounds, Messages and Settings o yes and Organizer. These all seemed really basic and something that would come on any phone from mid-2003 to present 2005. At first the organizer was a little hard to figure out but it wasnt something really I used alot so it wasnt a big deal. One thing I thought was cool though was the dynamic lights on the sides, it had a program to make diffent like formations and set how they should flash like when someone calls or you are playing a game or an alarm is going off, but the program was slow loading like all the games.

The design of this phone was OK. It was smaller and thinner so I acciendly dropped it a couple of times on the street and it worked after all that and it works still...at least I think I sold it on ebay. I like the caller ID on the front I could see who is calling before I flipped it open, so I could avoid people I didnt want to talk to. When you open it, it automatically awnsers so yea the called ID is nice. Also the lights around the edges are cool to look at and best of all you can customize the formation and speed of the lights and when they turn on and such. The keypad though was awkward to type on at first... but soon enough you will get used to it. It also has lights so you can type in the dark.

Overall I ended up selling this phone after 4 months, not because of anything bad, I just like the newest stuff, hence me buying a Sony Camera Phone. It had great features for a basic phone and it was very very easy to use and learn. It is a very tuff phone even it you drop it on concrete it wont break, just a few scratchs. I love the design and the lights around the keypad.


Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the bad reviews!
Review: Don't believe the bad reviews of this phone about a poor quality screen, poor interface, or the batter cover being loose. None of them are true! The screen is absolutely beautiful and displays colors so well, the batter cover fits tightly, and the interface and software are easy to navigate and use. The external screen is also fantastic, as it displays who is calling you without having to open the phone. The phone also has a calendar feature, and the reminders you set for yourself appear on this external screen as well.

The phone has tons of really unique features, too, like the ability to send voice recordings as attachments with text/e-mail messages. Plus, this phone can make its own ringtones with a built-in recorder. This way, you can have the latest hot song as the ringtone for your phone and it sounds exactly like the real song, and it's free, too!

I can't see how anyone would dislike this phone, it's absolutely awesome. I forgot to mention, the antenna is great, the clarity of calls is excellent, and it's so small and so inexpensive!

Rating:
Summary: Nice phone until you open it...
Review: I have gone through at least seven cell phones in my history wiht them, and this phone is definitely on the bottom of my list. The CF62T really opened my mind as to how bad cell phones can really be (even though the C3xx series from Motorola was much much worse).

However, before I can delve into my personal cons about the phone, it's a good thing to talk about the good things this phone has to offer. The Dynamic Light on the side of the phone is a pretty extensive feature that alarms you to certain importnat events like charging, missed calls, etc. Also, the speakerphone function is something not really seen in many phones, but it pretty much works in near silent environments only. The charge time of the phone is really really short (even though that may answer the fact that the phone's battery and battery compartment is badly constructed, which I will get to later). The sound quality of phone calls are top-notch, and it accepts self-recorded WAV and 16-chord polyphonic ringtones. The addressbook is huge and it is a pretty software-secure phone.

However, the cons of the phone outweigh the benefits by far (at least in my opinion). The first thing I noticed within the first couple of days of operation is that the phone is unbearably slow. I never really cared too much about the speed of the micro-CPU of the phone very much, but this phone really made its sluggishness very noticeable. The J2ME applications and pretty much every other good thing about the phone is severely impeded by the ridicululously long load time. It comes pre-loaded with games, but they are impossible to play because they simply don't load. Also, the volume of all of the ringtones on the phone are quite low, and in order to make recorded ringtones audible, sound quality has to be compensated severely, turning the ringtone into a long, incomphrensible screech. The GUI is also poorly constructed, since the phone gives no information about any calls received or dialed. The display of the phone is also sub-standard, since it is a CSTN passive-matrix and it can get very hard to see even in a clear environment.

Yet, the biggest and most important con above all of these is the battery. The reason for many of the physical problems of the phone is not because of its construction, but because of its battery compartment and battery structure. It uses pretty good Lithium Ion cells that can hold a talk time of 5 hours and a standby time of 36 hours, which is pretty low compared to many phones out now. However, because of the poorly constructed structure of the battery and the compartment that holds it, it makes the phone very unreliable, leading to many "crashes", restarts, and, potentially, many dropped calls. If you are trying to use the cell phone as a primary phone, keep in mind that you never know when your call will be dropped. Sometimes it will just blank out during a call for no real reason, and other times it will say that there was a connection error with the phone when, in reality, it was the phone that caused the disconnect.

Also, you should note that it's RF pickup is pretty good, but it will lose signal sometimes in areas that it shouldn't drop.

In general, I do not recommend this phone, since its downsides are present in the more important areas of the phone. There are many other free phones available on the market that are of much higher quality than this, so before making a final selection, think it twice.

Rating:
Summary: Serves what a cellphone should, and does it well
Review: I have owned this phone for 3 months and find it solid, robust, compact. It provides all the basic functions a cellphone should, without bells and whistles.

The Look: The unique, edgy appearance differentiates this phone from all other girly/roundish flip phones. If you are a guy like me who hates all those sissy flip phones on the market...

Functionality: (1) Automatically switches among GSM 900/1800/1900MHz. You will find this practical if you travel to Asia or Europe a lot. (2) The Calendar function is really well designed. It reminds you almost all kinds of events: "Memo", "Call", "Meeting", "Birthday", and "Anniversary". I especially love the "Call" function, once you set it up, the phone reminds you at the time you need to call someone. And when the alarm rings, all you need to do is to press the dial key and it dials the number automatically for you!! The "Meeting" can be set as different recurrence mode. for example, daily, weekly(individually m,t,w,th,fr), monthly or annually. Pity that the manual is poorly written so you might need to spend some time to play with it.

Talk Quality: This is what i take most seriously when it comes to cellphone. Who cares how many pixels the built-in camera has (i don't care if a phone can take picture anyways!), or how exciting the built-in games are if a phone can't do the basic things right: make and receive phone calls! For this, I give CF62T an A+ on the voice quality. Remember the good old times when we still use analog corded homephone (with respect to cordless)? CF62T almost has a sound quality like that.

To conclude, for its cost(i upgraded my handset directly from T-mobile for about $100), i am pretty happy with this phone. It does everything i need for a cellphone, with a little plus(the style and the practical calendar function). I would strongly recommand this phone to the smart buyers with practicability and style in mind.

Rating:
Summary: get something else
Review: I have so many complaints with this phone that I'm just going to buy something completely different.

Cons: the most annoying aspect about this phone is when it drops calls. It gives this piercing sound when it drops calls, and not only that, the person on the other end has to endure the pain as well.

The fact that you can't drop a call without opening the phone first. Part of the point in getting a flip phone is so that you can just flip it open to answer a call. However, since there's no reject button on the outside, I leave my phone on silent. Of course having the phone on silent circumvents any complaints about ring tones (which are terrible and don't allow rings for individual callers).

The time it takes to pull up any program. It takes easily a minute to just pull up the phone book.

Not having voice dialing. I mean speed dialing is ok, but when you're driving, voice dialing is so much more convenient. Furthermore, I can't seem to figure out how to change the numbers on my speed dial.

Standby time is about 36 hours, and that's if you don't fiddle around with any of the programs or make any calls. Talk time is about 4-5 hours. Also it only warns you a few minutes before the battery is completely empty.

Pros: the fact that the sides light up makes it easy to check if the phone is charging. My last phone wouldn't always charge when I plugged it in.

Having a speakerphone. Unfortunately, in order to hear the person, you have to keep the phone next to your head, which practically makes this feature useless.

Its unique antennae makes it easier to pull the phone out of my pocket

Having an alarm clock and auto shutoff are nice features.

On a side note: I have dropped the phone several times on tile. The paint chips easily, but it still functions perfectly.


Rating:
Summary: Best phoned I've used
Review: I must say I'm no expert in the field, but I thoroughly enjoy this phone, since my last one was quite the piece of garbage. Since I've got this phone (about 2 months ago), I've enjoyed the clear sound, the nice menu functions and the orange light that runs along the edge is ingenious.

All in all a great phone, and at $74.99 it's a STEAL. Great value. Very lightweight and has very good battery-life. I would highly suggest it.

Rating:
Summary: It is a great PHONE!
Review: It functions perfectly as a phone. If you want to make a fashion statement, you could do worse. If you want games, BUY A GAMEBOY ADVANCE!!!
The Contacts interface is more than enough, it has a separate Phonebook (for simple listings) and an Address Book (for beefier entries, homephone, cellphone, e-mail address, etc) and you can copy entries from the Phonebook to the Address Book. If you need more than that, get a PDA. It has got a very convenient speakerphone feature. It gets great reception in problem areas. It is small and light and since it is a flip phone you don't have to worry about sticking it in your pocket (no buttons to push accidentally and no need for the obnoxious Keypad Lock). The battery life is fine, if you consider that it only takes 35 minutes to charge it from 15% to full. You can't beat the price, especially for a Flip phone. If you want a camera, get a REAL ONE, because, fortunately, this phone does not have one.

Like I said before, if you need a PHONE, this one is just GREAT.

Rating:
Summary: no interface at all!
Review: simple put, this was like a blonde with NO brain (don't mean anything against blonde, but i just want to make a point)! i thought the design was cool with the little handle that is actually the antenna, but that was it! the interface was terrible, just like some of the users had said. it doesn't show detail information at any level. for example, if you look at your call log, it only show the number, that's it! no time of calling, how long the call was, etc. man, their interface was so simple, even I can write a program that produce more functions then this phone is got. so if you just want a phone, i mean like the one you have at home (even that is got more functions), then this is good. otherwise, any other will be better than this. have to say that nokia phone has the best interface functions available, but too bad they don't have flip phone, which is my #1 priority (though i'm begining to doubt that with this phone).

Rating:
Summary: No alaram clock !!!
Review: Warning! Do not make an assumption that all modern cell phones have alaram clock. This one does not!

Rating:
Summary: An eye pleaser, but fails to perform up to spec...
Review: When I initially purchased this phone, it was over the phone with a T-Mobile representative. I had never seen or held this phone in my hands before purchasing it, and boy was that a mistake! First of all, the good parts. When I first opened it, I was wowed by the beautiful casing and design. But as soon as I flipped it open, I was greeted by a rickety design that just feels so fragile that you're almost afraid to manipulate the phone's numerous controls. Several months later, I found that the phone was turning itself off on several occasions. This is extremely troubling because my cellular phone is my primary means of communication, both with my parents and my friends. For this and many other reasons, I cannot reccommend this phone to anyone. In addition to turning itself off, the phone's battery cover is constantly loose, and the battery capacity is just unacceptable. At the present time, I have just laid aside my CF62T and recommissioned my antique Nokia 3390, which works beautifully from the day I acquired it, two and a half years ago. Go figure.