Among the cell phone models of first German and then Taiwanese manufacturer there were sliders already but Siemens SL75 is the first to open semi-automatically. Besides it is the first business class slider from Siemens. So far the sliders were intended for female audience pointing out design and appearance of the handset that is the glamour component prevailed and the functional one lagged behind. But now we have a real business class cell phone that besides its stylish looks has a considerable baggage of functionality. Not so long ago published Siemens S75 review so SL75 is the same handset in slider form factor. The main divergent features (not taking into consideration appearance) are:

• There is no IrDA in SL75
• There is no expansion memory slot in SL75
• But the integrated memory in SL75 is increased to 52Mb

It is not a secret that in business class the optimal formfactor is a classical monoblock, others that is clamshells, sliders and rotators are in less demand among businesspeople. Though I n fact SL75 is intended not only for business people but also for style lovers who liked SL55 and then SL65.

The dimensions of the handset make 92x48x23 with the weight of 99 gram.

The case of the handset, glossy and shiny, looks rich however the fingers leave distinct prints so the owner is to wipe the handset clean quite often. As it was mentioned above the sliding mechanism is semi-automatic so that a spring helps to slide the halves. The color scheme is a very suitable one: the silvery smooth inserts looks both respectfully and nice.

The slider can not be called compact but among its competitors the dimensions are on the middle level. The ergonomics is quite good due to the high quality material and roundish design. During the test one hand was almost always enough for the handset is easy to slide you move the upper part slightly and the rest it'll do itself. Actually there is only one problem while opening: the sliding part has no stop for a thumb so the fingers touch screen while opening the handset at first. Then we got accustomed to opening the slider by pushing the side part which is neither difficult nor unnatural.

The numerical keypad is situated in a depression with a silver trim framing it.

Due to the relief of the keys arranged in stairs way there were no problems with occasional pressing. The upper row borders closely with the lid but that is a peculiarity common for all sliders.

The navigation key is on the front panel together with two soft keys, receive/end call keys, music key and My Menu key. So the main functions can be realized without opening the slider. We did not like the ergonomics of the external block of keys at first for the finger often slid down from receive/end call keys but in some time you get accustomed to the key disposition and start pressing them quite confidently.

The backlight could be brighter: some keys are barely seen.

Additional buttons

As for additional buttons they are disposed symmetrically on either side of the handset. At the right panel there is a volume control, at the left panel there are camera and PTT keys. At first sight one may think that there are three keys on each side but in fact the middle segment is a kind of decoration having no functional task.

The keys pressing is very indistinct so you can understand whether you pressed the button only by the phone reaction. For those who do not know we'll explain that PTT is a function allowing phone to work in walkie-talkie mode (you hold the key and speak, release the key and listen) the difference lies in the fact that the phone uses either GPRS or EDGE to transmit that.

The display is the same as in Siemens S75: TFT 176x132 pixels supporting 262K colors. It is large, resistant to direct sunshine wide viewing angle are the merits of the S75/SL75 display.

Functionality

Camera is the same as in S75 both in chip and interface. The camera is 1.3Mp with the resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, flash and video filming possibility. As usual it is situated at the rear panel in the upper part right in the middle.

There is a mirror for self portraits and a very bright flash that is really helpful in darkness and twilights. The camera itself is plunged in the case which prevents it from being scratched but this disposition makes it hard to wipe the lens from dust.

Shooting out of doors is no longer a problem; there is comparatively little noise and almost no blurring. On indoor shooting the colors get distorted a bit, the quality is a bit lost but among the cameras of the kind SL75 occupies a rather high position.

As for the settings the owner is free to choose the resolution, color mode, name for the picture, brightness level, night/day mode, white balance, autoshooting and a folder to save the pictures to. Siemens SL75 has a 5x digital zoom though the quality of picture decreases in direct proportion to the #x.

You can also film video up to 90 seconds. There are 2 possible resolutions: 176x144 and 129x96 pixels. In both cases you can adjust zoom and brightness while shooting.

Siemens SL75 menu has changed since Siemens S65 a bit. Now there are 12 icons on the screen and every item of menu can be opened by pressing corresponding numerical key including *, 0 and # responsible for Other, My Files and Settings correspondingly.

As it was earlier the menu can be transformed into a list with 1 item per screen. One can't tell the menu became very beautiful though colorful animated icons appeared which is for sure a positive tendency. Also some changes appeared concerning the system of navigation. So you were to press end call key for back function now the right soft key is responsible for this, which is logical. There are several themes changing background and icons color.

Siemens SL75 has a standard set: SMS, MMS, e-mail. As to SMS: the screen shows up to 9 lines simultaneously and you can insert different smiles/icons/symbols in the text (there are 4 pages of them for you to choose). On attempt to send an MMS of more than 300Kb the phone starts revolting. As the matter of fact the maximum size of an MMS is 295 Kb. The e-mail client is as handy, quick and functional as always with business class Siemens handsets.

The phonebook is a kind of card index for every entry for each one includes 4 insets which feature the 1 st : the name, 3 phone numbers, e-mail, address, birthday a.o; the 2 nd : work information (place of work, post, e-mail etc.); the 3 rd : IM page; the 4 th other information not fitting previous categories. Naturally every contact can be assigned a ringtone, a picture and on demand a video track. The contacts can be divided into groups. There is a voice dial function. As we see the current phonebook is one of the best today.

The handset has 2 Java 2.0 games, MP3 player and a mediaplayer (3gp, mpeg4). There are 3 preset games: SeaBattle, Vijay Singh Pro Golf, Wappo2.

The mediaplayer is not similar to any of the kind. Whether it good or bad is not for us to decide so we'll just describe the way it works. First of all it is divided into 4 parts each being responsible for certain kind of files. The 1 st one is responsible for music playback, the 2 nd for playlist arranging and editing, the 3 rd for images viewing, the 4 th for video playback. Let's start with the player it works without any problems with files situated both in the integrated memory and in memory stick and even playlists can contain both types of files. As to the files SL75 supports MP3, AAC and AMR. Unfortunately there is no WMA support. There are no equalizer settings but that does not prevent from listening to the music in high quality performance. The player can work in the background mode. Of course the player of Siemens SL75 loses to the on of Sony Ericcson W800 but with the latter player is the main function and in SL75 it is secondary one which should not be forgotten.

There is a whole package of six programs installed:

• GolfScorecard : to fix the results of golf match;
• EmergencyPhoneBook : a list of emergency numbers useful while traveling and not only;
• DownloadAssistant : a kind of GetRight for cell phones to easy your life
• SurvivalDictionary : a list of the most used words and phrases
• CityPics : telling about European cities
• PhotoEditor : a usual editor of the kind

Nothing happened to the standard applications such as alarm clock, stop watch, timer, calculator, unit converter and receiver (up to 90 seconds only). Like the previous models Siemens has an integrated browser that uses both GPRS and EDGE which becomes actual nowadays. In whole for an image handset SL is well equipped but it does not make competence for business class.

The interface slot does not differ from the ones in previous Siemenses. There is no gag.

Unlike S75 SL75 has no memory extension slot which will be a minus in the eyes of those who like MP3 players in the phone. Even increase of the integrated memory up to 52mb is not a way out.

Connectivity

The second important difference from S75 lies in the absence of IrDA in SL75. Though we should mind that SL75 is business class only half blood. The second half belongs to image. Besides the sales package does not include USB cable which is not understandable for the phone is detected by PC as a Mass storage Device. Besides USB the handset has Bluetooth interface.

The small memory capacity has its plusses: as there is little if any possibility to use the handset as an MP3 player the battery lasts much longer. The average time of autonomous work with intensive use of the phone makes 3 days. Provided the handset is not so intensively used the battery will last for 4-5 days.

• nice design
• semi-automatic sliding

• no memory slot
• the gloss case is getting dirty

To our mind Siemens SL75 is something between image and business class. On one hand it can be liked by businesspeople (especially women) who want to have not a ringing brick but a stylish handset. On the other hand it can get friends among glamour fans who appreciate not only style but also functionality.