| Review of the Motorola Siemens S46 |
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I normally wouldn’t review an older phone such as this, which received FCC approval in the US back in January of 2002, but someone went to the trouble of shipping me the phone from the US (which I don’t even have to ship back), and so I just couldn’t refuse. Besides, I was interested in seeing if Siemens could carry the same level of quality throughout all of their models. Last Updated: 07-Oct-2005 |
Before reading this review, please read Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
The S46 is a GSM/TDMA phone, but I was only able to test
the GSM side. Rogers doesn’t allow any new subscribers on TDMA and I’ve heard
they’ll be shutting it down shortly anyway. On the GSM side the phone supports
1900 MHz for North America, and 900 MHz for the rest of the world. However, it
does not support GSM850.
My testing revealed that the S46 is very much like all the other Siemens models
I’ve tested, especially the A56, which I was
able to compare it to directly. Because of the strong similarities in test
results the review will be comprised mostly of comments stating just that. There
are some striking differences as well, and I’ll spend most of my time talking
about them.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: In terms of the phone’s ability to
pull in a signal, the S46 is just as capable as any of the other Siemens models
I’ve tested. It managed to pull in signals just as well as the A56, but it was
slightly less capable that my Nokia 6310i. The
difference between the 6310i and S46 (and indeed all Siemens GSM models tested
in the last few years) is very slight, and not of any great consequence. Like
other Siemens models the S46 also supports fast network searching, which ensures
that even when it looses service, it finds it again quickly (which CANNOT be
said of the 6310i).
Over-the-road Performance: This was one aspect
where the S46 didn’t seem to perform quite as well as the A56. Handoffs on the
S46 were definitely MESSIER and more pronounced than on the A56. Once again, we
aren’t talking about a major difference here, but the fact that there was any
difference form the A56 at all was surprising. So far, all Siemens models I’ve
tested of late have performed on par with one another.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Before I talk about specific audio capabilities I have to mention one aspect of
the S46 that directly affects perception of audio quality. Unlike any other
Siemens model I’ve recently tested the S46 has a fairly strong sidetone. The
term sidetone refers to the practice of feeding a sample of what the microphone
picks up directly to the earpiece. This has traditionally been done on landline
phones for decades, but what works on a landline phone doesn’t necessarily work
on a mobile phone.
Only a handful of models that I’ve tested over the years have had sidetone, and
in each and every case I’ve griped about it. This is because the background din
around you is fed directly to the earpiece and comes out sounding like NOISE in
the incoming audio. It is especially noticeable when the phone is used in a car
with a fan motor running, or when windows are opened slightly. It’s also quite
noticeable in noisy shopping malls and out on the street. There is simply no
excuse for this, and it is easily the single worst feature of the S46.
The following comments concerning specific aspects of audio performance are made
without taking into account the effects of sidetone. How much impact the
sidetone has on your personal perception of these aspects of audio performance
will depend largely on the type and volume of background noise around you and
your sensitivity to it.
Tonal Balance: Like all Siemens phones I’ve
recently tested, the S46 has excellent tonal balance, though it is slightly
lacking in low-end and so it doesn’t quite have the same rich tonal quality as
the 6310i. However, it sounds markedly better than just about 80% of all the
phones I’ve tested and it should satisfy all but the pickiest users.
Sound Reproduction: Also like other Siemens models
the sound preproduction of the S46 is quite good, but I found it slightly
coarser-sounding than the A56. Generally speaking however, the S46 does a very
good job of reproducing the various nuances of speech on incoming audio. That
isn’t true of outgoing audio however, as the S46 is decided muddy-sounding
compared to the A56 and the Nokia 6310i. Nuances such as “s” sounds are dampened
to the point of being almost inaudible. While your callers might find the sound
quite pleasant, they might ask you to repeat yourself more often than you’re
used to.
Earpiece Volume: Sadly earpiece volume is a problem
on most Siemens models and the S46 is no exception. While the volume is fine for
quiet or mildly-noisy environments, it just doesn’t have what it takes to hear
it comfortably in really noisy places. This is especially true if your caller
happens to be soft-spoken, or he’s using a faint phone.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: Ringer volume is also a problem in
all of the Siemens models I’ve tested of late, including the S46. To compensate
for this however, the S46 has one of the strongest vibrator-alerts I’d
experienced on a phone in ages. While it isn’t strong enough to feel through a
thick winter jacket, it can be felt through virtually any other type of
clothing.
Keypad Design: They keypad is very traditional in
its layout and it has easy-to-feel raised keys that can be used without having
to look at them. Each presses with a very resounding click sensation, and so
there is no doubt that a key had been pressed. The only gripe I have about the
keypad overall is that the key-clicks seem a bit too harsh.
One specific thing that annoyed me however was that they’d swapped around the
TALK and MENU keys. On virtually every other phone in the world the TALK and END
keys are mirror-images of one another on either side of the phone. The menu key
would normally be in the middle. Siemens put the TALK key in the middle and the
menu key where you expect the TALK key to be. While you might get used to this,
it’s a very odd arrangement.
Another thing I found odd was the use of 4 closely-spaced soft keys rather than
just 2. While using 4 softkeys does give the menus greater flexibility, I found
the arrangement of the choices and the closeness of the keys to be very
difficult to use intuitively. However, I’m guessing that after using the phone
for a while you’d become accustomed to this.
Display: The display is not a particularly great
monochrome unit. The backlight is an annoying orange color and the fonts are
rather weird-looking at times. However, I didn’t really have any problem reading
the pertinent information from the display under varying conditions, and unlike
many color-screen phones I had no trouble seeing it in direct sunlight.
Conclusions
I’ve normally come away with good feelings about Siemens models, with just the
usual gripe about low earpiece volume. Unfortunately the sidetone problem on the
S46 destroys any good feeling I have about this model. I can’t say that you will
find sidetone as annoying as I do, but if you do you simply won’t want to
continue using the S46 any longer than you have to. If sidetone isn’t a problem
for you, then the S46 is a decent performer, but it just isn’t quite up to the
quality of the lowly A56.
For me however, the sidetone is just too much of an issue. Even if someone gave
me an S46 for free (which actually they did) I still couldn’t bring myself to
use it unless I had absolutely no choice. Even my wife doesn’t want to give up
her A56, despite all of the extra features found in that model.
