Siemens CL75 POPPY Review

There can't be many people out there that haven't noticed the sudden influx of ladies phones onto the UK market. The Siemens CL75 POPPY is hot on the heels of the Motorola V3 Pink , Motorola V220 Pink whilst the new ELLE Glamphone is just around the corner.

Whilst none of the above phones represent a major breakthrough in technological terms, they all share the same philosophy that the female population will be won over by the charm of the handset rather than fancy features. Let's face it, how often do you really need all of the features a modern mobile phone has ? We'd hazard a guess that it's not that often.

From before you even open the bright pink box that's covered with poppy petals, you know pretty much what to expect from the CL75.

Siemens look as though they've really hit the nail on the head with what could be their last ever mobile phone since the takeover by BenQ a few months ago. The CL75 POPPY is just right in most aspects. The dimensions and weight are 87 x 44 x 23 mm & 90g respectively - which makes it neither too large nor too small for most hands and not too heavy either.

The POPPY is finished in silver with interchangeable face & rear plates. The ones supplied are as in the picture, with a metallic pink finish with the poppy motif on the front and rear.

When you open up the CL75 the silver & pink theme continues, with pink numerical keys surrounded by chrome & further chrome navigation keys - All very pretty indeed.

The display, although slightly smaller than we'd prefer is more than adequate & doubles as a mirror too. The idea being that you can touch-up your lipstick & check your hair anytime you like. Resolution is good on the CL75 although it's a long way off the mark compared to something like a Samsung D600 - although that is understandable when you take the difference in cost price between the two.

The icon menu is very easy to use and understand & is aided even further by the large pink 'select 'key in the centre. One thing that we found slightly annoying though, is that when you leave the handset alone for a little while, the CL75 display reverts to the mirror and you can't actually tell whether it's still switched on or off. Only by prodding a key can you find out which it is. It does actually have a dedicated 'mirror' key though which we're sure the ladies will love.

The menu includes all of the usual array of icons - contacts, camera, settings etc which is all pretty straight forwards stuff. The keypad layout is great though, it has to be said. The keys are large, properly ordered & responsive - something that might sound elemental but you'd be surprised by the amount of handsets that have unusable keys.

The 2 games pre-loaded are very very girlie - "Angels & Clouds" which is a platform style game whereby you play the angel & sprinkle "magic dust" about - the other being "C' est La Vie!" which appeared to be a 'bird's 'n' blokes" saga that we really didn't want to find out about !

The camera on the CL75 was good & it records video too, you tend to get used to reviewing high-tech mobiles all of the time so the Siemens POPPY was a bit like a breath of fresh air - Simple to use and did exactly what was asked of it.

A couple of items are supplied as standard within the box to the CL75 - A hands free kit, which is becoming standard amongst most manufacturers now and also a 'mobile charm' which loops onto the phone and has a genuine Swarovski crystal embedded into the centre. You even get an instruction booklet with 'how to attach your mobile charm' in 6 easy steps included too - which made everyone laugh in the office !

The Siemens CL75 POPPY is currently available on O2 & SIM Free and you can view the full technical specifications here - Siemens CL75 POPPY