[REVIEW] SL91, Dreams in Space

[SandStorm]

Introduction

2006, the year this phone was announced. One dream begun, and many time we awaited for it, drooling so much, to the end be... Never released.
The hopes got lost with the German BenQ Mobile division closure (previously Siemens Mobile).
Then, only few samples of this last piece from the SL legacy in slider form (SL4x series were candybars) saw the roads lights.
Around 1000 samples, and I am one lucky bastard to own one now.

Lets spare the nostalgia, and come with us, in those dreams in space.


SL91 -> First Impression

First of all: HANDS CLEAN!!!!!
This phone is beautiful when shinny and clean, but if your hands are greasy and you touch it, then, shame on you, your jem gets all dirty and without grace.



Still holding it and looking at it, one true fashion gem, very glossy. 'Her' size is regular for fully featured sliders, fit well in the hand, but it looks a bit fatty.
This reason is because of the 3.2MP camera auto-focus mechanism. If this phone was from a lower class and with one banal camera, it would be slimmer. also, the 'fatty' appearance is some kind of eye illusion, because it is just 2mm fatter than Siemens SL55. We will evaluate it better in the design review.

So, decided to go out on a trial with this phone.
No one took their eyes off of it, when placed silently, and shinny in the work table, or in the coffee shop.

The owner is always temped to droll over his\her masterpiece, because real owners truly know all the history and value behind the SL91!



Let's ask some persons what they think about it. The first one:

"Vânia, workmate, female":
- 'Hey, your phone is d**n cool, looks so nice! But shame your sensor keys aren't soft to touch... You said is a prototype, when the final version gets out? The screen is brilliant!'

She got really sad when i told her it would never be produced because the factory closed...

Well, time to ask another person.

"João, workmate, male":
- 'Benq, i never went that much with that brand (...)'

We have here one complete sign of 'brandism', and maybe one reason that ditched BenQ-Siemens failure. His name killed it, he even didn't understood it was German made by Siemens.

Ok, one more time, we have a positive and a lame negative opinions...

"Alves, workmate, male"
- 'You shall find me other prototype like this one, i really like it(...) you can do that all with it?!'

Well, this old man was impressed by this phone qualities, fast video-streaming, surfing the web with opera mini, radio, etc.
First impressions from regular persons.

Ok, time to proceed, we got more people staring at me and 'her', let me evade from this place before they get it from me!



Design and Quality

Futuristic design, and classic at the same way. One pgone that will prevail simple and beautiful. And black, the trend from the modern years.

'Her' black case is made of plastic, glossy in the front area from all the screen area, speaker, sensor keys, leaving the navigation pad with his chrome surroundings noticeable in this plain surface.

We get glossy in the back too! Dominated by the camera ring, camera lens deep-in the case, and the dual grille for the speaker.

The phone side have a good grip, also plastic. It isn't glossy, and you see the only side-button of this phone. The camera button.
Also in the side, you notice one chrome surrounding from the front slider.

His 100g can seem heavy sometimes, because they are very concentrated in the mid-upper half.

Many can say the front part is flat and lacks style, but, the simplicity earns points here, because even in 2008, this phone is the top fashionable one, and isn't boring like the LG KU800 and the Samsung "phantom" looks now.

The assembly quality is good, had the experience when disassembled it, as the plastics are strong enough. Much better than many same-level phones. (N95 back cover? hint, hint, they are weak and breaky! Ok, ok, that one is a different segment)

But, there is also one bad point, if you try to "squeeze" it, you hear the back cover making noises, but, it won't break!

Besides so many points, this slider have the visual illusion of "fat" well, we say "it looks fat!" but when placed side by side with one SL55 (who remember this 2003 slider, so small and cute? none said he was fat) we see the SL91 is just 2mm if so, ticker than SL55.

Why this illusion? Easy! First of all, remember, one auto-focus camera have one large mechanism, so, they couldn't make symmetric sliding halves.
This, result in one very tick back half, and one extremely slim front half, making this illusionary appearance.


Keypad

Sliding keypad, camera button, navi-pad, sensor keys... Where to begin with? With the leds coloration, they are all white!

The front faschia navigation pad, is 5 way directional. A bit flat for insensible fingers, because they can slip from the center, but are stopped by the directional ring, so, your finger will never hit your belly.


The sensor keypad, is one different technology, like the one used from LG KU800.
SL91 uses "Force Sensitive Resistors" or if you want, FSR. So, this explain why we cannot see any buttons besides the navigation pad in the phone front faschia. They are sensitive to touch, at least, were aimed for that, but since this is one prototype, we have to do some force...
Yes, press them hard to work, it is a pity, but seems the more you use them, the less strength you will use next time.

As sensor keys we have the softkeys for actions, the call and hang call\power button, the 'C' key for characters deleting in messaging, and the task manager key who is able to switch between several tasks you are doing at same time. Long pressing this sensor, also opens the main menu.

The slider... Well, your phone is turned off, how you turn it on?
Dude, you cannot see the power button because they are hidden! Oh, and since the phone is off, they won't work, because won't sense force.

Ok, just slide the phone up...
There! Sliding this beauty up, when off, turns it on. One clever idea indeed, you will always slide it up to input your pin! And now, the sensor keys work again, and yes, if you long press the power sensor key (also for hang call\go back to standby key) the phone will shut.

Once you enter the pin code, you see the keypad leds lit in row until the phone finds and register with the network.
Also, while on standby, if you slide it up fast, you will see the leds will do the sliding movement too.

This keypad pressing course is very short, so, you don't have one real feeling if it was pressed or not, until you see the information of the key in the screen.
Besides the numerical keypad in the typical Siemens layout, we have one video-camera in the upper right part, while on the upper left, we see the VGA video-call camera.

Ingenious, this way the VideoCall cam is always protected, and since it is so deep, it won't be scratched.

You can also change shortcuts for both softkeys, for the numeric keypad (2 to 9, the 1 is reserved for voicemail) and also the navikey can have their own shortcuts, for the up, down, left or right press.

You can select those options as shortcut:

-> Speed dialing
-> Alarm clock
-> Applications
-> Bluetooth
-> Calculator
-> Calendar
-> Camera
-> Contacts
-> New SMS
-> New Email
-> New MMS
-> Diverts
-> FM Radio
-> Games
-> Google Maps
-> Google Search
-> Internet
-> Media Player
-> Message inbox
-> My menu
-> My stuff
-> Profiles
-> Record video
-> Remote sync
-> Sound Recorder
-> Stopwatch
-> Voice Dial

All the options one modern phone allow to be set as shortcut.


Display



2.0 inch QVGA (320x240) crisp and vivid colored with 16.7 million colors is a treat to the eyes.

You can twist it even to almost 90º and you won't see inverting colors. The colors are crisp and bright, and even in direct sunlight you will not have problems using it.

While in standby, you can see the network signal, battery indicator, gprs or 3G, active profile icon, alarm clock icon, BT icon, etc.
You can also see this status bar while navigating the menus, or doing other operations like writing SMS's. no doubt, very useful.

The standby screen, beside the described status icons, also show you the date and hours in top, as the provider network logo. You can simply hide it by using one image.

Still, all these features are common in the Siemens Brew OS, we are used from SXG75, and EF81 for example.

You can set his illumination by 10% steps, and even in 30% in a dark room, it is very bright.
Quality in every viewpoint, for sure.


Menu



12 icons menu, in 3x4 grid.
The layout the same as for the Siemens SXG for example, but with much nicer icons, matching perfectly the phone design.
Maybe one small difference between this and SXG75, is that the "games" icon is replaced by the "Google" icon, who allow you to open the Google Maps application, and to WAP search with google search engine.

Even simple design icons, and pretty in this phone you can see easily what they are meant to do, animated with violet pulsing background. Simple and effective effects, transform this phone menu icons, like the controls from one high-tech space-craft, even if is simple to operate.

Time to proceed with each menu section, lets examine it.


-> Contacts

no need to say, here is where you have your contacts list.
It is divided in four tabs, the "all contacts, groups, sim contacts, filter"

We will focus on the "filter" field, because here you can manage to only show the entries from internal memory.
This is useful to avoid the dupe contacts (sim and phone) from the first time. In my opinion, this "filter" option were better to the the first tab and not the 4th one, but, is a placement limitation from all BREW phones.

The group tab let you create new groups or put in the existing "family, friends, office, vip" groups. As usual, the very common nowadays.

This address book is very similar to the one used in SXG75, limited to 1000 contacts, and with loads of info to fill up. Several email addresses, website, custom identifying image for contacts, and even, video-ringtone field!

This video-ringtone will allow you, when the contact you placed one VR, to play one Video-Clip instead of the phone ringtone.




-> Call records:
Here you can see several information from all calls, dialed calls, missed calls, received calls, and the duration\charge field from incoming, outgoing and last call.

Once again, the tabbed navigation really helps in managing it fast.


-> Internet:



This is the favorite place from network providers, since it is here you can access the WAP sites (version 2.0, html supported) they give up. (Ex. vodafone live!)


-> Camera:
In this menu, you have the option for photo camera or video camera.

Camera
The camera take photos up to 3.2MP, and with autofocus.
The viewfinder is in fullscreen, and you are meant to take the photos with the phone in the horizontal.
Why? Well, then, the side-camera button will be easier to handle. Half press, and the phone enables the autofocus. When the red target square is green, the focus was completed, and you can fully press the button to take the shot.

The night mode is automatic, when the light condition is few, one star appears in the screen. Also, you can adjust the flickering, exposure method and even got one self timer.

Of course there is zoom mode too. The digital Zoom can go up to 8x and you can adjust the brightness from -3(darker) to +3(brighter)

You can switch cameras too. The main one, or the VC camera, limited to VGA. resolution.

Video
You are allowed to take videos up to 176x144 pixels (in both cameras), adjust the frame rate (15fps or 7 fps), flicker adjustment, etc.



Each clip can go up to 5 minutes, with out without sound. Zoom and brightness can only be set before recording. If you enable the message mode, then, only will be recorded the allowed to be sent in a MMS message.


->Messages:
The inbox put all MMS's, SMS's together. This fact can be very boring if you only have 2 mms's and 500 sms's.
Lucky you have the email field in separated tab as another for wap-push messages.
The maximum storage limit is limited to 500 messages
You are unable to send the messages to one archive, or store them in another place.



The SMS editor, is the same from the older brothers, and the MMS editor is simply perfect. The phone can auto-save the sent messages, but if you don't want so, you can disable that in the settings.

Email is possible, and you can have several emails accounts, you just need the settings to configure it.

-> Organizer:
Simple organizer with calendar (you can set there alarms, day view, week view, and month view.)
You also have one dictation machine, maximum record time shown is 150 minutes.
Time zones and synch is present in this menu.
Lacking the notes, as usual in other brew devices, but no not worry because we have notes in this phone!
It is a java application, available in the applications menu. At least, the lack from SXG75, E81 and EF81 was solved in this phone.


-> Google:
In this place you can open the Google Maps application, and to WAP search with google search engine.
Google maps uses the internet connection to load maps, and do manual offline navigation.


-> Media player
The same media player from SXG75, EF81 and E81, but, improved!
Divided in 4 tabs, music, videos, pictures and bookmarks.

The music player, finally have shuffle, repeal all, repeat one and normal! It scans all the music files on your phone, and you can play them.



Of course, you can create your own playlists. Now, time to give a try to the supplied stereo-headset.

This black polished SL91 headset have good music quality, and go up to the phone maximum 10level volume without problems.
Plus, this headset also have one dedicates scroll to control the audio volume. This way, you don't need to take out the SL91 from your pocket when you want to increase or decrease the volume.

So far, this headset only works with SL91. Tested it on E81, but didn't worked on that phone.

Videoplayer. You can see your videos in 3GP format, in fullscreen if you wish so. The same goes while streaming videos you bookmarked in the bookmarks tab.
From the two bookmarked videos, only one was able to play at full screen, even if both come from the mobile version of youtube.


-> Video Telephone
Here you can start your videocalls. Now, you are able to select your contacts from the list, instead of inserting them manually, like did SXG75 in this same field.



But this menu option is not worthy, because you have the videocall key in the slider keypad.
Here, you can select how to send, and receive the videos while on videocall.


-> Extras
Several options, like:
My menu, alarm clock, FM Radio, calculator, unit converter, sound recorder and stopwatch.

The my menu field allow you to have the most used features, you have 10 fields to edit with the function you want.
The Alarm Clock is as good as SXG75 one, you can set one different hour for each day. Like for example, Monday and Tuesday, you wake up at 07:00AM, Wednesday at 08:00AM, Thursday at 05:00AM, Friday at 10AM, and Saturday and Sunday, with alarm off.
At least this is very useful for someone with a crazy schedule, that trust the phone as main alarm clock.

The calculator and units converter are so good as the ones from x65 series, so, i won't be in big details here, and will mention that in the converter you have options for area, speed, volume, power, time, pressure, length, temperature, money currency, energy and mass. Pretty good in my opinion.

Sound recorder, it works with one well know format! It record your sounds in WAV.



They are stored in the sounds folder, and you can set them as ringtones.

The stopwatch do what it say, it is one stopwatch. With the left softkey you can set the laps time. At least there seems to not exist one limit for the maximum amount of laps, since I am already in the 65th one and keep counting. Missing the countdown, at least this option is important to me.



The FM Radio, supports auto-scanning and RDS system. You can store 10 audio stations.
The antenna for the radio is provided with the bundled stereo-headset.


-> My Stuff:
File manager at your demand. You can create new folders, move files, search files, etc.
And the tabbed navigation allow you to select very fast the memory card. Maximum memory for the user is 72Mb.



Here you access to all your images, sounds, videos, games, applications and themes, between one miscellaneous folder. This phone support trans-flash memory cards, up to 1GB

Games: -> Mozzies! The insane game to kill mosquitoes using your camera is back! way faster and better, compared to the SX1 version. You have several games options, and persons will look crazy at you while you 'shoot' at them, killing the mosquitoes and filling it up with blood! xD



Other games like the boring sea battle, and the "stack attack" (classic Siemens game) are there for fun. anyway, i had to install here the GemJam Fever, one recommended game, that comes installed on SF71 for example.

Applications: -> bluetooth control, this tool, if you have widcomm BT drivers on your computer, allow the phone to interact with it as mouse.
doc viewer and pdf viewer, allow to read word, excell and pdf files. mobipocket reader is a e-books reader, and we have here the google maps too. The so missed notes application for short memos is here!
Anyway, installed Opera Mini and eBuddy messenger to surf the web and chat with my friends online.


-> Settings:
As you might now, is in this section you can change the profiles, themes, ringtones (available for voice calls, video calls, alarms, sms's, email, calendar, shut down & turn on melodies.)
Inside the display option, you can change the wallpaper, logo, and the backlight time as brightness. Just missing the screensaver mode...
Also, power save mode is available to help you save some standby.
When it is enabled, and when the phone enters this mode, you can only use it again if you slide up, because the keypad gets deactivated. At least, one good implementation from this feature! You are unable to select your time-limit.

Inside the vibration field, you can configure it to different stiles, like None, standard Helicopter, UFO, shock, Mosquito and train.
The vibration is nice, as the strongest one goes for the standard one.

Connectivity, here you can configure the internet and connection profiles for different operator related services, like MMS or WAP.
Also, here you can see the data counter, as the Bluetooth operation.

The Shortcuts option.
You are allowed the shortcuts for all numeric keys, navipad and softkeys. The functions list was already written here.

We won't get in detail with all this menu function, since some of them are pretty regular. I want to note, that under accessories, you can enable the option to charge by USB cable. Pretty handy to give it a power when you don't have the energy socket to plug charger, when you are traveling with your laptop around. Just plug to USB, enable the option, and voilá!

Another cool function is inside the phone menu. You have the charging indicator.
When this is enabled, while the phone charges up, the navigation-pad leds fade-in and fade-out. Very stylish solution! When the charge is complete, they remain lit up.


Tips & Tricks
*#06# in standby allow you to see general info from your phone. The imei, your current phone number, in the first tab.
The second tab have information about your FW.
The 3rd one is the CC monitor, like the ones since x45 series.
The last tab allow you to do your device one self test.
Also, you have the hidden menu, with advanced settings, that can be accessed dialing 000000 in the standby mode.

Remember, do not forget the task button! you can switch so easily between tasks...




Conclusion

The most blazing design piece I ever saw.
One remarkable piece of taste, glamor, sensualist, desire... It had almost everything to win in the marked, but then, This phone is now one dream because it never reached the full production... Only 1000 samples...

And the dreams keeps going on...





Here you have one short video I did. Enjoy! (and hooray my 1998 Samsung tape camera!)

Download link:
http://www.siemensplanet.com/SandStorm/Imagens/sl91review/SL91.wmv



© SandStorm 2008, all rights reserved.

Thank you Iver, for everything!

[J.M.C]

Right, so you told us this is solid think to buy? What a surprise

Btw: Well done

[SandStorm]

-> I did this review as hobby, and because all the english reviews i saw are very poor.
Only buy this phone who wants. In this review, i don't say "buy it because is cool"! Anyway, I didn't bought this phone, I got it for free, so, lucky me.

-> Thank you.

[RDT]

I didn't know that there is Mozzies for BREW . This is the first phone, which has already installed some BREW applications, is this true?

EDIT: Of course, great review!

[SandStorm]

BenQ-Siemens E81 on FW47, 49 have mozzies too.
Not sure about SF71.

[J.M.C]

Damn, everyone around me are you lucky! Phone for free or found pocket with money or grandfather who gives to my friend motorbike I am sick of it

[SandStorm]

Lucky in some things, unlucky in another, don't worry mate, you will have your lucky day too.