The Siemens SL45 was the first

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

with memory expansion and an MP3 player, which debuted in 2001. An improved version, the SL45i, was also the first phone to have a

Java virtual machine A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a virtual machine that enables a computer to run Java programs as well as programs written in other languages that are also compiled to Java bytecode. The JVM is detailed by a specification that formally describes ...

. In addition to the MP3 player, SL45 offered other advanced features such as dictaphone with several hours of recording time, auto responder, voice dialing and voice commands,

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browser, and context sensitive help in several languages. Other software include calendar/organizer, alarm clock, stopwatch, calculator, currency converter and games. While the SL45 was one of the most advanced phones in its time, it was also one of the smallest.

Versions

The Siemens SL45 came in three versions: * Siemens SL45 - original edition, with a 32 MB memory card, sync station and stereo headphones in the package * Siemens SL42 - a cheaper version introduced later, with a 16 MB memory card and no sync station or headphones * Siemens SL45i - a version with a new firmware with

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support, and a slightly stronger battery These three phones are electronically identical, and the SL45i's firmware can be installed in the SL42 and SL45, thus enhancing them with a Java virtual machine.

Features and specifications

* Physical dimensions ** Dimensions: 105 mm x 46 mm x 17 mm ** Weight: 88 g * Processor ** Siemens/Infineon

C166 The C166 family is a 16-bit microcontroller architecture from Infineon (formerly the semiconductor division of Siemens) in cooperation with STMicroelectronics. It was first released in 1990 and is a controller for measurement and control tasks. It ...

*** 13 MHz during standard operation and MP3 playback *** 26 MHz when Java midlet running * Battery ** Li-Ion 540 mAh (SL42 and SL45) *** up to 170 hours of standby *** up to approx. 5 hours of audio playback *** up to 240 minutes of conversation ** Li-Ion 650 mAh (SL45i) *** up to 230 hours of standby *** up to 330 minutes of conversation * Communication ** dual-band GSM: EGSM 900 MHz / GSM 1800 MHz ** support for

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

sending and receiving **

1.1 through CSD ** CLID functionality ** conference call support * Memory **

MultiMediaCard The MultiMediaCard, officially abbreviated as MMC, is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. Unveiled in 1997 by SanDisk and Siemens, MMC is based on a surface-contact low pin-count serial interface using a single memory stack subs ...

slot ** 32 MB card included (SL45 and SL45i) ** 16 MB card included (SL42) ** known to work with at least 1 GB cards * Display ** graphic monochrome, 101 x 80 pixel ** can contain up to 7 lines of text ** orange backlight * Sound ** monophonic ringtone support ** 39 standard ringtones ** up to 3 custom ringtones in internal memory ** ringtone composer ** reads ringtones in standard

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

file format from memory card ** MP3 digital audio file player with

ID3 ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself. There are two ...

tag support, through headset only ** voice memo and voice notice * Other features ** personal information manager **

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and phone book with up to 500 entries (plus SIM card capacity) ** date and time functionality ** stopwatch ** alarm clock, reminder list ** calculator ** T9 system for SMS writing ** vibration alert ** up to 7 user-defined sound/vibration profiles ** quick dial ** voice dial ** call filtering ** 4 integrated games ** 3 internal language versions + language files on memory card ** Java functionality (SL45i firmware only) *** Java ME/ MIDP support *** proprietary Siemens extensions * Computer interoperability ** Serial (COM) port **

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port **

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synchronization

Criticism

The SL45 series was a professional model and thus very highly priced at the time of release. It was sometimes criticized for its bugginess, particularly in that simply sending too many SMSs could cause the phone to crash, and for being relatively delicate - there are many known issues of vibration alert, or MP3 player control buttons on the side of the case stopping functioning after phone fall.

Firmware

The SL42, SL45 and SL45i share the same electronic components, and thus firmware can be exchanged between them. It can enhance functionality of SL42 and SL45 with Java support. Relatively simple structure of the firmware code, and the ease of new firmware installation (standard serial cable included in the box is suitable) led to many custom firmware modifications (more than 300 patches) sprung over the Internet. These correct software bugs, change the phone's graphics, or even add new functionality like key remapping, calling pictures, or detailed battery information, and even up to 15 virtual SIM-cards (user must reboot phone to select virtual SIM from list).

User base

Due to the above-mentioned firmware enhanceability, availability of many Java applications further enhancing the feature set (with, for example, sending of long

messages,

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reading, video playing, and E-mail client functionality), MP3 player functionality and memory card slot, and also for being fairly priced after a few years since its release, the SL45 series gained a huge user base, constantly developing new firmware patches, Java applications and hardware modifications, enhancing the phone's functionality. Many fans of the model claim that there is no mobile phone which can replace the SL45i (either the original one, or SL42/45 enhanced with SL45i firmware) for them. The phone is indeed very versatile and has a huge feature set, especially when compared to other phones of its time, although it lacks many features now considered standard for modern phones, like colour display, integrated camera,

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

or digitized ringtones,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

and

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

functionality. Modern phones with memory card support also can be natively connected to a computer's

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...

port, greatly improving transfer speeds when compared to the SL45's serial connection; this limitation can be, however, omitted by using a third-party memory card reader.

References

{{Siemens phones SL45 Mobile phones with infrared transmitter Mobile phones introduced in 2001