Siemens
S45

The S45 was Siemens' first GPRS mobile phone. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) was a standard which enabled faster data speeds. It delivered rudimentary Internet access via the Openwave WAP 1.2 browser. The S45 was a dual-band phone supporting 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM networks. It was also notable for having no external antenna. The phone was targeted at business users with Siemens offering a larger than usual address book supporting up to 500 names with 14 different fields for each entry. The S45 could also be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook via a serial cable that came with the phone. Siemens also designed the phone to store up to 50 text messages which was far more than most other phones at the time. It also supported the enhanced messaging service (EMS) which made it possible to send pictures and sounds via the text message service. The phone had a striking design – notably its orange backlight and large seven-line display. It also had a very capable speakerphone which was quite a novel inclusion at the time. One other notable capability was the ‘babysitter’ feature that allowed users to lock the phone so only one number could be called when pressing the relevant soft key. This was designed for when a user wanted to lend the phone to somebody so they could be reached in an emergency and made it impossible to make other calls to be made avoiding big bills.