Siemens A53 GSM mobile phone

Well, finally I got a new cell phone. My previous one was an old trusty Motorola Startac 7867w. A really good phone I must say.

But it was time to move on an enter the GSM era (???). I must say that I'm no mobile phone fan and I do only like to be in touch when I need, nothing more. No digital camera (I´m happy with my Sony DSC-P93), no mp3, no fancy colors, just a phone for ocassional use (I want a phone, not a swiss army knife).

Looking for a cheap phone I took a deal from CTI (local mobile phone operator) for a simple Siemens A53 phone. It seemed as a nice phone *before* my purchase.

I really did not make any research at all, I just bought the cheap phone because it looks nice, assuming that every modern phone will be a decent one, right?, wrong!!

First it turned out that the A53 is a stripped down A56. It does not have the vibration feature (the motor was removed), you cannot upload ringtones as easily as with other phones, the keyboard is hard to read, the backlight is light years behind my old Startac, the volume level cannot be changed for SMS reception, the manual is really bad and more.

So, in my opinion this phone is not a wise choice. I cannot understand why Siemens made such mistakes with it, but I will surely will not recommend the A53 to anyone.