A seemingly new entrant to the PDA market, the Siemens SX45 is a Pocket PC PDA that may appear familiar to users or owners of the Cassiopeia range. That's because the SX45 is based on the Cassiopeia e-125 PDA.

More than just a re-badge job though, the SX45 combines the PDA-ness of the Cassiopeia with Siemens' experience in mobile phones, to create a PDA/mobile phone hybrid.

Similar in nature to the Handspring Treo 180 (page 42), the Siemens SX45 is a much larger beast forgoing the Treo's mobile phone like dimensions for a bigger body that offers a superior full colour screen instead of monochrome. This results in a chunky creature, and one that certainly doesn't merit the pocket designation of the 'Pocket PC' brand, but its phone functionality is a plus with both GSM and GPRS capabilities.

But first, the PDA. It's a good unit, but the tech inside has been around for a while. It's built around a 150MHz MIPS R4000 processor, which means it runs Pocket PC Professional 2000, not Pocket PC 2002. This is because the latest version of that OS is only compatible with StrongARM processors, so from the second you power the Siemens SX45 on you're saddled with out-of-date software.

This doesn't mean to imply that the unit is totally unworkable, as Pocket PC Professional 2000 is extremely functional software, and Pocket PC 2002 is more a fine-tuning of the OS rather than a full point release. It features the Pocket PC basics: Pocket Word and Pocket Excel, Microsoft Reader, Windows Media Player, address book and more.

As mentioned earlier, the major draw card to the SX45 is its GSM and GPRS phone support. As a phone it works fine, particularly with its large screen being able to clearly display full SMS messages and address books. A graphical phone keypad helps with number dialling, and a jog-dial makes searching for numbers a breeze, but the SX45 is far too large to comfortably hold to your ear and carry on a conversation. Thankfully the unit comes with a hands free kit of exceptional clarity, which means you can tuck the main unit away in a pocket. This is of course, if it fits in your pocket, especially once youve squeezed the SX45 into its bundled, padded case.

However, it's the GPRS capabilities that let the SX45 fly. Originally slated
for release earlier in the year, the SX45 was held back due to importation concerns, but this was fortuitous as it has given the mobile telcos time to organise their local GPRS strategies. GSM or GPRS, the unit comes with Siemens' own mobile software pre-installed, including pocket dialler, but it also features a cut down version of Internet Explorer for WAP Web surfing and Outlook Express for emailing.

A pop-up keyboard lets you add text to email or SMS with ease. Connectivity options are limited due to the older OS, but synchronizing the unit was simple with the supplied USB cord (no cradle for the SX45).

The unit comes with 32MB of RAM for installing other applications or storing files, which is a decent amount of space in a PDA, but the SX45 also sports an MMC slot plus a Type II Compact Flash slot which can theoretically take a 1GB MicroDrive (although what this does to the battery life is to be seen).
It's an extremely good unit, but far too large to be held comfortably the length and width dimensions are fine, but at 2.65cm it's quite thick. A final draw back to the SX45 is that the Cassiopeia e-125 is retailing for around $1,600 to $1,700 depending on which company you check, which means that the SX45's phone functionality adds an extra $500-600 onto the total price.