Siemens SL45

The Siemens SL45 is a GSM candybar phone released in December 2000. It was aimed at professional users, with many organizer features and a hefty price tag.

The SL45 is widely regarded as one of the most influential phones, as it was one of the first phones to include a MP3 player and expandable storage with MMC (MultiMedia Cards), though it was not the first at either of these.

A 32 MB card was included in the box, and was used to store UI languages, graphics, contacts, messages, and audio. Several demos and languages were pre-loaded on the card, giving only 16 MB of free space. The phone unofficially supports some cards up to 1 GB.

A serial data cable, SyncStation, and stereo headphones were also included. The headphones are required for using the MP3 player function. The included data cable could be used for flashing the phone, popularizing firmware upgrades and modifications.

The SL45 uses monophonic ringtones, but they are in MIDI format. The built-in composer has three slots for custom melodies in the internal storage, the MMC can store more.

Other notable features of the SL45 include WAP, infrared, and a dictaphone (voice recorder). The phone has a metal body, and was only available in silver.

Issues

 * The SL45's firmware had many bugs, for example randomly freezing and crashing. A common complaint was that SMS messages were slow to load.
 * The serial data connection of the SL45 was slow for loading MP3 files on the phone. This can be worked around by using a MMC card reader on the PC.

Variants

 * 6688: Asian variant.
 * SL42: Cheaper version released in 2001, with reduced sales package contents - 16 MB card, no SyncStation, or headphones. This means the MP3 player cannot be used without buying the headphones separately.
 * SL42e: Orange branded variant of the SL42.
 * SL45i: Released in 2001, adds Java J2ME support, also being the first ever phone with this feature. The other variants can be upgraded to a SL45i by flashing firmware, as they are all identical hardware wise. The SL45i has a higher capacity battery.

Related phones

 * Siemens SL55: The next phone in the SL series, being a slider phone focusing more on style, spiritual successor to the Siemens SL10.
 * Nokia 9110 Communicator: The first phone with expandable storage, also uses MMC cards.
 * Samsung SGH-M100/SPH-M100: The first phones with an integrated MP3 player.
 * Sony CMD-MZ5: Music-oriented version of Z5, but with proprietary Memory Stick cards.

Batteries

 * Siemens L36880-N4801-A100 (540 mAh Li-ion)
 * Siemens L36880-N4801-A104 (1000 mAh Li-ion)
 * Siemens ??? (650 mAh Li-ion)