I also live an active lifestyle. After work, I usually unwind by sparring a few rounds at the gym. When I’m not in the mood, I jog to cool down. My idea of weekend relaxation is five sets of thrash-and-bash tennis and a few more rounds of boxing.

Needless to say, I like my stuffs durable, reliable, and functional. The Siemens M75 is all that and more!

Dust, splash, and shock resistant, the M75 is designed for rugged, active usage.  Its design similarity with another brand’s model stops with the rigid aluminium frame and rubberised side-cushions giving it more than adequate protection from the usual drops and accidents during daily usage. According to Siemens, the phone has been designed to prevent scratches and breakage of the spacious 262K-colour screen. Sensitive areas such as the camera and the connectors for the battery and external antenna are cleverly protected from dust and water splashes by removable rubber plugs.

Having the TIMEX watch on a horse commercial in mind, I decided to test its durability and I took it with me on one of my evening workouts. After accidentally dropping it in a mud puddle, I did the unthinkable: I cleaned the unit with running water under the shower. I have recently heard of stories about people having problems with their mobile phones after getting exposed to the rain but I have to admit that what I did was too much. Much to my surprise, the M75 never showed any sign of stress and everything was still working in tip-top condition even after all that punishment. Now that’s tough!

Now, as I found out, the M75 is not all about muscle, stress, and force like a typical steroid-minded Neanderthal. It actually has everything that I would look for in a mobile phone/multimedia gadget.

Aside from the now standard triband, SMS, MMS, and email, it also features Internet browsing via WAP. It also has PDA functions like calendar, to-do, alarm, converter, calculator, and voice memo.

The M75 is also a multimedia mobile phone. It can play my favourite tunes through the MP3/AAC music player. Sharing my music with my friends was fun because the built-in loudspeaker was capable enough to elicit a few synchronized head-bops and group singing. With the optional external speaker, the M75 transforms into a portable stereo system with excellent audio quality.

The now-standard 1.3 Mega pixel camera offers different brightness settings and night mode. It doesn’t have a built-in flash though. It can also record and playback video. Capturing once-in-a-lifetime moments to share with family and friends is just a touch of a button away.

The real surprise is the screen. Although not as large as other higher-end phones, the picture display is among the sharpest I have ever seen on a mobile phone! I have taken pictures using other relatively new and more popular phone models, but the pictures appeared much better on the M75.

The M75 has 8MB of built-in memory but additional memory is not a problem because it also has an RS-MMC expansion slot. The phone comes bundled with a 32MB memory card. Additional connectivity options include USB, infrared, and bluetooth.

With all those high-end features, I found out that the phone had a few quirks. Unlike other models from other brands, the media player on the M75 would not play in the background. I was so accustomed to this feature in my other phone that I found the absence of this feature slightly disappointing.

Also, in spite of the integrated high-quality camera, it doesn’t have a built-in flash. Some of the newer mobile phones already have more than one built-in flash diode. It is a pity that the M75 lags in technology on this aspect. The optional flash attachment seems to answer that concern but you have to shell out additional cash for it. Not to mention that you would have to be carrying it around with you should you need it.

Furthermore, although it is equipped with GPRS, it does not have EDGE. It may not matter much to most users but for those who use their phones to connect to the Internet, this option is essential.

The bottomline is the Siemens M75 is a mobile phone with all the current features of the current crop of mobile phones which are currently available in the market. Nothing new. Only tougher.