Gizmodo: benq-siemens

BenQ-Siemens Concept Phones are Beyond Whacky

Travis Hudson — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:34:45 EST

The folks at the BenQ-Siemens design HQ must have been using that Volcano for a bit too long because these phone concepts are pretty far out there. The first is a snake-like phone that can wrap on your arm (?) and has controls on the outside. The second phone is a, uh, I don't know really. It is just a phone with a crazy design and screen that flips out and can rotate. The last phone is a bit more normal—full screen display/touchscreen and sliding control bar. Luckily they are only conceptual designs, meaning there is a .0001-percent chance of actually being manufactured. –Travis Hudson

BenQ-Siemens Concept Phones [Portable Gadgets]

BenQ-Siemens Black Box Concept Phone

Travis Hudson — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 15:07:20 EDT

Unlike previously mentioned, BenQ is still making phones in Asia, just no longer in the German market. This is one of the concept phones being worked on—the Black Box. No keypads, no buttons, just a big ass touchscreen. From the initial pictures it looks like the interface changes on the fly. I'm digging the black minimalist design overall. It will probably never see the light of day as an actual product, but it is still cool to look at, nonetheless. – Travis Hudson

Black Box concept handset [uberphones]

BenQ Cans Mobile Phone Division

Travis Hudson — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 12:28:08 EDT

BenQ is officially canning their mobile phone division, formerly known as BenQ-Siemens. Reports say that Siemens was going down the toilet when BenQ picked them up, and couldn't be salvaged. The BenQ-Mobile employees—that will potentially also be canned—seem to think otherwise saying that BenQ "systematically cannibalized" the phone division. Oh snap!

~~Oh well, no more BenQ phones.~~ – Travis Hudson

BenQ Bankruptcy Causes Furor [Spiegel Online]

Edit: It was just the German BenQ-Mobile division that was canned. Asia's market is still going strong, so yes there will still be BenQ phones, but none for the U.S., as usual. Bloops.

BenQ Launches E71, E81 and SL91 Cellphones

Gizloco — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:31:34 EDT

As if BenQ-Siemens doesn't get enough publicity from sponsoring Real Madrid, the company is launching three more cellphones with a distinct, all-black style. Two of the cellphones, the E71 and the E81, are candy bars with similar aesthetics. The E71 (pictured here) is an EDGE device with a 1.3-megapixel camera and a 240 x 320-pixel display. There's even an FM radio built-in and MicoSD card slot. Hooray for battery life. Meanwhile, the petite 3G E81 measures just 3.9 x 1.6 x 0.6-inches and also features a 1.3-megapixel camera. BenQ has dubbed the color's name "Lucent Black," since just calling it "black" is not nearly hip enough.

BenQ's other debutante is the SL91. It's a slider cellphone that's aimed at the higher end of the market. The outer ring illuminates to indicate whether or not you've missed a call or have received a text message. The SL91's camera is 3.2-megapixels, which is getting dangerously close to being actually useful. The display is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.

All three cellphones will be released in the major markets at different times: the E71 and E81 will hit Europe this September; the SL91 will arrive on European shores sometime on Q4. North American release dates are still unknown. – Nicholas Deleon

BenQ Mobile shows shiny black handset trio [The Register]

BenQ'a Mia, A Cellphone For Girly Girls

Gizloco — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:19:29 EDT

Girls and gadgets don't often go together so it's nice to see companies trying to squeeze some money out of a relatively untapped market. The company in question is BenQ-Siemens and the gadgets is Mia, a pastel-colored EF61 cellphone with a girl-friendly flower petal print on the front. The clamshell cellphone has a groove along the side so as not to harm girls' longer finger nails when opening it. It comes with a satin pouch, powder blue headset and data cable and built-in tips on how to nag husbands.

The Mia, ho-hum 1.3 megapixel camera and all, is set to debut this September over in the UK. It'll retail for around $184 on a pay-as-you-go plan, complete with lipstick and eye liner. – Nicholas Deleon

Up close with Mia, BenQ-Siemen's new lady phone [Gadget Candy]

CEbit '06: BenQ-Siemens S68

Travis Hudson — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:17:38 EST

This is another one of BenQ-Siemens' brushed aluminum composition phones. This phone is extremely slim at .75 inches and is nothing more than a phone. There are no extra add-ons. Yep, that means no media player and no camera. It is a basic, slim, phone

Product Page.

BenQ-Siemens OLED Phone, the S88

Travis Hudson — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:51:46 EST

The highlight of this phone is easily the bright, beautiful OLED display. It also has a 2.0 megapixel camera that is also capable of capturing video. It comes in two colors: black and white and has the usually kicks of the average cell phone, including an MP3 player with expandable memory via MicroSD. This phone may not standout with its features, but the screen is absolutely beautiful. It should be popping up around Q2.

Product Page [BenQ-Siemens]

CeBIT '06: BenQ Siemens EF 81

johnb — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:52:06 EST

This is another heavy-duty phone from BenQ-Siemens. It is constructed of aluminum and magnesium. This clamshell has a lot of the same features of its sliding counterpart, the EL 71. It has a small, 1-inch color screen outside along with four buttons that for the camera and media. Inside there is an average-sized screen and a sleek, flat aluminum keypad. The camera is placed on the hinge of the clamshell, so the large, inner screen cannot be used for the camera unless it is self-portraits. The camera faces outwards when the clamshell is closed, but then you are restricted to using the small, outer screen.

We've seen this same skinny profile three times already from three different manufacturers. Look familiar?

Note - We are inundating you with BenQ phones because we are currently surrounded by the entire spring line here. We'll be hitting the floor again at 9am EST.

Product Page [BenQ-Siemens]

CeBIT '06: BenQ-Siemens EL 71

johnb — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:20:46 EST

This is one of the durable phones from BenQ. It is a slider that is composed out of aluminum and magnesium. It is expandable via MicroSD up to 1GB and also features an audio output to your stored music through a speaker system dongle. It will be available in Europe, Asia and South America in May. There will be most likely no U.S. release. Very RAZR-esque.

Product Page [BenQ-Siemens]

CeBIT '06: BenQ-Siemens CL75

johnb — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:20:45 EST

This one goes out to the ladies. The CL75 is a stylish clamshell with a screen that turns into a mirror and a sexy, sexy poppy image on the front cover. When you press a button, the screen darkens, allowing the glossy face of the phone to be used as a compact mirror. This is an "easy-to-use" tri-band GSM phone with a VGA camera. Nothing amazing, just oh-so-stylish.

Product Page [BenQ-Siemens]

BenQ-Siemens EL71 Slider Phone

gizmodo.com — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:10:12 EST

If you like your phones super skinny and encased in metal, Motorola's RAZR and SLVR have just gotten themselves some serious new competition in the BenQ-Siemens EL71 slider phone, announced today at CeBIT. Brushed aluminum and magnesium! Only 16.mm thick! A keypad that glides out gently! You'd probably be going out on the town more if you had this phone, the better to show it off.

For a phone that's meant first and foremost to be stylish, the EL71 is no slouch feature-wise—unlike, say, Nokia's first fashion phones. The camera is 1.3 megapixels with a flash and will do video, it has Bluetooth, takes microSD cards and will play MP3s and AAC files. The Music Cable IHM-100 accessory lets you plug it into any hifi system and play your music over speakers, so maybe you wouldn't bring your iPod around so much anymore.

Price for the EL71 is still TBA, but it should hit markets next month in Quartz Anthracite ; Opal Black" is to follow. If BenQ Mobile is serious about taking consumers away from Motorola, perhaps they should consider putting it out in pink, no?

We'll try and get an EL71 in for review later this month, before it goes on sale. We'll have more on the other handsets BenQ-Siemens announced at CeBIT as the week progresses.

Finest quality mobile design: The ultra-slim BenQ-Siemens EL71 slider phone with metal casing and QVGA display [BenQ Mobile]
BenQ-Siemens Announces Six New Handsets [Gizmodo]

BenQ-Siemens Announces Six New Handsets

gizmodo.com — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:53:41 EST

BenQ Mobile's just announced six new phones at CeBIT '06, including the P51 smartphone at left. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, has a 2.83" QVGA TFT color touchscreen (240x320 pixels), Bluetooth, Push email (like the Blackberry), a 1.3 megapixel camera, USB and an integrated GPS receiver.

The first phone in BenQ-Siemens's new P Class series of smartphones, the P51 is WLAN-enabled so users can surf the web and make VoIP calls with Skype—the latter being a feature we see on more and more smartphones every week except that most are too slow for it to actually be usable, which probably won't be the case with this phone. It should be going on sale in July, price is still TBA. We'll have a review of it before then.

The other handsets announced were the EL71, C81, CF61, CL71 and E61; we'll talk more about each one over the next few days.

Product Page [BenQ-Siemens]

Smart business: The P51 combines navigation and communication for professional users [BenQ Mobile]
BenQ Mobile further expands product portfolio at CeBIT [BenQ Mobile]

BenQ-Siemens Pandora In the Wild

johnb — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 10:03:35 EST

A kind reader sent us some pics and a link to his hands-on with the BenQ-Siemens Pandora. All the standard stuff except for one unique feature—check out that funky keypad. When closed, it looks like an MP3 player. When you open it, the keypad schwings out and smacks onto the face of the player. I'm not digging the other pad down there, but this is apparently a beta model.

BenQ-Siemens Pandora (EF51) [Cellphone9]