Overview

Want a smartphone but always scared by the price tag? Well it seems BenQ have gotten smart and developed a smartphone for just under £100! With such a skinny price tag you maybe wondering whether it has also skimped on performance so let’s have a little closer look and find out.

Review

Style

Measuring in at an incredible 1cm of thickness this phone will fit nicely in anyone’s pocket even with a full-sized wallet etc next to it. As well as this the phone incorporates indicator lights that gently pulse beneath its mirrored surface. The buttons on this are also nice and big so that even with the less nimble of use you’ll be able to use the buttons with ease.

Under the Bonnet…

Like most smartphones the E72 lets the user make the choice of the Instant Messaging networks they wish to use, which include AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ and Google Talk so whether you use one or more is totally up to you but having these options make all the difference, standard features are also available on this phone e-mail, sms, mms, rss, podcasts etc. But what makes a nice little extra on this phone is the ability to make free VoIP calls through its Wi-Fi connections.

Another nice feature of this phone is to ability to change the screen wallpaper by simply pressing and holding the volume button, which makes a welcomed change from most smartphones where you have to scroll through menus to do this.

This phone comes with the Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system that gives you the power and familiar interface of Windows as well as giving you access to your PC’s Outlook e-mail and calendars. This is all done through the use of Microsoft ActiveSync which will keep all your important data, contacts, in ’sync’ with your PC so you can access identical up-to-date information on both your PC and phone - a handy feature when your on the move.

Memory wise this phone has been built with a microSD™ slot that can support up to 2GB of memory.

Camera and Video

Coming with a 2 megapixel camera, this is by no stretch of the imagination ground breaking, but with the ability to enjoy streamed video as well as MP4, 3GP playback only the most camera enthusiastic of us would find this a problem.

On the audio side of things, this phone comes with the usual MP3 compatibility as well as WAV and WMA compatibility to boot.

Technical Spec

• System GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
• Battery 900 mAh, Li-on
• Talk Time Up to 4 hours
• Standby Time Up to 180 hours
• Operating System Windows Mobile™ 6 standard
• Integrated camera 2.0 megapixels
• Applications (games and other) : Dedicated key for audio message and voice commander Instant Message integrate 5 different softwares into one platform RSS reader
• PC Sync Microsoft ActiveSync4.5 or above
• Display 240X320, 2″ , 65K color TFT LCD
• Video Functions : MPEG4, WMV, H.264 , 3GP Both recording and playback
• Audio Functions : MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AAC+ Music background playing
• Messaging : SMS, MMS, Email, MSN, Mundu IM
• Ring Tones : MP3, AMR, MIDI, and 64-chord polyphonic ring tones MP3 as ring tone, alarm clock alert
• Pocket IE supporting WAP/WEB
• GPRS multi-slot class 10/EDGE
• WLAN 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth® 2.0
• USB 2.0
• Java MIDP 2.0
• 128MB Flash ROM + 64MB DDR RAM
• Extended memory: microSD™ Card supported up to 2GB
• Dimensions 108 x 46.3 x 13.8 mm
• Weight 90g

The Gaj-It verdict

Design: 8/10
Usability: 9/10
Features: 9/10
Value: 8/10

We Say: A nice little smartphone for a nice little price but for £100 don’t expect the world.

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