BenQ-Siemens EF91
Cancelled 13th February 2006
The BenQ-Siemens EF91 is the second
HSDPA (3.5G) announced in Europe, following on from
last month's Samsung
announcement.
Theoretically, HSDPA can support a data
transfer rate of 7Mb/sec or beyond, 20 times faster
than 3G, although it's unlikely that early 3.5G models
will reach anything near that data rate.
In truth, there is very little availability
of HSDPA anywhere in the world - most providers have
only been deploying equipment to support it since the
end of 2005. However, many major operators in Europe,
the Americas and the Pacific Rim have started rolling
out HSDPA, and it should become more widely available
through 2006 and 2007.
Back
to the BenQ-Siemens EF91 though - this is a pretty conventional
looking handset but with some neat features. There's
a 3.2 megapixel digital camera (although Sharp got there
first with the Sharp
903), a QVGA 240x320 pixel display, microSD removable
memory and stereo Bluetooth. There's a multimedia player,
plus everything else you'd expect to find in a high-end
3G phone. So, the EF91 looks promising as a 3G device,
add in 3.5G and it looks very interesting indeed.
Of course, one question with a handset
such as this is.. what is it for? BenQ-Siemens
say that it will have improved multimedia download speeds
and better video calling, but it's hard to see exactly
how you can use the full potential of HSDPA on a small
device such as this. Paired with a laptop, this would
make an excellent broadband modem (if in an 3.5G coverage
area). But perhaps this technology is better suited
to high-end smartphones rather than clamshells.
BenQ-Siemens say that the EF91 should
be available from summer 2006. Coverage in you region
will depend on a local carrier supporting HSDPA.
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BenQ-Siemens
EF91 at a glance
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Available:
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Q2/Q3
2006
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Network:
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GSM
+ UMTS + HSDPA
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Data:
|
GPRS
+ UMTS (3G) + HSDPA (3.5G)
|
Screen:
|
240x320
pixels
|
Camera:
|
3.2
megapixels
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Size:
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Size/weight
tba
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Bluetooth:
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Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
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Battery
life:
|
tba
|
|
|