[jchamier]

Paul (MVP), on Jan 14 2008, 17:44, said:

I'm glad i have it as a companion to my more powerful devices, and hope it can succeed where the HTC S310 has failed... in the low cost Windows Mobile market. What's your take on the device?

Looks a good size and quite usable, but we need the networks (T-mob UK!) to do dual-SIM on same account/number, to support this properly.

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[chucky.egg]

Looks to be about the same size as a Tornado.
Is it just me or is it a bit ... yawn?

And either I've been watching too much Most Haunted (10 mins is too much TBH) or there's a really scary looking ghostly face peering out of the screen too! Eeek!

[Monolithix]

Heheh. I think the pricepoint along with WinMo6+Wifi makes it an interesting device?

[Luckyfox]

nice video, thx, can you make a dump of rom so we can take those useful things at the bottom of home for our Tornados?

[PaulOBrien]

Er, no.

I actually think it's preinstalled with SBSH Facade, and that's a facade homescreen!

P

[Luckyfox]

Paul (MVP), on Jan 15 2008, 13:43, said:

Er, no.

I actually think it's preinstalled with SBSH Facade, and that's a facade homescreen!

P

than, if u can, please upload somewhere the actual home.xml with wallpaper

[alpineone]

Paul (MVP), on Jan 15 2008, 12:43, said:

Er, no.

I actually think it's preinstalled with SBSH Facade, and that's a facade homescreen!

P

Look like flash for me.

[PaulOBrien]

I saw a facade reference on the device somewhere...

P

[alpineone]

Yep, device got the facade (afterall that was mentioned here)

Seeing is believing:

[Luckyfox]

Paul (MVP), on Jan 15 2008, 14:43, said:

I saw a facade reference on the device somewhere...

P

i verified on one taiwanese site, http://www.mobile01....?f=175&t=437091, this home screen with changing wallpaper in matter of period of the day(morning,evening,etc) is not facade.

This post has been edited by Luckyfox: 15 January 2008 - 01:45 PM

[Pop2k]

chucky.egg, on Jan 15 2008, 00:02, said:

Looks to be about the same size as a Tornado.
Is it just me or is it a bit ... yawn?

Yeah, seems like an updated Tornado to me, though much too little of an update to justify the upgrade from a Tornado. Would've been nice 2 years ago.

[Monolithix]

Out of interest, what would justify an upgrade?

[e-v@n]

Isn't Skype hidden under 'Instant Message'?

[Pop2k]

Monolithix, on Jan 15 2008, 22:52, said:

Out of interest, what would justify an upgrade?

Let's see, judging by the official spec's ( http://www.benq.com/products/mobile/?produ...=specifications ) I'd say:

To prevent any kind of downgrade, the E76 would need to have:
Same screen size (What's with that wasted space on a fat plastic bezel on the E72?)
3.5 or at least 2.5mm audio jack (Using my phone as mp3 player all the time so this is a must.)
Same battery capacity (1150mah on Tornado vs. 900mah on E72, though that might be irrelevant if it uses less energy.)
Non-glossy surface (I just hate glossy gadgets.)

Missing features that'd mean an actual upgrade:
Transflective TFT (Almost all Nokias have them, why can't WinMo's? So annoying being unable to read the screen in sunlight.)
microSDHC support (Off. spec's say "up to 2gb" so guessing from that it lacks sdhc just like the Tornado?)
GPS (Judging by the announced phones, it's gonna be harder to find a smartphone without GPS than one with GPS this year!)
Decent quality cam (Let's say a 3mpx autofocus cam with decent lens e.g.? Thought the Tornado's crappy cam wouldn't matter but I've often cursed myself for that.)


The two devices are nearly identical. Size and weight differ a wee bit (E76 is just -16g, thinner, slightly broader, same length), camera got minimaly upgraded (though I doubt that one's any good), CPU updated (? no idea if that new cpu's better or just less expensive) and price apparently got lowered (no wonder at those specs but you can also get a Tornado for realy little money by now). WM6 ofc is officially an upgrade but then, anyone who realy wants that has had it on their Tornado for about 6 months anyways. Best thing probably is that they replaced the joystick with a pad. Good lord, I won't ever again buy another joystick equipped phone.

It's certainly a good phone - as WinMo entry device and to compete with feature phones, especially if it's realy low priced. But judging by the downgraded features vs. the minor update, I'd say anyone owning a Tornado is wasting money buying the E76.

This post has been edited by Pop2k: 16 January 2008 - 02:20 PM

[Monolithix]

I see, interesting. Also interesting how all manufacturers seem to have dropped 2.5 or 3.5mm jack sockets, maybe because of how unreliable they are? The screen size is disapointing, especially after devices like the Vox have been made available.

Fair points on the TFT and SDHC, although interestingly Eten have enabled SDHC on their older devices via a software update. As for GPS, there seem to have been issues getting this working out of the box, maybe its just the lack of GPSID config app until recently. It'll be interesting to see how common a feature this really does become.

As for cameras, don't get me started The Kasier has the only camera worth talking about, and to be honest, there are only a few dumbphones with anything like passible cameras. If HTC/Samsung/Moto/Benq get their act together and sort out the cameras they could be on to a winner.

[PaulOBrien]

This device is all about cutting costs, and we'll see that I think when it comes to market with operators (hopefully!)

P

[Pop2k]

Price will be intersting to see. After all, Orange (Switzerland) even tried to cash quite some on the S310. Used to cost more than many much better equipped feature phones.

Monolithix, on Jan 16 2008, 11:13, said:

Also interesting how all manufacturers seem to have dropped 2.5 or 3.5mm jack sockets, maybe because of how unreliable they are?

Are they? Only had audio jack problems with 2 devices: The first was a dirt cheap walkman in the late 80ies, the other a first gen diskman in the early 90ies. Since then, nada. Also, it seems to be just the WinMo device manufacturers that keep them out. Nokia keeps adding them to new devices all the time (and not just some half-assed 2.5'ers but full size ones).

Maybe it's got something to do with the Omap cpu's? Maybe they can put out audio over usb directly but need an additional chip for audio jack out? More probably though is that the manufacturers just save a few ¢ on each device, sell it for the price as if it had all the features, then cash again by selling usb-audio adapters.
The biggest concern I'd have about using such an adapter on a daily basis is that if an audio jack would fail it aint a big deal (no more audio) but if the usb breaks the phone get's crippled beyond usability (no more charge, synch, audio). And yes, I've had more than one broken usb connector in the past. Even the one from my C600 is starting to act up.

Quote

If HTC/Samsung/Moto/Benq get their act together and sort out the cameras they could be on to a winner.

Your words in their ears. It's realy not that hard to build a great device. They could've done so time and again in the past few years and would by now have more than just the biz phone market in their hands. But instead it's one half-baked device after the other.
I had planned to replace my C600 a year ago already, yet not a single device came out that I'd thought worthy investing my money in (and at the prices smartphones of any kind cost it realy is an investment). Now my phone starts fading away (battery, usb connector) so I'll be forced to upgrade soon. As it looks, I might need to switch back to Nokia again. N82 seems to be the ripest hardware on the market atm., even if the price tag is unfriendly.
On the other hand I could go for a less expensive, feature-rich dumbphone .... which is so not going to happen.

[abramQ]

Hello,

I have seen that model a mounts ago on Barcelona exhibition. Then Benq-Siemens got a financial troubles and nobody hear about E72. Now it comes. It's good, but...not too late?

First of all - the small screen - HTC S310 has the same, but with resolution 176x220. Making 2 inches for 240x320 seems to be a little strange. The SPV C600 had 2,2'' and that was a extremal minimal for 240x320. Making it 2'' is not god idea, just 2,2'' ora 2,4'' would rescue that device, not 2''.

The second is the proccessor - 260 MHz maybe works godd on a new, clean system, and is good for thin battery, but I'm affraid, that after instaling some soft will slow down dramatically, more than the screen resolution to serve is not so small for this processor frequency.

So...They could make the best smartphone on the market, really! Jut putting 2,4'' screen. Now..I think the future will be similar to HTC S310...shade...and will talk to other producers that smartphone are not good selling device, so the will do only that touch devices..shade...

Best regards,
RA

[shootydogthing]

e-v@n, on Jan 16 2008, 01:18, said:

Isn't Skype hidden under 'Instant Message'?

Good point, especailly seeing as we saw Windows Live somewhere else...

[xorangefirex]

I don't entirely see what all the fuss is about short of someone finally making a base market phone for the casual user. Also, I am really quite interested in the battery life since Paul made mention of it in the unboxing.

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