Post by SandStorm on Feb 12, 2007 21:56:46 GMT
Attention! This review is made with one Pre-Release Sample! Any missing features, or incomplete features will be all working in the final device!
E81
E81, we first saw this device in the BenQ-Siemens January 2006 conference, as the signal for future brand designs, the "Squound", not round, not square.
We also saw in first computed photos this device had BenQ typical software, and BenQ keys arrangement.
Much more later, the first spy photos appeared, showing the phone in live. It really looked like a soap, but this time with Siemens keypad layout, until the first software photos appeared, it ended to use the same OS as SXG75, SG75, EF81, and SL91. The so called Brew, even with minor "benquish" graphics in the UI. Also, when the datasheet and the official presentation come, we saw it is a 3G device.
First Impression
First of all, many thanks to Janielsen for giving me this device!
In reality this device is really small, and doesn't have the soap look it had in photos, in real, phone is rather slim and very handy.
It is smaller and slimmer than S55. Few mm tall, nearly less 2mm. The same goes for the slimness, around 3mm lesser than S55. (note: eye measuring)
It lay very well in hand, as in the pocket, since it is so light.
Now, lets evaluate it!
Design and Quality
Black is trendy today, eye catching.
Even with a formal design, with the chrome trim around the display and keypad, and the central navikey, both man and woman will like it. Especially if they are business type.
But there is one simple thing. This phone wasn't made to belong to the business factor, it was made to the mid-low segment, affordable to all pockets.
For such cheap phone, the housing quality is rather nice, even if the lateral camera and volume keys are a bit shaking.
Noting that there is one hot-swap slot for micro-sd cards (aka transflash), used in Motorola devices, or other BenQ-Siemens devices like the EF81, for example.
The rear is dominated by the back cover, you see the speaker grid, and the 1.3MP camera with flash and a small mirror. Simple, and effective design for this part.
Keypad
Small keypad. Persons with big fingers will be annoyed to press it, but since I don't have that large fingers, I can press the keypad without mistaking myself, instead the navigation key is very comfortable to use.
The lateral camera key is big and soft, the same for the volume keys. They are very sensitive to touch, so, if you are distracted, you can bet that you'll start the camera, or change the volume level, programmable in 10 levels, instead from the 5 from SXG75 or from its older BenQ cousin, the SFG75.
The keypad is lit with white leds, you'll not have problems with insufficient light, because it is strong, and fill them up nicely.
The layout, It use the so common Siemens layout, instead of the previous BenQ layout. this mean you have the * to disable sounds, the # to lock the keypad, etc. Resuming, the usual. The usual, excepting the dedicated media player key, and the "c" key, used to delete characters in SMS's, for example
You can also change shortcuts for both softkeys, for the numeric keypad (2 to 9, the 1 is reserved for voicemail) and also the navikey can have their own shortcuts, for the up, down, left or right press.
You can select those options as shortcut:
-> Speed dialing
-> Alarm clock
-> Applications
-> Bluetooth
-> Calculator
-> Calendar
-> Camera
-> Contacts
-> Create message (leads to one sub-menu with email, sms or mms to be selected)
-> New SMS
-> New Email
-> New MMS
-> Diverts
-> Games
-> Internet
-> Media Player
-> Message inbox
-> My menu
-> My stuff
-> Profiles
-> Record video
-> Remote sync
-> Sound Recorder
-> Stopwatch
-> Voice Dial
All the options one modern phone allow to be set as shortcut.
Display
High quality display, 220x170 pixels, 256k colors.
You can twist it even to almost 90º and you won't see inverting colors. The colors are crisp and bright, even better than some top phones from competitors.
While in standby, you can see the network signal, battery indicator, gprs or 3G, active profile icon, alarm clock icon, BT icon, etc.
You can also see this status bar while navigating the menus, or doing other operations like writing SMS's. no doubt, very useful.
The standby screen, beside the described status icons, also show you the date and hours in top, as the provider network logo. You can simply hide it by using one image.
Menu
12 icons menu, in 3x4 grid.
The icons from this sample are the same as for the Siemens made clamshell phone, EF81. True, they are very nice to the eyes, and you can see easily what they are meant to do, not like some phones from competitors, where you don't know if you are selecting the calculator, or the calendar.
Time to proceed with each menu section, lets examine it.
-> Contacts
no need to say, here is where you have your contacts list.
It is divided in four tabs, the "all contacts, groups, sim contacts, filter"
We will focus on the "filter" field, because here you can manage to only show the entries from internal memory.
This is useful to avoid the dupe contacts (sim and phone) from the first time. In my opinion, this "filter" option were better to the the first tab and not the 4th one.
The group tab let you create new groups or put in the existing "family, friends, office, vip" groups. As usual, the very common nowadays.
This address book is very similar to the one used in SXG75, limited to 500 contacts, and with loads of info to fill up.
-> Call records:
Here you can see several information from all calls, dialed calls, missed calls, received calls, and the duration\charge field from incoming, outgoing and last call.
Once again, the tabbed navigation really helps in managing it fast.
-> Internet:
This is the favorite place from network providers, since it is here you can access the WAP sites (version 2.0, html supported) they give up. (Ex. vodafone live!)
-> Camera:
In this menu, you have the option for photo camera or video camera.
The camera take photos up to 1.3MP, but they come out grayish\green, due to the so early FW. The final device have it fixed, for sure. Here you can also have the option to turn on flash (not working), enable the night mode, or set the self timer.
The digital Zoom can go up to 7x
In the video mode, this function is working, at least, properly.
You are allowed to take videos up to 176x144 pixels, adjust the frame rate (15fps or 7 fps), flicker adjustment, etc.
Each clip can go up to 5 minutes, with out without sound. Zoom and brightness can only be set before recording.
->Messages:
Curious fact:
The inbox put all MMS's, SMS's together. This fact can be very boring if you only have 2 mms's and 500 sms's.
Not so sure how it is in the final device, but probably this wont suffer any change.
Lucky you have the email field in separated tab. There is also the multimedia album, that allow you to send your mms's to one online album and order printings.
The maximum storage limit is probably limited to the internal memory itself.
You are unable to send the messages to one archive, or store them in another place.
One reboot happened to me, when i come out from the multimedia album. No worries, since it is one pre-release FW.
-> Organizer:
Simple organizer with calendar (you can set there alarms, day view, week view, and month view.)
You also have one dictat. machine, maximum record time shown is 150 minutes.
Time zones and synch is present in this menu.
Lacking the notes, as usual in other brew devices, but we can do a trip to getjar.com and install one java notepad.
-> Games:
Here, all the games are stored. This sample don't have any game, and i was expecting it to have the Mozzies blood edition...
-> Media player
The same media player from SXG75 and EF81.
divided in 4 tabs, music, videos, pictures and bookmarks.
Positive aspect, the pictures and movies have thumbnails, as you can see the movies in fullscreen, even if they lag in this sample.
-> Video Telephone
Here you can start your videocalls. Now, you are able to select your contacts from the list, instead of inserting them manually, like did SXG75 in this same field.
But this menu option is not worthy, because since this phone have 1 camera, the other person will only see what you see.
Here, the image appear me flipped 90º to the left.
-> Extras
Several options, like:
My menu, alarm clock, calculator, unit converter, sound recorder and stopwatch.
The my menu field allow you to have the most used features, you have 10 fields to edit with the function you want.
The Alarm Clock is as good as SXG75 one, you can set one different hour for each day. Like for example, Monday and Tuesday, you wake up at 07:00AM, Wednesday at 08:00AM, Thursday at 05:00AM, Friday at 10AM, and Saturday and Sunday, with alarm off.
At least this is very useful for someone with a crazy schedule, that trust the phone as main alarm clock.
The calculator and units converter are so good as the ones from x65 series, so, i won't be in big details here, and will mention that in the converter you have options for area, speed, volume, power, time, pressure, length, temperature, money currency, energy and mass. Pretty good in my opinion.
Sound recorder, finally it works with one well know format! It record your sounds in WAV.
They are stored in the sounds folder, and you can set them as ringtones.
The stopwatch do what it say, it is one stopwatch. With the left softkey you can set the laps time. At least there seems to not exist one limit for the maximum amount of laps, since I am already in the 65th one and keep counting. Missing the countdown, at least this option is important to me.
-> My Stuff:
File manager at your demand. You can create new folders, move files, search files, etc.
And the tabbed navigation allow you to select very fast the memory card. Maximum memory for the user is 18Mb, not bad for such segment device.
I was unable to test the memory card because it uses the micro-sd cards, knew as trans-flash, and I don't have any, but no worries because at least 512mb can be supported, and probably 1Gb.
-> Settings:
As you might now, is in this section you can change the profiles, themes, ringtones (available for voice calls, video calls, alarms, sms's, email, calendar, shut down & turn on melodies.)
Inside the display option, you can change the wallpaper, logo, screensaver, and the backlight time as brightness.
Also, power save mode is available to help you save some standby.
curious fact in this early FW, it think this phone is a clamshell, so, have the external and internal display option.
Inside the vibration field, you can configure it to different stiles, like None, standard Helicopter, UFO, shock, Mosquito and train.
The vibration is nice, as the strongest one goes for the standard one.
Connectivity, here you can configure the internet and connection profiles for different operator related services, like MMS or WAP.
Also, here you can see the data counter, as the Bluetooth operation.
Note, that if you try to turn on the BT, you see one warning message saying the address is not set. no worries, because we can send files by BT, by using the proper function when sending one file to another computer.
The Shortcuts option.
You are allowed the shortcuts for all numeric keys, navipad and softkeys. The functions list was already written here.
We won't get in detail with all this menu function, since some of them are pretty regular. I want to note, that under accessories, you can enable the option to charge by USB cable. Pretty handy to give it a power when you don't have the energy socket to plug charger, when you are traveling with your laptop around. Just plug to USB, enable the option, and voilá!
Tips & Tricks
*#06# in standby allow you to see general info from your phone. The imei, your current phone number, in the first tab.
The second tab have information about your FW.
The 3rd one is the CC monitor, like the ones since x45 series.
The last tab allow you to do your device one self test.
*#300# followed by the call button. Very BenQuish, this trick show info about your FW.
*#301# followed by call button. Again, BenQuish function. (Remember, this phone was made by BenQ and is using Siemens\Brew OS) show you the device selft test, and this one, is working properly, unlike the previous one from the *#06# code.
Here you can also test the flash, as other options.
How to record clips with the led turned on
ThanQ for this BenQ!
Simply enter the BenQ test mode, set the flash to on. Next, press the camera button, and change it to video mode.
Start recording.
at least we can record safely and save 5 to 10 seconds movie, until the flash menu pop-out again, voiding our clip.
Flaws in this pre-release FW
-> the display and keypad are always on.
-> BT not working properly by accessing the BT menus. Give a error message.
-> Photos come out like grayish\greenish.
-> the videocall menu show you one 90º flipped to left image.
-> Several menu options and test modes only available for clamshell phones. this FW is one mixture of EF81 FW.
-> Few random bugs
-> Led don't work if you enable the flash option in camera menu, but works under the BenQ test mode.
Conclusion
Really nice phone. Positive points for the FW possible potential, small size, and easy of usage. This little phone have all what bigs from today can offer you, and you can make sure it will surprise you day by day.
I am just waiting for one FW release to upgrade, and then, this is one worthy allrounder.
Remember, there's more for 3G rather than Videocalls, and I am really sure you won't do videocalls that often. Opera mini on 3G will be much fast and better.
One nice Siemens collection. SandStorm 2007, all rights reserved
E81
E81, we first saw this device in the BenQ-Siemens January 2006 conference, as the signal for future brand designs, the "Squound", not round, not square.
We also saw in first computed photos this device had BenQ typical software, and BenQ keys arrangement.
Much more later, the first spy photos appeared, showing the phone in live. It really looked like a soap, but this time with Siemens keypad layout, until the first software photos appeared, it ended to use the same OS as SXG75, SG75, EF81, and SL91. The so called Brew, even with minor "benquish" graphics in the UI. Also, when the datasheet and the official presentation come, we saw it is a 3G device.
First Impression
First of all, many thanks to Janielsen for giving me this device!
In reality this device is really small, and doesn't have the soap look it had in photos, in real, phone is rather slim and very handy.
It is smaller and slimmer than S55. Few mm tall, nearly less 2mm. The same goes for the slimness, around 3mm lesser than S55. (note: eye measuring)
It lay very well in hand, as in the pocket, since it is so light.
Now, lets evaluate it!
Design and Quality
Black is trendy today, eye catching.
Even with a formal design, with the chrome trim around the display and keypad, and the central navikey, both man and woman will like it. Especially if they are business type.
But there is one simple thing. This phone wasn't made to belong to the business factor, it was made to the mid-low segment, affordable to all pockets.
For such cheap phone, the housing quality is rather nice, even if the lateral camera and volume keys are a bit shaking.
Noting that there is one hot-swap slot for micro-sd cards (aka transflash), used in Motorola devices, or other BenQ-Siemens devices like the EF81, for example.
The rear is dominated by the back cover, you see the speaker grid, and the 1.3MP camera with flash and a small mirror. Simple, and effective design for this part.
Keypad
Small keypad. Persons with big fingers will be annoyed to press it, but since I don't have that large fingers, I can press the keypad without mistaking myself, instead the navigation key is very comfortable to use.
The lateral camera key is big and soft, the same for the volume keys. They are very sensitive to touch, so, if you are distracted, you can bet that you'll start the camera, or change the volume level, programmable in 10 levels, instead from the 5 from SXG75 or from its older BenQ cousin, the SFG75.
The keypad is lit with white leds, you'll not have problems with insufficient light, because it is strong, and fill them up nicely.
The layout, It use the so common Siemens layout, instead of the previous BenQ layout. this mean you have the * to disable sounds, the # to lock the keypad, etc. Resuming, the usual. The usual, excepting the dedicated media player key, and the "c" key, used to delete characters in SMS's, for example
You can also change shortcuts for both softkeys, for the numeric keypad (2 to 9, the 1 is reserved for voicemail) and also the navikey can have their own shortcuts, for the up, down, left or right press.
You can select those options as shortcut:
-> Speed dialing
-> Alarm clock
-> Applications
-> Bluetooth
-> Calculator
-> Calendar
-> Camera
-> Contacts
-> Create message (leads to one sub-menu with email, sms or mms to be selected)
-> New SMS
-> New Email
-> New MMS
-> Diverts
-> Games
-> Internet
-> Media Player
-> Message inbox
-> My menu
-> My stuff
-> Profiles
-> Record video
-> Remote sync
-> Sound Recorder
-> Stopwatch
-> Voice Dial
All the options one modern phone allow to be set as shortcut.
Display
High quality display, 220x170 pixels, 256k colors.
You can twist it even to almost 90º and you won't see inverting colors. The colors are crisp and bright, even better than some top phones from competitors.
While in standby, you can see the network signal, battery indicator, gprs or 3G, active profile icon, alarm clock icon, BT icon, etc.
You can also see this status bar while navigating the menus, or doing other operations like writing SMS's. no doubt, very useful.
The standby screen, beside the described status icons, also show you the date and hours in top, as the provider network logo. You can simply hide it by using one image.
Menu
12 icons menu, in 3x4 grid.
The icons from this sample are the same as for the Siemens made clamshell phone, EF81. True, they are very nice to the eyes, and you can see easily what they are meant to do, not like some phones from competitors, where you don't know if you are selecting the calculator, or the calendar.
Time to proceed with each menu section, lets examine it.
-> Contacts
no need to say, here is where you have your contacts list.
It is divided in four tabs, the "all contacts, groups, sim contacts, filter"
We will focus on the "filter" field, because here you can manage to only show the entries from internal memory.
This is useful to avoid the dupe contacts (sim and phone) from the first time. In my opinion, this "filter" option were better to the the first tab and not the 4th one.
The group tab let you create new groups or put in the existing "family, friends, office, vip" groups. As usual, the very common nowadays.
This address book is very similar to the one used in SXG75, limited to 500 contacts, and with loads of info to fill up.
-> Call records:
Here you can see several information from all calls, dialed calls, missed calls, received calls, and the duration\charge field from incoming, outgoing and last call.
Once again, the tabbed navigation really helps in managing it fast.
-> Internet:
This is the favorite place from network providers, since it is here you can access the WAP sites (version 2.0, html supported) they give up. (Ex. vodafone live!)
-> Camera:
In this menu, you have the option for photo camera or video camera.
The camera take photos up to 1.3MP, but they come out grayish\green, due to the so early FW. The final device have it fixed, for sure. Here you can also have the option to turn on flash (not working), enable the night mode, or set the self timer.
The digital Zoom can go up to 7x
In the video mode, this function is working, at least, properly.
You are allowed to take videos up to 176x144 pixels, adjust the frame rate (15fps or 7 fps), flicker adjustment, etc.
Each clip can go up to 5 minutes, with out without sound. Zoom and brightness can only be set before recording.
->Messages:
Curious fact:
The inbox put all MMS's, SMS's together. This fact can be very boring if you only have 2 mms's and 500 sms's.
Not so sure how it is in the final device, but probably this wont suffer any change.
Lucky you have the email field in separated tab. There is also the multimedia album, that allow you to send your mms's to one online album and order printings.
The maximum storage limit is probably limited to the internal memory itself.
You are unable to send the messages to one archive, or store them in another place.
One reboot happened to me, when i come out from the multimedia album. No worries, since it is one pre-release FW.
-> Organizer:
Simple organizer with calendar (you can set there alarms, day view, week view, and month view.)
You also have one dictat. machine, maximum record time shown is 150 minutes.
Time zones and synch is present in this menu.
Lacking the notes, as usual in other brew devices, but we can do a trip to getjar.com and install one java notepad.
-> Games:
Here, all the games are stored. This sample don't have any game, and i was expecting it to have the Mozzies blood edition...
-> Media player
The same media player from SXG75 and EF81.
divided in 4 tabs, music, videos, pictures and bookmarks.
Positive aspect, the pictures and movies have thumbnails, as you can see the movies in fullscreen, even if they lag in this sample.
-> Video Telephone
Here you can start your videocalls. Now, you are able to select your contacts from the list, instead of inserting them manually, like did SXG75 in this same field.
But this menu option is not worthy, because since this phone have 1 camera, the other person will only see what you see.
Here, the image appear me flipped 90º to the left.
-> Extras
Several options, like:
My menu, alarm clock, calculator, unit converter, sound recorder and stopwatch.
The my menu field allow you to have the most used features, you have 10 fields to edit with the function you want.
The Alarm Clock is as good as SXG75 one, you can set one different hour for each day. Like for example, Monday and Tuesday, you wake up at 07:00AM, Wednesday at 08:00AM, Thursday at 05:00AM, Friday at 10AM, and Saturday and Sunday, with alarm off.
At least this is very useful for someone with a crazy schedule, that trust the phone as main alarm clock.
The calculator and units converter are so good as the ones from x65 series, so, i won't be in big details here, and will mention that in the converter you have options for area, speed, volume, power, time, pressure, length, temperature, money currency, energy and mass. Pretty good in my opinion.
Sound recorder, finally it works with one well know format! It record your sounds in WAV.
They are stored in the sounds folder, and you can set them as ringtones.
The stopwatch do what it say, it is one stopwatch. With the left softkey you can set the laps time. At least there seems to not exist one limit for the maximum amount of laps, since I am already in the 65th one and keep counting. Missing the countdown, at least this option is important to me.
-> My Stuff:
File manager at your demand. You can create new folders, move files, search files, etc.
And the tabbed navigation allow you to select very fast the memory card. Maximum memory for the user is 18Mb, not bad for such segment device.
I was unable to test the memory card because it uses the micro-sd cards, knew as trans-flash, and I don't have any, but no worries because at least 512mb can be supported, and probably 1Gb.
-> Settings:
As you might now, is in this section you can change the profiles, themes, ringtones (available for voice calls, video calls, alarms, sms's, email, calendar, shut down & turn on melodies.)
Inside the display option, you can change the wallpaper, logo, screensaver, and the backlight time as brightness.
Also, power save mode is available to help you save some standby.
curious fact in this early FW, it think this phone is a clamshell, so, have the external and internal display option.
Inside the vibration field, you can configure it to different stiles, like None, standard Helicopter, UFO, shock, Mosquito and train.
The vibration is nice, as the strongest one goes for the standard one.
Connectivity, here you can configure the internet and connection profiles for different operator related services, like MMS or WAP.
Also, here you can see the data counter, as the Bluetooth operation.
Note, that if you try to turn on the BT, you see one warning message saying the address is not set. no worries, because we can send files by BT, by using the proper function when sending one file to another computer.
The Shortcuts option.
You are allowed the shortcuts for all numeric keys, navipad and softkeys. The functions list was already written here.
We won't get in detail with all this menu function, since some of them are pretty regular. I want to note, that under accessories, you can enable the option to charge by USB cable. Pretty handy to give it a power when you don't have the energy socket to plug charger, when you are traveling with your laptop around. Just plug to USB, enable the option, and voilá!
Tips & Tricks
*#06# in standby allow you to see general info from your phone. The imei, your current phone number, in the first tab.
The second tab have information about your FW.
The 3rd one is the CC monitor, like the ones since x45 series.
The last tab allow you to do your device one self test.
*#300# followed by the call button. Very BenQuish, this trick show info about your FW.
*#301# followed by call button. Again, BenQuish function. (Remember, this phone was made by BenQ and is using Siemens\Brew OS) show you the device selft test, and this one, is working properly, unlike the previous one from the *#06# code.
Here you can also test the flash, as other options.
How to record clips with the led turned on
ThanQ for this BenQ!
Simply enter the BenQ test mode, set the flash to on. Next, press the camera button, and change it to video mode.
Start recording.
at least we can record safely and save 5 to 10 seconds movie, until the flash menu pop-out again, voiding our clip.
Flaws in this pre-release FW
-> the display and keypad are always on.
-> BT not working properly by accessing the BT menus. Give a error message.
-> Photos come out like grayish\greenish.
-> the videocall menu show you one 90º flipped to left image.
-> Several menu options and test modes only available for clamshell phones. this FW is one mixture of EF81 FW.
-> Few random bugs
-> Led don't work if you enable the flash option in camera menu, but works under the BenQ test mode.
Conclusion
Really nice phone. Positive points for the FW possible potential, small size, and easy of usage. This little phone have all what bigs from today can offer you, and you can make sure it will surprise you day by day.
I am just waiting for one FW release to upgrade, and then, this is one worthy allrounder.
Remember, there's more for 3G rather than Videocalls, and I am really sure you won't do videocalls that often. Opera mini on 3G will be much fast and better.
One nice Siemens collection. SandStorm 2007, all rights reserved