Pictures by: shutterjam/coke
Intro
This year, MyPDACafé has been spoiled by so many PocketPC Phone, suddenly I felt I earned not enough to spend. Same thing apply to the manufacturer side, they're getting harder and harder to sell their product since many competitive products start floating in the market, and at a faster rate. With the late launching of P50 in Malaysia and its humbler spec, will P50 still find its competency in the existing PDA arena? Let's find out.
Form Factor
I had a good impression seeing the P50 from the local newspaper or magazine, but when you hold it on your palm, it's slightly larger. With its thumb-operable tiny key size, it's actually illusionized people to think that it has a larger screen, however in reality it's the standard screen size of a PocketPC phone. The form factor is just about right but not for putting into the pocket. Thus, user will appreciate the case that tagged along with the package - the case was well-designed and the quality is much better than the normal case bundle in other models. Design & Build-up Material
I like the material made out of P50. Although the design is rather simple, it had the solid feel with its weight and partially contributed by the color as well as its size. The SD slot was oddly placed at the bottom, and mini-USB port at the side. This arrangement is sort of abnormal but perhaps due to saving room, may be just like why the CF slot in D70 wasn't straight to save space. The rough texture surrounded on the perimeter prevents the unit slipping away from user's hand. The design reminded me about O2 Xphone. In fact, it's like the enlargement of Xphone let say for about 1.2 factor. The phone and direction buttons were shiny in white, emulate a contrast in between the screen and key pad area. The back appears to be rock solid with 1.3MP camera and engravings on the battery surface. I don't know what's the material but it's perfectly match with dark color and I like the solidness!
Keyboard Mechanism & Usability
There is no mechanism on the keypad, which is fine but a bit dissapointed the fact that P50 doesn't take the advantage of WM2003SE screen rotation ability. Thumb pad is still usable but it's weird to type with the odd orientation. When you hold and type, you're paying more attention whether you're typing correctly with the super-smaller thumb pad, than typing freely without much worry. The round-protruded key is magically small. I believe users should be able to get used after some time but just cannot type fast.
Performance vs Battery Life
My friend Shaw Kee once said : "I need a responsive device, that's why I'm aiming for high-performance PXA27x processor, I just can't stand with any phone running TI OMAP 195MHz, they're too slow to navigate and i could easily lost my patience with it! Sometimes I lost my temper too!"
If you think like Shaw Kee, and if performance is at critical on your need, then you got to forget about those running 195MHz PocketPC phone device. BenQ P50 operates at 416MHz, not as powerful as those high-end PDA, but is much responsive than 195MHz device. Though typical PocketPC phone can't go any further in term of clock-speed due to battery consumption that drains drastically to sustain the always-on wireless function and PDA activity, unless one day there is a significant improvement on battery life. P50 battery life wasn't good, it's still able to sustain for a day use but not for heavy phone user. I don't have a stat to show you guys but if you know yourself a heavy user, then you might want to invest in getting additional battery or car charger.
P50 as Phone It's always interesting to observe when using a PDA phone as a phone especially when it's first build as a PDA but add-on to have phone feature. The wireless come secondary but provide a high-degree of convenience as a single device. Besides the common features that can be found on other similar machine, I appreciate that all the buttons are within the reach when user holding the device, be it camera, changing volumn, dialing, end call (also used as exit/okay button for other application to go back to Today's screen), finding contact & etc - all can be done with single hand. Cell reception is better than MPx, as well as Wifi. In fact, P50 is superior than MPx in acquiring Wifi signal and it connects faster. Although the key pad is smaller than the normal size found on typical phone, it still provides the user an alternative to utilize more keys especially the alphabet. At anytime the priority is given to the numeric key, where it'll bring up the dialpad (phone mode) if any of them are being pressed, such as when you're at Today's screen. However, in note taking or any circumstances when alphabet is at priority, it'll be function as normal keyboard. When taking candid shots, the camera responded well with immediate flash, picture shown up in shorter-period depending on resolution, but not as long as SE T630. You can't go wrong when using P50 as a phone except voice recognition. When navigating through voice, it's quite hard to get a word match especially Chinese name, and it always recognized 2 as 0, and this has been verified with my colleague who has good england so you got to just live with/without it.
P50 as Remote Control
Yes, you read me right, a remote control! The BenQ P50 comes with Universal Remocon which ahs which comes with a hude list of devices (TV, DVD, VCR, AIRCON, HIFI, etc). Combo with the Wifi you can actually surfing internet and switching TV channels all at once. And of cause like most remote control software, it provide learning ability as well. I tested it at a few TV at home and they all work great from distance. Great isn't it ;)
switch on the aircon please...
Camera/Video Recording
The camera feature of P50 is consider moderate. The Image quality is slightly better than O2 (personal opinion). Here's 2 photo for comparison, one taken at the back alley while the sun is shining bright and the other is taking my fish tank (low lighting)
Image can be taken as JPEG with 4 resolutions -- 176x144, 320x240, 640x480 and 1280x960 (an additional mode 96x96 for ImageID). Like SE K750i, the unit come with a focus assist/flash which will light up when taking photo. You have option to turn it off, or turn it to always on. Multishot is also supported (with minimum 1 second interval). There is also settings for Contrast, Brightness, White Balance, Effects (B&W, Sepia etc). You can also add a template frame to the photo taken to make it fancy.
Video Recording captures video at 320x240 or 176x144 in 3gp format (no FPS settings given). The length is only limited by remaining RAM size, but you can save the recording to external SD memory card.
Conclusion
Depends on your needs, how you prioritize your needs, the BenQ P50 might or might not be your perfect device. It has most of the standard PDA phone features such as Bluetooth, Wifi, pre-GPRS/CSD/MMS/WAP settings, 64MB ROM & 64MB RAM (provides a possible migration path to WM5), universal remote control for your home appliances, nice screen & no antenna yet good reception with clear voice. Although the battery life wasn't good, it's able to sustain a day-use but most importantly either the usage of P50 as a phone or PDA, it'll never let you down with its responsiveness and fast acquiring to Wifi signal. P50 is better than O2 Mini for its built-in Wifi and thumb pad, also addressed its position well with other XDA2 devices in term of form factor. After a week uses, P50 is clearly a stable machine.
One word -> rock solid rich features device!
Review unit courtesy of Future Thots Sdn Bhd. Visit www.mysmartbenq.com for more info.
