According to a MacWorld report, BenQ plans to release both a smartphone and a netbook based on Google’s open source OS.

Sadly, the Taiwan-based company didn’t give further details about the products.

An Android phone can help BenQ gain some market share in the mobile world (assuming that the phone is designed and build properly), while an Android netbook would make the company’s portfolio more diversified – BenQ currently offers only Windows-based netbooks.

BenQ is not a newbie in the smartphone world, as it already has Symbian and WinMo handsets, like the BenQ E72 and the older BenQ P50 pictured below:

Last time we heard something about a phone made by the company was when the BenQ Royal won the iF Product Design Award 2009. Well, let’s hope the BenQ Android phone will also be a winner – if not in design, at least in functionality.

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Called BenQ Royal, the device is a candybar presented by the manufacturer as “a smart phone with powerful functions including a personalized interface and internet live messenger to make both mobility and communication easier”.

BenQ also says the handset incorporates a touch-sensitive area, located “behind the main screen” – on the back cover, apparently – which lets users turn e-book pages or browse photo/music files with ease.

Other than that, we know the Royal has a 3.2 MP camera with autofocus, and that’s about it – no info on its screen resolution, connectivity or other features.

Details about the availability of BenQ Royal were not unveiled. 

Source: BenQ via iTech News

• HTC is working on next gen “Virtual Book” touch UI
• BenQ Android phone, netbook prepared for 2010
• BenQ Siemens SL98 reverse slider shows up on German E-Bay
• Samsung F480 review
• BenQ Siemens SF71 Armor Plated UMTS Clamshell

BenQ SL98 was clearly an early prototype and with all the financial woes at BenQ Siemens cellphone unit in Germany, I thought that we’ll never see this phone again.

Well, we still may not see finished SL98 model shipping, but if you want to try whether the concept has any potential, you can head to German E-bay auction, where several working prototypes of BenQ Siemens SL98 are listed:

The phone comes with a working, but not yet very stable firmware.

BenQ SL98 specs include:

• 1.8″ QVGA (240×320 px) 262K color display,
• 1.3 mpx camera
• Bluetooth
• 64 MB of internal memory
• microSD memory card slot
• 600 mAh battery for 5 hrs of talk and 12 days of stand-by time
• dimensions: 84×48x15.3 mm

These phones are probably the clearance sales from the bankrupt division and/or disgruntled employees.

But BenQ still is in the mobile handset business and has probably retained the rights to the phones developed in Germany. So we’ll have to wait some more to see whether BenQ SL98 reverse slider was shelved or is still on track for a better future.

Via Gizmos.es

• BenQ Siemens SF71 Armor Plated UMTS Clamshell
• Google’s mobile offensive. Sony Ericsson, BenQ, who’s next?
• BenQ Android phone, netbook prepared for 2010
• LG KG291 and LG KE590. Two new i-mode sliders for Europe
• Samsung S5600 and S5230 affordable touchscreen handsets announced

Well, actually it looks like there is. And a number of cellphone vendors are working on a interesting new kind of slider, where a phone will have a sliding screen instead of keyboard.

The first phone to use this design was BenqQ Siemens SL98:

But now, the recent patent filings from Asustek and LG show that they are thinking about the mobile sliders along the same lines too.

At first look such design innovation looks pretty stupid and useless. Hiding the screen inside the body of the phone? What’s good about that? But after reading the patents, the idea does not look that stupid anymore.

Just think about it. How often do you really need to actually look into a big screen on your smartphone? It is great for browsing the web, looking at pictures or watching videos. But if the phone is used for it’s primary purpose – making and receiving calls, what you really need to see is a small part of the screen.

That’s what this new kind of slider does. The screen is hidden inside the body of the phone, but part of it is visible through the small transparent window where you can see a few lines of text.

With this design you don’t need a second screen like on clamshell phones, thus saving on manufacturing costs. By hiding mobile phone screen inside, you can protect it from the mechanical damage. You also can have almost all of the phone surface dedicated for the keypad thus having better input controls.

And when you need a bigger screen just pull or push the button and you can have a full fledged smartphone.

Source:
Benq pictures from – USP-Forum.de
Asustek Patent
LG Patent

• New Nokia 6 or 8 Megapixel Imaging Slider in the works?
• Triple slider idea from Nokia
• The new kind of HTC Slider
• Concept Nokia Touchscreen offers liquid-powered tactile feedback
• Two-Way slider patent for Sony Ericsson P5i look-alike

But now we can bring you more information about this phone. It looks like with the release of BenQ SF71, LG KE970 Shine won’t be the only shiny phone anymore:

Armor plated BenQ Siemens SF71 is a tri band GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) + UMTS, 47 (W) x 19 (T)x 95 (L) mm clamshell with 320×240 px, 262K color QVGA screen, dual (2 megapixel and VGA) cameras, 64 MB of internal memory and microSD card support, Bluetooth and USB 2.0 connectivity options.

Via Terminal.hu

• BenQ Siemens SL98 reverse slider shows up on German E-Bay
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