BenQ Showing Off Small Pocket PC Phone

Quite a few new mobile devices are showing up for the first time at the CeBIT tradeshow, going on now in Germany. One of these is a cellular-wireless Pocket PC from BenQ that invites comparison to palmOne's popular Treo 600.

Like the Treo 600, the BenQ P50 will have a small keyboard for writing email and MMS messages. It will also include a 1.3 megapixel camera, while the Treo 600's is just 0.3.

However, the BenQ model will include plenty of features not available in the Treo 600, including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The P50 will run the Phone Edition of Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. The exact clock-speed isn't known yet, but it will have a Bulverde processor, which is the code-name for the next generation of XScale CPUs.

How much memory it will have is also not yet known, and it might not have been determined yet. It will include an SD/MMC slot for additional storage.

Surprisingly Small

Last summer, Microsoft made headlines by removing some of the hardware restrictions it had placed on Pocket PC makers. BenQ is taking advantage of this by including a 2.8-inch screen in the P50, which previously would not have been allowed. This display will be at the Pocket PC standard resolution of 240 by 320 pixels, and it will be able to display 262,000 colors.

This model will be surprisingly small for all it offers: 4.7 inches long, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.8 inches thick (120 by 60 by 20 mm). It will weigh about 5.3 ounces (150 g).

For comparison, the Treo 600 is 4.4 by 2.4 by .9 inches and it weighs about 6 ounces.

The P50 will use GSM/GPRS wireless networks and support 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The fact that it will support 850 MHz is a strong indication that this device is intended for release in the U.S.

The release date for the BenQ P50 is not yet known, though msmobiles.com is reporting that it will be this summer at the earliest.

Related Links

• RumorMill™: New Evidence of the iPAQ h6300 Emerges
• Microsoft Relaxes Pocket PC Hardware Restrictions
• RumorMill™: Faster XScale Processors Coming this May
• The Latest from CeBIT 2004