BenQ E72 Review

Inside this Review

• Design
• Phone and Messaging
• Entertainment and Productivity
• Battery Life
• Specifications
• Conclusion

Design

The BenQ E72 is a simple "candybar" Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone. It can pass very easily for a simple featurephone, despite the 2-inch, QVGA (320 by 240 pixel) display. It's an absolute beauty, and sits as one of the most impressive aspects of the E72.

Below the screen sits a large directional pad flanked by six application buttons (2 softkeys, call, end/power, home, and back). On a phone this size, it's great to have such a large directional pad, but the surrounding buttons are too close and offer little positive feedback.

Below those buttons are the 12 numeric keypad buttons. They look better than they feel, but they are large enough to dial and text efficiently.

The left side features a Messaging shortcut button and a voice recorder button. The right side has the volume up/down buttons and the exposed mini-USB port.

The only exterior port, the mini-USB is the power port and the headset jack. Unfortunately, both cannot be used at the same time. Thankfully the USB 2.0 speeds keep this perceived weakness to a minimum.

The back side of the E72 has a single (loud and clear) speaker, 2.0 megapixel camera, and the cover for the 900 mAh battery. Also hidden in the battery area is the SIM card slot and microSD card slot.

Overall, it's a simple design that just works. And at just over 4.25 inches (108mm) long and 0.5 inches (13.8mm) thick, it just slides ever so nicely into a pocket or purse.

Phone and Messaging

Because this is a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone, the phone and messaging aspects are pretty well established. That being said, there's nothing about the E72 that sets it apart from other smartphones -- or even some featurephones.

As with all devices running Microsoft's mobile operating system, interactions start with the Today Screen. This one is a bit different than some of the other non-touchscreen Windows Mobile devices in that the information is a bit more compacted. That being said, it's as simple as dialing a number to get either the contacts or the most recently called numbers that match what you're dialing.

Voice quality is generally pretty decent. For activating the speaker phone or doing much else while on a call, it would be better if you used a headset (wired or wireless) and then doing the actions, as the speaker is clear when near your ear, but drops off in sound intensity when about a foot away.

SMS, MMS, and email are all all handed from the Messaging application. Threaded SMS is present, as in other Windows Mobile 6 phones.

While the keypad is great for dialing and short messages, it's not so good for email. That, along with the size of the screen, makes the E72 a better "reading" device than a messaging one. It's got the power for it, but the hardware design of the keys can quickly turn you away.

It does support Microsoft's Push email system, so you can have you work email constantly synchronized if your company uses Microsoft Exchange.

Overall, it's nothing exciting, but it does just work. Ironically enough, friends who saw the E72 marveled at the design -- so much is packed into a small package. Compared to their phones, it was an upgrade worth them looking into.

Entertainment and Productivity

The E72 comes with a 2 megapixel camera, multi-IM client, RSS reader, Fizz Traveler clock and weather forecast application, Internet Explorer Mobile, Audio Notes, Windows Media player, a 2D barcode reader, and a voice command system called Speech Commander.

The camera and music abilities are simple and to the point. There's nothing flashy about either, and by adding a microSD card you could pretty much have a simple solution for entertainment while commuting.

The E72 uses the mini-USB port as a headset jack, but comes with an adapter, so no worries on that issue.

A note about the camera: like the ones built into many mobile devices, it's not very good unless you are out on a very sunny day. This one is also hampered by a very small on-screen viewfinder and slightly confusing controls.

From the productivity end, you would be better off leaving the work for something a bit more heavy duty, or picking up a Redfly to get things done. There's no Office suite bundled with the E72, and Internet Explorer Mobile isn't very good, which takes this device down a couple notches.

There's no 3G, but this mobile does have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. But like I said, there's not much you need a high-speed data connection for; it's kind of a waste for just email.

Overall, like the phone features, its nothing exciting, but it does just work. A bit easier to handle user interface would go a long way here, and thankfully, there are loads of third-party software to smooth some of those rough edges.

Battery Life

Thankfully, the battery life makes you forget that the BenQ E72 not a be-all-do-all kind of device. Normal use had it lasting 2 full days before the first low-battery warning. This included 4 hours of calls, some Web browsing and music, and being connected to Exchange ActiveSync for Push email.

Spending more time with browsing or tethering will take that time down, but for most who would like to have a simple smartphone with abilities at their disposal, this is more than good enough.

Specifications

Platform: Windows Mobile 6.0
Memory: 128MB ROM, 64MB RAM (with about 24MB available on boot)
Display: QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) screen, 2.0 inches
Wireless:
     Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900)
     Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
     Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
Camera: 2.0 megapixel camera, w/video
Battery: 900 mAh
Size: 4.25 in. by 1.8 in. by 0.54 in. (108 x 46.3 x 13.8 mm)

Conclusion

The BenQ E72 is a bit of a causality of the Windows Mobile ecosystem. On one hand, it's a well designed and well placed smartphone for those who would only occasionally want that kind of function and ability. But on the other hand, the lack of publication about it, and increasing amount of competitors makes this something where its "not flashy" personality works against it.

Still, I found the eXpansys deal selling the E72 for $130 a hard one to pass up for a phone to keep on the side when I don't need the power of my normal pocket devices. That, plus solid build quality and usability for the basic tasks granted it a sense of appeal.

Whether that appeal would work for others is a bit of a challenging proposition. If it were sold from a carrier, this would be a free phone, making it a heck of a deal. As it stands, it's only going to be seen by those who know to look outside of the normal phone-purchasing sphere, where gems speak softly, and normally outside the eyes of normal fame.