Six months is an eternity by mobile standards; BenQ apparently knows that, already showing its C30 the door in favor of the C36. The new model carries over most of the C30's design cues but upgrades the VGA cam to 1.3 megapixels and swaps out the 1.8-inch 160 x 128 display for a moderately more generous 2-inch 220 x 176 one. Music is the real name of the game here, though, with dedicated controls atop the device, stereo speakers, and microSD expansion -- all of which will come in handy, we think, as you're waiting eons for web pages to load on the archaic GPRS radio. Look for it to launch in Indonesia this month with other countries following on shortly.

[Via Slashphone]

LG may be about to deliver the thinnest device at 5 megapixels, but at 8.9mm, BenQ's new T60 is holding down the 3.2 megapixel camp with some serious hotness. The slick candybar features a 2.2 inch QVGA display, "high quality media player" (whatever that means), integrated radio, 24MB of onboard memory, and microSD expansion -- you know, for actually making the camera and music player useful. BenQ's touting the whole package as being "affordable," too, which makes sense considering that the data flow appears to top off at measly GPRS speeds. Look for it to launch in Taiwan, Turkey, and Bangladesh this month -- quite a hodgepodge of countries if you ask us -- this month.

[Via IntoMobile and Mobilewhack]

Remember this little gem? We're pretty sure the SL98 "reverse slider" went the same way as BenQ Siemens itself -- south, that is -- but there's been at least one more chance here to get in on one of the world's most bizarre form factors. eBay's German outpost recently turned up a listing for an SL98 prototype with a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, microSD slot, and QVGA display -- and while we don't know if we trust the mechanism to work flawlessly on some funky early hand-built handset, how the heck else are you going to get one? Sadly, the auction has already ended -- but maybe, if you're really lucky, the buyer will relist with a premium tacked on.

[Via Unwired View and gizmos.es]

GSM handsets have a nasty tendency to become paperweights (albeit paperweights that can place calls to 911) when they find themselves missing nothing more than a thumbnail-sized piece of plastic -- the almighty SIM card. Ten years ago, that was a fair proposition since phones didn't do much besides make calls, and you need a subscriber identity to do much of that anyway. Fast forward to 2007, though, and phones do a heck of a lot more than call, so why do we still get so much hate when we power on our 'sets without SIMs? BenQ feels your pain, showing its T33 slider -- an all-around midrange musicphone, but the money feature here is that you can pull the SIM and let it function as a music player alone. Other goodies include a 2 megapixel cam, stereo Bluetooth, 220 x 176 display, FM radio, and the obligatory microSD slot. The keypad looks like a nightmare to use, but considering that BenQ's North American handset presence amounts to a big, fat goose egg, we're not too fired up about it.

[Via Fareastgizmos]

Taiwan's OEM reporting pulse -- DigiTimes -- claims that handset makers Asustek, BenQ, Compal and Arima Communications are all "aggressively developing iPhone-like products" for 2008. According to their sources, the devices will run on Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform and target business markets with features such as 3G and GPS. DigiTimes' sources also claim that Nokia will release its Symbian-based "iPhone-like handset" in the first half of 2008. True or not, that's a lot of Apple hate-bait to swallow this early in the morning.

Looking to give candybar (the style, not the food) lovers something new to chew on, BenQ has unveiled the C30 multimedia phone. The GSM handset boasts up to four hours of talk time (250 hours on standby), an integrated camera, a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution display, movie clip recording functionality, support for MP3 / AAC / WAV formats, an FM radio, and a microSD slot for loading up your tunes. No word yet on pricing or availability, but it shouldn't demand too terribly much. Click on for a couple of closeups.

As if there wasn't enough scandal surrounding the bankruptcy of BenQ Mobile, the dead handset company has just filed its third lawsuit since July against former parent company BenQ. This time BenQ Mobile's insolvency administrator Martin Prager wants €26 million Euro ($36 million US) to pay executive bonuses that BenQ the parent approved, but BenQ Mobile had to pay after BenQ pulled the investment plug. In July Prager filed two lawsuits that amounted to €80 million ($110 million US) for account payables made by BenQ Mobile to BenQ in 2006. BenQ's considering counterclaims against those July suits.

Although BenQ has been through more reshuffling and renaming in the past few years than we care to ponder on, the remnants of a mobile division could be cranking out a trio of new handsets this August. DigiTimes has it that the E72, M7, and T51 could hit store shelves in the second half of August after the firm's SF71 (pictured), but not much was known outside of that. Interestingly, Hank Hung, general manager of BenQ Taiwan, was quoted as saying that the company had hopes to move "250,000 handsets in Taiwan" before the year's end, and if it plans to keep on producing mobiles in the years to come, it better be right.

So there's nothing really cool or integrated about this -- and the concept of estimating body fat by measuring impedance is nothing new -- but the marriage of a cellphone with a function to remind us of what fat slobs we are is just too good of a patent app to pass up. The design really couldn't be any simpler; BenQ's basically just thinking about slapping a couple electrodes on the side of a phone that you'll touch to get a measurement. If only they had a device on there to measure BenQ's own weak pulse, they'd be all set.

[Via Unwired View]

Although rumors of the BenQ-Siemens SF71 have floated around the web for quite a while now, will the handset be released any time soon? The SF71's shiny metal "armor plating" and flat keypad stay hip to the brushed-metal housings we're seeing in fashionphones these days -- and with UMTS, a microSD slot and Bluetooth 2.0 along with a QVGA display and 2 megapixel cam, specs are right in the mix, too. Alas, with BenQ-Siemens falling on really hard times these days, even this armor-plated phone may not be able to save the company from shooting itself in the foot.

[Via Unwired View]

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo has a beef to pick with BenQ Mobile, a sponsor of the Real Madrid soccer team. The problem? BenQ Mobile has filed bankruptcy and Ronaldo wants his, umm, cash. While we're quite sure celebrity endorsements are fine and dandy, perhaps Ronaldo's contract should have stipulated payment up front. Regardless, the European soccer sensation is looking for at least 20 percent of what he agreed to in the BenQ Mobile endorsement contract. With former employees of BenQ Mobile sitting on the bench with owed monies as well, Ronaldo may be waiting a while for his cut.

[Via I4U News, thanks to Ali and Number_42 for the corrections]

Can it really be true? One year after announcing the P51 (we had a hands-on at CeBIT 2006 for crissake), BenQ has finally released the damn thing beyond the confines of China... and Singapore and Turkey too, apparently. Don't even get us started on the P50 this handset was meant to follow. It doesn't look like there's anything new on this FCC approved handset, but hey, we'll run down the specs again anyway: quad-band GSM / GPRS (that's right, not even EDGE), 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, A2DP Bluetooth, SDIO slot, and 1.3 megapixel cam with a 2.83-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC to dance upon. We agree, a bit rusty for a 2007 release.