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.

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]

Siemens' SL75 slider is all growed up now, and besides adding 5 to the model number, the SL80 (now by BenQ-Siemens, of course) seems to have developed an affinity for the fairer sex. Unlike its older sibling, the SL80 is only available in the decidedly feminine "Mauve Sensation," and BenQ is pulling no punches in saying the phone is aimed squarely at women. Skimming through the specs, it seems to be a modest upgrade from the SL75, offering an identical shell and button layout, the same tri-band GSM and EDGE support, 1.3-megapixel camera, 52MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, and music player. In fact, the more we look, the more it seems the SL80 is just a pink SL75. The boys among us are feeling far less excluded now than they were a few minutes ago; as for the ladies, you can pick up your own Mauve Sensation starting in October.

[Via Slashphone]

Suffering from one of the most excruciatingly long, drawn-out releases in smartphone history, BenQ's, uh, Treo 600-killing P50 had already fallen behind the pack by the time it made it to the masses. That being said, it's still a unique Windows Mobile device -- albeit 2003 Second Edition -- and worthy of an in-depth review, especially considering its quadband GSM capability. MobileTechReview's done the honors for us here, noting that the P50 is bundled with an array of high-quality accessories, including a screen protector (hallelujah). Build quality was found to be impressive, as was size, though anyone migrating from a Treo will find little difference there. The P50's 416MHz XScale satisfies the speed demon in us in ways most other Pocket PC phones have not, but the 128MB combined ROM and RAM is a disappointment -- a complaint the P51 happily addresses. In the end, MobileTechReview finds the P50's flaws too great to justify the cost of admission. With nothing but GPRS for data, we agree, especially with a successor waiting in the wings.

In the event Europeans are still unhappy with their selection of 3G-capable devices, BenQ's trying to come to the rescue this week, showing their UMTS SL91 slider and E81 candybar -- along with the more pedestrian EDGE-only E71. All three handsets share some visual cues, sporting glossy black finishes and rounded lines, though the similarities mostly end there; potentially most interesting of the three is the SL91, a Chocolate-esque, "mysteriously opaque" device featuring the LG phone's now-trademark disappearing navigation keys. Besides UMTS, the SL91 goes big with a 3.2-megapixel camera, QVGA display, and FM radio with RDS. One notch down the food chain is the E81, giving up some screen real estate with its 220 x 176 display and trading 3.2 megapixels for the more standard 1.3, but mercifully hanging on to the microSD slot. Finally, the EDGE-only E71 steps back up to QVGA, but the real draw here should be its "innovative non-stick coating" that promises to hide fingerprints on its shiny exterior. All three phones look to drop before the year's out, though odds are slim Americans are invited to the party. That's alright, BenQ; we prefer our phones good and smudged with fingerprints, anyway.

[Via Reg Hardware]