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From Taiwan with fashion

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Josey Puliyenthuruthel New Delhi
Taiwan is different to different people. For some, it is an island in north Asia that has made a habit of getting the mainland Chinese to see red. But for most others, it is the world's best source of electronic components.

 
In its run to the top of the devices made out of silica, the tiny nation has spawned some decent sized companies: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, United Microelectronics Corp and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Corp to name just the top three leading a large pool of electronics companies.

 
But very few of them have been able to build global brands. TrendMicro Co Ltd, Acer Corp and BenQ Corp are instances. BenQ? A unit of the Stan Shih's Acer set up in 1984 to make LCD panels, storage and imaging devices, BenQ has quickly risen to the top with wireless and broadband products in its stable.

 
The $ 5-billion BenQ recently introduced some of its GSM (global system for mobile communications, a cellular standard) phones in India. I got to review one of them: the top-end S830C model last week. The sleek phone is a GPRS (general packet radio service, which allows for some high-speed surfing and data transfer) enabled camera phone, which is priced (at Rs 14,700) well below its competition.

 
The S830C, aimed at the fashion-conscious, comes in four colours: silver star, dreamy purple, blue diamond and pink coral. The phone is, however, a mite heavier for a device aiming to be a fashion accessory.

 
The flip-phone, has an external LCD screen (like some Samsung and Motorola models), which allows users to review call information. For instance, they can reject or mute calls or check stuff like calendar information.

 
Flip open the phone to a mirror-finished internal LCD screen that is largish. The keypad design allows for a single-touch access to GPRS or camera access. I have a gripe with metallic keypads of fashionable phones and the S830C suffers on the same count. Metallic keys are not thumb-friendly, especially if you are on a long SMS (short messaging service) exchange session.

 
The camera comes as an external attachment, which BenQ touts as the smallest digital camera in the world. It is a smaller than a pack of five chewing gum sticks and can be plugged into the camera into a data port.

 
The swivel design of the camera is quite unique and nifty, but suffers from the problem that most camera phones have. Image quality suffers in poor light and shake. The camera is good only in the brightly-lit indoors or outdoors in the day.

 
The MMS (multimedia messaging service) facility serves well, so does the GPRS access. The phone also boasts of WAP (wireless access protocol) access. I am not sure if this was due to good network coverage, but data access and voice quality on the S830C is good.

 
Perhaps something to do with a small antenna; that incidentally reduces the power of the microwave signal and, in turn, theoretically fries your brain less.

 
The S830C is a Java-enabled, which allows for downloads of games and applications. Four games come pre-loaded with the phone which are very helpful to kill those 30 minutes waiting to board an aircraft.

 
It supports computer data sync, which allows users to share photos, ring tones and information from a PC through infrared or connection cable (which comes free while buying the phone). Contact information can also be shared using compatible email software.

 
At the end of a week's trial, I was reasonably happy with the S830C, especially the external LCD feature. I was not impressed, though, by the user interface which could be a little more intuitive.

 
Yet the price of Rs 14,700 is quite compelling for a GPRS phone with a camera functionality.

 
(The writer works with content company perZuade. His views are personal and may not be endorsed by his employers, the company's investors, customers or vendors. Comments may be sent to josey@perzuade. com)

 

Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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First Published: Nov 06 2003 | 12:00 AM IST

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