S88

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The most unapreciated BenQ-Siemens

May 21, 2008

Rating: 8 out of 10 (Excellent)
Pros: Design, construction, screen, camera, audio
Cons: minor issues with software, sometimes slow
Opinion:
Well i bought it one year ago. All i can say is this phone is awesome for what it coasted.
Design:
Not only is very well designed in my opinion, but in the critics too, it received an IF award in 2006. I´s strikes with a classic design, and it feels solid, like it will last forever, you don´t year or feel any cheap plastic hands like with other mobile phones out there.It´s very portable and medium weight.

Screen:
One of the best out there. For those who don´t know, this phone features a decent OLED screen. It´s far superior to any TFT screen specialy in contrast ratio or color rendering, soon TV sets will use this technology. Pictures in the main screen looks simply amazing, looks like their real. The only drawback is the behaviour under sun light, not only is hard but you also notice the quick blinking of the diodes, which is annoying to the human eye.

Camera:
This phone boost an 2MP autofocus camera,which is still decent even nowadays. The camera is very good, have many settings, except for the shooting button which is a bit slower.You can also record videos, but only in 3Gp format.

Audio:
The loudspeaker volume is very good, ad you hardly miss a call, same goes if you´re having a conversation in loudspeaker mode. Listening to an mp3 song is a rich experience and sometimes it cause envy to other phones, the audio quality is perfect just as good as a SonyEricsson.

The bad:
Software:
Like many said, this not a Siemens phone, even if the logo says Siemens. This was an entirely BenQ made phone, which has it´s advantages but also disadvantages.
When typing sms, it gets slow when i pass the 160 characters, or when i press the dial green button to see the last dialed numbers it takes almoust 3sec just to show the list, same happens with the shourt cut menu. The MMS editor if you have a picture in the slide and you´re editing the text is really slow.
The JAVA is bad and it don´t run almoust anything, which is no problem to me because i don´t use it.
But it´s very stable unlike Siemens and until now i never had to call assistance like with my older Siemens phones.



Conclusion:
Autonomy can last between 2/4 days, it has also the power saving option.
If you´re looking for an atractive phone, reliable, good screen, camera and audio qualitity, and perfomance isn´t that important the S88 is still an excelent choice. It was also cheap, and the box set has all including daat cable and headphones.
If perfomance is the choice for you, look for a smart phone.


It´s a shame that this phone didn´t have the deserved adverticement, because it´s one of the Best products of BenQ-Siemens era. I intend to keep it until it last