Construction & Conclusion
On paper, the Benq P50 offers just about everything a power user could want from a
PDA phone: WiFi, QWERTY keyboard, Touchscreen, Megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and an operating system that supports Web browsing and Email out of the box and is customizable via myriad downloadable applications. While the phone didn't entirely disappoint me, I'm sorry to say that it didn't live up to my expectations, either.
The main problem I had with the P50 lay in its industrial design. For a device so large, the keyboard was frustratingly difficult to use. As such I found myself writing on the touchscreen with the stylus much more than typing, which made me wish I had a device that gave up the QWERTY board in favor of a smaller overall size. Though the Treo 600/650/700 phones have similar designs, they are overall wider devices with easier to use keyboards. Newer Pocket PC devices like the T-Mobile MDA feature horizontally-oriented keyboards that slide out from under the screen and are also more comfortable to use, though the phones are overall thicker and heavier than the P50.
The other issue with the P50 is the reality of using WiFi on a phone. No Pocket PC or Palm OS device can do everything a can. As such, the utility in mobile Internet access comes in quick bursts of access to text-heavy content such as checking Email and downloading driving directions, movie times, news./stocks/sports updates, and the like. High-speed cellular networks aren't as fast as WiFi, but they are fast enough for basic information retrieval. Additionally, most cellular data users will have network access wherever they have phone service, whereas an open WiFi network can't always be found. This may change in the next few years, but for now I found using a WiFi-enabled phone more of a novelty than a practical solution any connectivity problem; if I really want mobile access to the Internet, I think I'd be better off spending my money on an EDGE-equipped phone and T-Mobile's $6/month mobile Internet plan than a WiFi handheld like the P50. There's nothing worse than thinking you've got the Web in your pocket only to find that you've got to go back home in order to connect to a network.
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3.5
