MP3, LCD and cams from BenQ
One of the busiest stands at CES belongs to Taiwanese company BenQ which in the space of just a year has shifted from being known only as an LCD TV maker for other companies to a true worldwide consumer electronics brand. That Euro 2004 ad money really was well spent. Pride of place at its CES showcase went to its Joybee 720, its first ever hard disk based MP3 player. Due to launch in the summer with a price tag of around $400, the model is compatible with MP3, WMA and WAV files, features a five Gigabyte ha rd disk, comes with a colour screen for displaying both JPEGs and album artwork and also boasts an FM radio.
BenQ also confirmed that its P50 smartphone would finally start shipping in February. The P50 is microsoft Pocket PC OS model featuring Word, Excel and Pocket Explorer. It boasts a 2.8inch screen, features 64MB of memory, has a 1.3 mega pixel digital camera and MPEG4 video playing facilities. There’s also a full QWERTY keyboard on board as well as Bluetooth and Java. On the LCD TV front, the company unveiled a huge range with the standout being a 46-inch home cinema friendly screen.
Finally in among DVD recorders, optical storage devices and new Joybook laptop PCs is a range of four digital cameras. Pick of the bunch is the six mega pixel DC C62, which also comes with a 3x optical zoom, fast one second start up and 19 scene modes. Also interesting is the DC E41 a four mega pixel snapper unusual in that it has a two inch touch screen that enables its owners to add handwritten messages to images. It also features an MP3 player and comes in red, gold and blue.
