Camera Phones Plaza

BenQ-Siemens has not been around all that long as a handset manufacturer, but the company has quite a range of phones under its belt and its flagship at the moment is the EF81, a slimline, flip, tri-band GSM with 3G affair.

Inside and out the colour scheme is a mix of two shades of silver and black. A large proportion of the outer fascia is given over to brushed steel and the number pad on the inside is also made of this. Adonised aluminium forms the back of the casing, while the front display is protected by hardened glass. The overall impression is of materials that should handle the knocks a modern phone expects to encounter.

BenQ-Siemens EF81 gets away with a single camera for video calling and stills shooting by locating it on the hinge so that it swivels when you open and close the clam. With the clam closed the camera faces the back of the handset, with the clam opened it swivels to the front.

Using a single camera may have helped achieve the slim design of the EF81, but it is a bit hampering when it comes to shooting stills and video because you can’t swivel the lens manually. With the clam opened you can only shoot stills and video of yourself. With it closed you can shoot away from yourself but have to use the front screen to frame shots and its relatively small size makes things far more difficult than they would be using the internal screen.

The camera shoots stills at up to 1.2 megapixels. It lacks a flash for indoor use, colours are not as vivid as they could be and I had trouble producing shots that were not blurred. It is below the quality I would expect from a high-end handset like this.

The conclusion is that BenQ-Siemens’ EF81 could be an alternative for anyone considering buying Motorola’s RAZR V3x. But you shouldn’t expect a great deal from the camera when shooting stills.

Read full review here.