[Tech & Gadgets]

BenQ has been in the market since 2001, and they are mostly known in Malaysia for their cost-effective business/ enterprise PC monitors with low-blue light technology to protect your eyes, and their higher end gaming PC monitors. BenQ also sells consumer cameras, and consumer and enterprise projectors here in Malaysia. What I was surprised to find out is that BenQ actually has been making phones for a while, and they’ve decided to enter the Malaysian smartphone market with their latest flagship smartphone – the BenQ F5.

The BenQ F5 has a 5″ screen and weights in at 135g. and has a 2,520 mAh battery giving it talk time up to 24 hours and 550 hours of standby time. The F5 is powered by 4G LTE High Speed Main chip (Cat.4), which will enable you to enjoy high-speed download of up to 150Mbps (depending on your network of course) and you can say goodbye to buffering videos or long downloading times.

The key feature of the F5 is its 13MP rear camera with F2.2 aperture, and a 4x ultra sensitivity mode – an innovative technology developed by BenQ that enhances picture quality in various light settings. The ultra sensitivity mode works to give you brighter photos even in dark or dimly lighted spots, and the picture quality is further supported with BSI (Backside Illumination), providing four times light-capturing of each pixel to create clearer shots.

The also has a Smile Detection Mode which automatically snaps a pic when it detects your smile or you could opt to use the F5’s Voice Control Shutter, which automatically snaps a picture with a voice command.

For those of you who like to take videos, the video mode comes with the HFR (High Frame Rate) feature that enables you to capture split second videos. It also gives you the flexibility to record video and snap still photos at the same time.

As I mentioned above, BenQ is known for its PC monitors and the F5 benefits from the technology from their monitors. Usage of electronic devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones increases your exposure to blue light which can be harmful to your eyes and may cause age-related macular degeneration which can lead to significant vision loss.

Addressing the issue of blue light, the BenQ F5 has a low blue light feature where you can fine-tune the brightness level that is friendly to the eyes depending on three common scenarios; multimedia (-30%), web browsing (-50%) and reading (-70%). If you’re a person who’s constantly looking at your smartphone screen, this feature will be beneficial to your eye health.

The F5 runs on Android Kitkat (4.4.2) and comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage with a microSD card slot to accommodate cards up to 64GB.

The F5 is currently available in black and white at a recommended retail price of RM699.00

There’s also a more affordable smartphone from BenQ – the T3 which is also LTE enabled, has a 4.5″ screen, and runs on Android Kitkat. The T3 has a 8MP rear camera and is available at a recommended retails price of RM499.00

Both the F5 and T3 come with an exclusive free casing and screen protector.

I’ll be bringing the BenQ F5 around with me so do follow me on Instagram http://instagram.com/timchew1311 or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/timchewkc to see the photos that I’ll be taking with the phone.

More info at http://www.benq.com.my/ or follow BenQ Malaysia on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BenQMalaysia

 

Mei Sze also has a BenQ F5 with her and to see her photos taken with the phone you can follow her on Instagram at http://instagram.com/choomeisze

 

PRODUCT SPECS

Core Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8926 1.2 GHz quad-core processor
OS	Android Kitkat(4.4.2)；Q Home UI
Network	GSM / GPRS / EDGE: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz WCDMA / HSPA+: 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz LTE (Cat.4): 1800 / 2600 MHz Up to 150 Mbps (download) / 50 Mbps (upload)
Integrated camera	Rear camera: 13 megapixels with BSI sensor, f/2.2 aperture Front camera: 2 megapixels
Interal Memory	RAM: 2 GB Total storage: 16 GB Expansion slot: Supports microSD card, up to 64 GB
Size	Size
Weight	135g
Color	Elegant White/Fashion Black
Talk Time	24hrs(3G)
Standby Time	550hrs(3G)
SIM card Type	microSIM
Interface	“3.5 mm audio jack WLAN (802.11 b/g/n supported) USB 2.0″
Video Functions/Files Supported	H.263, H.264 AVC, Mp4, 3gp, 3gpp2, VP8
Audio Functions	AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-WB, AMR-NB, FLAC, MP3, MIDI, Ogg, PCM, WAV
Ring Tones	AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-WB, AMR-NB, FLAC, MP3, MIDI, Ogg, PCM, WAV
Standard Travel Charger	5V1A
Others	G-sensor, Gyro, E-compass, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor
Screen Size	5-inch
Resolution	HD1280 x 720
Panel	IPS wide viewing angle
Messaging	YES
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0
GPRS	YES
Headphone-out	YES
Standard Li-lon Battery*	2,520 mAh