BenQ Unveils Gaggle of Consumer Gadgets
LCD TVs, wireless hubs and keyboards, cameras and a combo card reader/DVD player sparkle at Comdex.Tom Spring, PCWorld.com
LAS VEGAS-- The catchphrase is "gadgets" here at Comdex, and BenQ is competing for the crown with its blizzard of consumer products. Unveiled here are a flat-panel LCD TV, digital cameras, a smorgasbord of wireless products, and a five-in-one card reader that doubles as a DVD player for your TV.
Shoot and Scan
BenQ, the affiliate of Taiwan's Acer Group, is plunging into consumer electronics in a wide variety of markets. From the tiny and shiny department, BenQ's offerings include two digital cameras: One a high-end model, the other entry-level.
The DC1500 is an affordable 1.3-megapixel camera priced at $129. It comes with 8MB of built-in memory and a postage stamp-size display for picture preview and review. The DC4500 digital camera is a higher-end 4-megapixel offering that runs $399 equipped with a 3X zoom lens and a 16MB CompactFlash card.
If scanning images is more your cup of tea, BenQ is unveiling two flatbed scanners supporting the higher-speed transfer technology USB 2.0. The 2400 dot-per-inch scanner model S2W7400UT sells for $199 and ships with transparency scanning support for slides and film negatives. BenQ also is introducing a 1200 dpi flatbed scanner, model S2W6400UT, with transparency support, priced at $149.
LCD and Other Input
BenQ is introducing a number of flat panel displays that push LCDs into handling jobs far more exciting than viewing static desktop applications. For TV buffs it is showing the model H200, a wall-mountable 20-inch LCD with a built-in TV tuner card for $1599. 
A more affordable 15-inch flat panel option is priced at $499. BenQ is touting the LCD as bright and fast enough to render video images without producing any annoying artifacts.
BenQ is also showing a number of input devices. Among them is the AM305, a bundled package of wireless keyboard and optical mouse for $79. The keyboard has multimedia and Internet shortcut keys, and a sleek design that is thinner than most keyboards with a slightly arched form.
For the mobile crowd, BenQ is showing a number of foldable keyboards that connect to Palm, Sony, and Pocket PC handheld devices. Among the most interesting is the wireless $129 G7RO-IRDA infrared foldable keyboard, which requires no docking in order to link to a PDA.
Wireless Wares
Several wireless BenQ products are also taking flight this week. New are a host of 802.11 Wi-Fi gadgets, along with infrared wireless keyboards and mice for desktop PCs and PDAs.
Chief among wireless 802.11a offerings is a $250 LAN package, the CWL100. Through software enhancements, it purportedly doubles the normal speed of the Wi-Fi specification from 54 Mbps to 108 Mbps.
For the other end of wireless transmissions is the AWL400 802.11b USB Wi-Fi receiver for notebooks and desktops. The receiver is about the size of a pack of chewing gum and sells for $70.
If you need dual support for both the 802.11b and 802.11a standards, BenQ has introduced a $150 CWL100 wireless PCMCIA card that can handle both specifications.
Double Duty
So new it's still just a still plastic prototype is BenQ's $199 Boomer, a five-in-one card reader that does double duty as a DVD player for your TV.
Scheduled for release early in 2003, Boomer is a USB 2.0 DVD-ROM and digital audio player that comes equipped with audio and video output for connecting to a television or home stereo.
The unit has a base station with a small display to view and navigate audio files on a CD or DVD. The base station also has standard stop, play, and pause navigational buttons. BenQ's card reader also supports reading and writing to storage cards including Sony Memory Sticks, CompactFlash, and Secure Digital.
BenQ is also introducing a fast and affordable CD-RW drive, the model 5224P, which the company says can burn 650MB of data in two minutes. The internal 54X24X52 CD-RW will run you $129.