First 'Super 3G' phones coming July?

BenQ Mobile has brought forward the release of its first mobile phone to support the HSDPA data speed boosting extension to 3G technology. According to online reports, BenQ's EF91 will ship in Europe in July courtesy of a deal struck with T-Mobile.

The claim comes via "market sources" cited by DigiTimes. How much earlier the phone is coming is open to question: the report points to an original launch date in Q4, but at the EF91's announcement in February, BenQ said the phone would ship in the "summer".

In addition to HSDPA, EF91 sports a 2in, 240 x 320, 262,144-colour screen to show downloaded content at is best, 3D surround sound to enhance audio playback and is fitted with a Micro SD slot for media storage. BenQ didn't say much else about the phone's specifications, but Bluetooth is certainly in the mix. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The report also claims HTC will ship its 'Muse' HSDPA handset in Q3, initially under the Qtek brand as the S300. HTC said in November 2005, its HSDPA handsets would ship in H2 2006, with the specific launch window presumably dependent on carriers launching commercial HSDPA services. That's expected to happen sooner rather than later, so a Q3 release seems reasonable.

HTC has a second HSDPA device in the works, codenamed 'Breeze'. Last year, it was claimed the candybar Breeze offers a 320 x 240 display, 1.3 megapixel camera, 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash. Muse is said to have 4GB of Flash and integrated stereo speakers - it's essentially HTC's bid for iPod market share. It also has an FM radio, 240 x 240 display and a 2.1 megapixel camera, according to online reports. ®