BenQ - DC X725

It was only a couple of months ago that we were admiring the slimness of BenQ's T700 digital camera, which was a shade under 15mm thick. Like the X725, the T700 was about the dimensions of a credit card, boasted 7 megapixels and had a display screen resolution of 232,000 pixels.

The other parallel was that both cameras were geared towards the style conscious, as the X725 - like its predecessor - comes in four stainless steel colours (stern black, pearl white, dramatic red and cool silver) and because of its dimensions (officially 91 x 60 x 14.7mm), slips handily into a pocket or handbag.

However, it's not just in price that the X725 falls below the T700, as there's a mixture of missing elements as well as an unusual array of controls that makes this model inferior to its more impressive brother. For instance, the T700 had a 3-inch touch screen display and the X725 dispenses with the touch system and opts for a 2.5-inch LCD screen.

Both cameras do, on the other hand, capture video at 30fps in MPEG4 format and have three movie modes with resolutions of 640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 128. While unfortunately both also have an in-built meagre 12MB storage, requiring an SD slot for vital extra capacity, happily both have a Super Shake-Free capability and an SMC Pentax lens.

The ISO limit on the X725 is exactly the same as the T700 (4000) yet surprisingly the image quality suffers severely in terms of colour, sharpness and image noise once you start using anything but the lower ISO settings in low light conditions. Curiously the X725 has no fewer than 29 scene mode settings, including such ultra refinements as Building, Soft Flowing Water, Food and Museum as well as six white balance settings.

There are three additional effects modes (sepia, vivid and black & white) plus the usual variations in sharpness, saturation and contrast, three compression settings and five flash options. There's a good selection of bundled software too, including Ulead VideoStudio 8, Ulead Photo Express 5 and Ulead Photo Explorer 8, and it's Pictbridge compatible.

We can't finish assessing the X725, though, without mentioning the other anomaly which is the arrangement of the controls on the back panel. The zoom control at the top is followed by a large thumb-rest and then two tiny buttons for stills and video, which makes choosing the right photo mode awkward at best. A more meaty square control dial lies below these and then a further two miniscule buttons for menu and delete. These are anything but user-friendly.(itreviews.co.uk)