It was announced earlier this year that Siemens would stop making cell phones, selling that side of their business (they have other sides?) to BenQ. They seem to be keeping the Siemens brand, at least in the short term, with the launch of the E71, a somewhat bland-looking slim slider phone. The keys are immediately reminiscent of Moto’s RAZR line, with lines harkening to Nokia’s designs.

The E71 sports a 2-inch 262k QVGA display, though websites don’t seem to mention an integrated digital camera, which is surprising. The other run-of-the-mill features are here though, including video playback, MP3 capability, Bluetooth connectivity, IMPS, and GPRS/EDGE data transfer. For expansion, look for the miniSD memory card slot to rock all those tunes and movies you’ll be storing. It’s being marketed as high-end, semi-auto sliding, multimedia mobile phone available at a mid-range price. Expect the E71 to hit the market during Q1 2006.

The BenQ-Siemens iconography will also grace the new Hermes C5, a plain-Jane clamshell that’s meant to bridge the gap between the Siemens name of old, and the BenQ cell phone name to come.