Porn Site Review: BelAmi Online

BelAmi Online serves up handsome 18 to 24 year old Eastern European guys in solo, duo, and group action.

Lead Dog on this Review: pagemonkey; following: SamSez. This review includes 30 full size images as samples.

BelAmi Online Overall Ratings

pagemonkey gives it      of 5 stars; he was impressed by the content but very unhappy with site layout and performance.

SamSez gives it       of 5 stars; he misses ethnic diversity but feels the site hits the mark for fans of this type of entertainment.

pagemonkey reports:

In the print and movie world, BelAmi has become synonymous with gorgeous men and superb media quality. The online location for BelAmi’s productions, BelAmi Online, is well stocked with beautiful, hot young hunks in a variety of steamy settings and sexual situations.

With me, that’s always good for 3 of 5 stars - and that’s what BelAmi Online gets. The site itself is very pretty, and almost everything works (except for a few broken image galleries) but the suffers from something I call “creeping featuritis.” This a condition in which there are so many options, departments, categories, classifications and cute stuff that the site actually loses crisp response and ease of use. In this particular case, the excessive use of Flash instead of standard hypertext makes this site a bit aggravating to navigate and slow, at least by comparison to other sites I’ve reviewed via my 20mpbs cable connection.

BelAmi Online is a legacy site with a fixed-size library of original and exclusive content featuring guys who run between appealing to magnetic in the age bracket of 18 to about 24, with builds ranging from slim to buff. Most are nicely manscaped and grooming is typically European mainstreet.

Fans of EuroPorn will recognize a lot of the faces at BelAmi Online, which is not necessarily a bad thing in this case - these are generally the best shoots of any given model’s career and the quality shows.

Loved and Hated:

• Loved: Good images and videos.
• Loved: Downloadable content - each video page and photo gallery have download links.
• Hated: Site layout and performance.
• Hated: Pruning - access to only 6 months’ worth of video media.

---

Metrics

Quantity: BelAmi Online has a library of approximately 360 models as of this writing, spread out in various departments. There are approximately 72 solo videos, 96 sex scenes, and 468 photo galleries, not counting the items listed in the Bonus or Backstage areas.

Video Quality: The media is of very good quality, obviously professionally produced. Streams are offered in Windows Media and iPod (h.264) formats for download, in up to a 800 x 450 size @ approximately 2,100 kps. There is also a handy FlashPlayer scheme for online viewing and preview purposes. The video pages are nicely designed, as this screenshot shows.

Image Quality: BelAmi Online offers images which are up to 1,016 px wide or tall. The images are from film and digital still cameras. As this screenshot shows, photosets are available as downloadble compressed folders.

User Experience: BelAmi Online is clunky. Granted, a lot of effort has been put into making the site attractive - but the excessive use of Flash slows down performance and limits user options. I found several broken galleries (see this screenshot) which didn’t work properly. The content is spread over 10 sections, making it a bit difficult to remember where things are.

---

 

I can’t go exploring without bringing home souvenirs, so here are some images that impressed me… Enjoy! (Random guys, starting from the earliest galleries to a recent update. Various website screenshots in last row.)

 

~ pagemonkey

SamSez reports:

As always, I review sites from an visual viewpoint. What are the guys like? What is the action like. Does it turn me on. Do I find it compelling.

Secondary to that is the mechanics of the site. Is it easy to navigate? Can I find what I want easily? Does everything work properly?

Visually I’m happy to say that I find a nice balance regarding the presentation at BelAmi Online. I instantly see a combination of smiles and eyes on the Update Page, and I see lots of sex to boot. I see dicks, AND I see faces. Very nice.

As far as mechanics is concerned, I’m not really happy. If I click on Sex Scenes at the top I see lots of thumbnails of action scenes. But, if I click on one, the Video Page immediately starts playing the video. I’d much rather see some more thumbnails of faces and what happens in the scene before I dive right into the scene.

If I go to Photos it only shows the photosets. No link to the video if you want to watch that. I’m looking to judge what I want to see with photos AND videos tied together. However, what I do like is that the thumbnails in this section shows the guys looking right in the camera. Again, very nice!

I like the fact that you can watch the videos in Flash, or you can download in both .wmv and iPod videos. That is a bonus.

The production value is flawless. Perfectly flawless in each and every what. Not a flaw anywhere - not in the photos, not in the videos, not in the sets, not in the guys, not in the action. Nothing that isn’t perfect in each and every way.

Yuck.

All the guys and all the action at BelAmi Online is what you would expect from BelAmi, meaning all white, all smooth, all flawlessly perfect, and - at least to yours truly - all rather boring. I prefer action that is both spontaneous and believable, and I like guys who aren’t perfect.

You don’t get any of that with BelAmi. If you like watching “dolls” like Ken and his Buddy fucking, this is for you. If you like more of a realistic “boy next door” or “man on the street” or “someone you might actually know” type of action, then you may find BelAmi Online a bit plastic, like I do. But, BelAmi Online delivers what they promise, and what aficionados of BelAmi productions expect.

~ SamSez

Visit BelAmi Online to compare your impressions with ours or suggest a site for review.