KDDI au announces Spring 2009 collection

Japan's KDDI au wows with the timely delivery of one of its signature seasonal line changes. Spring 2009 looks to be off to a stunning start with OLED displays, 8-plus megapixel cameras, one-seg TV, 3D display, and just about every wireless connectivity option we can dream up. As per, these are all candybar-style sets with the notable exception of the sliding Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot S001 (black phone above) and the two-way Hitachi H001 (purple phone) above. We've created a gallery for each so hit the read link for the complete rundown.

Yeah, we know, the names all likely lose a little something in translation, right? But we really don't care, because the handset is so full-on amazing, we'd proudly own it in pink, and wear it in a hip holster. The Premier3 flips open both as you see it above and in the more traditional flip style -- depending on what you're doing with it. Packing an 854x480 3" display, the ability to rip CDs directly from a CD player via a -- cute -- remote, and a couple hundred hours of standby time, we want, but know we'll never have.

OK, we get Nokia candybars and KDDI au and Hitachi are giving the people 3D in their handsets, something's really wrong here. The H001 features such goodies as one-seg TV (at 30fps we might add), a 3.1 inch display, two-way flip, 5 megapixel camera, and a pretty stunning array of apps for music, sport, and other such services. Color choices include: fureimureddo, soriddoshiruba, and neonparupu -- yeah, we've no clue either, but they sound lovely, no?

Sony Ericsson is blessed with a double showing in the Spring line-up, but where the other excels at vid playing, this one wins in the photographic department. Petty -- and bitter, whinging, crying -- envy aside, we're stoked to see the S001 is packing an 8.1 megapixel shooter, glorious good looks, and a 3.1 inch OLED display to admire your snaps on. Helping you get the most out of the cam is face detection, smile shutter (catches your subjects at their grinning best), auto-focus, and a LED flash to light it all up for you. If you're a swanky world-travel ling type, fear not, the S001 is a GSM and CDMA-capable phone, apparently KDDI's first such set.

OK, we admit while we're not the biggest fans of bejeweled handsets -- even Swarovski Elements -- the T001, to its credit, at least does it in a reserved way. This one-seg packing (see the theme here, Japan watches TV on its phones) comes in a a pink, white, or black color, a 5 megapixel camera, MicroSD expansion, and, of course, an OLED display.

Sony Walkman Sport anybody? Ahhh, no. This is actually a Casio CA001 but it certainly captures that Sporty look doesn't it? This phone, while keeping up with its contemporaries in the 3-inch display category, adds touchscreen to the mix for touch screen instrument playing -- we're serious, guitar and piano -- TV, and camera operations. This set will also translate English text snapped in a pic to Japanese, and is also available in a drearier brown or white shade.

Sharp brings an 8 megapixel camera to KDDI au's table in a Cool White, Blue Sapphire, or Pink Topaz housing. Typical (at least in this round up) 3-inch screen on this one, Bluetooth, some microSD expansion for the ginormous pics you'll be snapping, and some sort of GPS to help you get where you going. Oh, and did we mention the AQUOS branding?

Panasonic's entry features what they've dubbed the Quad-Face system, though, it really seems to be the fact that the phone's face is divided into four separate areas, only one is a display -- though OLED, of course. But, flipping it open to the business side of things reveals a giant display, 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and, strangely, infrared. This set ships in red, black, and white versions.

The K001 seems to have a kid-friendly theme humming in the background with a feature that tracks your child's route while out and about, a security light and buzzer, control over downloaded content, and usage. All those things aside, the K001 also features a monster 2.8-inch display, 2 megapixel shooter, and a fun top cover that lifts off letting you drop whatever artwork you want in.

The first of a couple entry level sets in the Spring 2009 lineup, the NS02 looks slick in white, blue, or brown. Attached to the rear of the set is a belt - in a different color per set -- to clip the handset to whatever you want to hang it off. Tech-wise, it has a 2.8-inch display, infrared, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera, and 100MB of internal storage. We'd take the white version, thankyouverymuch.

The Pantech NS02 is another low-end device, with a boxier look than the NS01, but similar internals. Also setup with a 2 megapixel camera, 100MB of storage, and a 2.7-inch QVGA display, while inexpensive, it's not looking cheap. The NS02 is shipping in Black, Ivory, and Green.














Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sarig @ Jan 31st 2009 1:56PM
brb, moving to Japan.
AlDeezy @ Jan 31st 2009 3:14PM
I'm be right behind you...... always!
hermes @ Jan 31st 2009 2:01PM
hahaha, for the Hitachi, the colors are Flame Red, Solid Silver, and Neon Purple. Gotta love japanized english words. :D
Paul @ Jan 31st 2009 2:17PM
I miss having au ;_;
When I was there I had a SE Walkman slider phone. Love it to death.
While I use the G1 now, somehow I'd be willing to give up the touchscreen just to switch to the Premier3...
codezeromind @ Jan 31st 2009 2:51PM
The key to those those colors is sounding out whats written until you realized what English word they're talking about.
fureimureddo => fu-rei-mu (flame) re-ddo (red),
soriddoshiruba => so-ri-ddo (solid) shi-ru-ba (silver)
neonparupu => ne-on (well its neon come on) pa-ru-pu (purple)
90 @ Feb 1st 2009 4:10AM
there's a saying,"neighbor's grass always looks better than yours" or something alike.
now, what if you happened to know a $500 "Walkman Phone" can't even sync with SonicStage? or you hear the carrer folks says "oh,yeah. we always ask manufacturers to cut at least one of their killer distinctiveness so whatever comes next look even more attractive." or see a leak like "our smartphone is totally behind the schedule because my boss says "we definitely need our DRM'd music service ported to it...YouTube? why should we care those niche nerds?" ..."
I don't think them any better than things like the N95.
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 3:26AM
1- SonicStage? Pah, too complex anyways. That's what 3GPConverter is for!
2- They're still way better than most of what's available outside Japan even if things are as you say and they cut features like that.
3- Only carriers without their own music service don't do that.
4- NicoVideo and Youtube work fine since ages ago. I can watch Youtube on my 904T, which was made when?
tekdroid @ Feb 1st 2009 6:17AM
one of the few times i've heard SonicStage functionality desired ;p
Ethan @ Jan 31st 2009 3:26PM
Wouldn't most of these phones be "clam shell" style, and not "candy bar"?
Ryan Smith @ Jan 31st 2009 3:54PM
I really don't get the excitement. They might have good specs but an exciting phone is all about the software, I've seen a lot of good looking phones that are a pain to use. I don't really see how they are more exciting than a IPhone or the Palm Pre.
ALCie @ Jan 31st 2009 3:59PM
What are you talking about? I would love my 'berry to be able to rip the CDs I dont have, or enough DPI to have ant sized icons.
Seriously though, we need those OLED screens.
PeterF @ Jan 31st 2009 4:23PM
They all look the same except the SE slider.
shugg @ Jan 31st 2009 4:39PM
yeah ,yeah colorful,rainbow edition,gay pride phones. ive used 2-3 of these in hawaii. i can truly honestly say this.iphone 3g blows these pu$$y phones outta the water when it comes to screen size,touchscreen browser, n widescreen viseo ipod.,it crushes these jap phones hardcore.i am not saying ALL jap phones suck. but on those 3 main features yes they dont measure up to iphone 3g.,anyone disagree.,?
Shyam D @ Jan 31st 2009 5:08PM
Unless your a Japanese Citizen, it's very unlikely you would have tried one of these. They are linked to more then just your Phone #.
fh @ Jan 31st 2009 10:14PM
>> ive used 2-3 of these in hawaii.
Well there's your problem. 80% of the features of Japanese phones don't work outside of Japan, because no other country (except perhaps South Korea) has advanced infrastructure set up to take advantage of them. A Japanese phone outside of Japan is quite literally only a voice-and-SMS phone, which makes the iPhone comparison unfair.
You might be interested in knowing that even though the iPhone 3G is also available in Japan, its sales have been dismal despite the belief (such as yours) that the iPhone's software is far superior. Apple was expecting to sell 1M units by the year end but had trouble breaking 500k. The reason? Because the iPhone simply didn't have any of the features that Japanese were used to having in all the other handsets.
iphonerulez @ Feb 1st 2009 8:21AM
The iPhone was never designed for the Asian market of Korea and Japan. Too many iPhone features are not specific to those countries. What good would 1-Seg and eWallet be good for in the U.S. and Europe? The iPhone has a better chance of selling in Korea and Japan than Korean and Japanese-targeted phones could sell outside of those countries. As was said, the network infrastructures are just too different. It makes more sense to build a handset that targets a larger audience for greater sales.
If these Asian handsets were that great, then those companies should take the opportunity to sell them in the U.S. and Europe and see if they could dominate the cellphone market. I'm sure that won't happen. I've read that some of those Japanese cellphones are very expensive to build but they get government subsidies to lower the overall cost.
familyguy @ Feb 1st 2009 7:46PM
@iphonerulez
The Japanese phones are more expensive because they are better in quality! The best part of all, people there are willing to spend money to "buy" phones unlike here in America.
Everyone here wants "free" phones. The sales won't be pretty if they import those phones here because we are that CHEAP.
I have a 16GB iPhone 3G right now. The camera sucks big time. The screen sucks big time. The battery sucks big time.
90 @ Feb 1st 2009 10:57PM
@familyguy
no, the basics are the same. one thing different is that in japan each career put a button for their web portal filled with quick access to paid contents like news, games, or ringtones. situation is quite similar to that of the iPhone, except that the carriers have full control of phone, from designs to OSs. SIM lock-free phones branded by manufacturer never came out from japanese companies, so actual cont of those devices were long hidden to the public. results here were a series of full-spec phones sold in $1, with subsidizes from career up to about $900. that's why japanese phones always had good specs. no matter how pricey it may be, the career always paid for them.
Jamar @ Feb 3rd 2009 9:52PM
@90- "SIM lock-free phones branded by manufacturer never came out from japanese companies"
Not true. Sharp entered the Chinese market by selling SIM lock-free phones branded by themselves.
SH9010C=Softbank 920SH
SH8010C=Softbank 825SH
SH9020C=Softbank 923SH
SH6010C=Softbank 821SH
SH1810C=Softbank 930SH
newb-iknow @ Jan 31st 2009 4:35PM
Dumb question - can US or UK or Canadien users buy these and jailbreak them for use on their provider? If so, where online can these be aquired?
syko21 @ Jan 31st 2009 4:49PM
Not a chance. The firmwares they have are locked down insanely tight and the cost to import it is simply ridiculous. Only japanese citizens can get their hands on phones like this. Foreigner's need to go through a thousand bureaucratic hoops to even be allowed a cell phone in japan.
Tim @ Jan 31st 2009 7:08PM
That's not entirely true.
Cotract maybe, but before we had 3G in Europe, I used to have Japanese PAYG Sony-Ericsson, which was Japanese 3G (years before we had that here). I had to top up at least once every 6 months or I would lose the number, but all I needed was cash.
Mind you, that phoe was nothing as fancy as any of these.
I'm In Tokyo right now, albeit with a UK iPhone.
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 3:15AM
There is a way to break the lock for GSM-enabled phones only. This opens up only the S001 to unlocking (which, by the way, is the Japanese version of the C905- yeah, they screwed the pooch in not releasing the JP version worldwide). Problem is, AU doesn't use SMS and no one's figured out data so you have a nice basic calls-only phone (but the multimedia functions on this thing are what matter when you buy one of these- iPod, meet eBay).
No one's managed to figure out the CDMA side because AU uses IC cards, which neither the US nor Canada use.
Sam @ Jan 31st 2009 5:57PM
I want the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot S001 in black and Kyocera NS01 in all the colours!!
Jake @ Jan 31st 2009 6:19PM
Oh why do you taunt us, Japan?!? I would kill for one of those OLED displays, the CA001 and P001 both look awesome, and that Cyber Shot looks orga$mic. Why won't they ever come to America? Or at least make it possible to get them here? Oh well...
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 3:17AM
The S001 is the Japanese version of the C905. They dumbed it down for the int'l markets for reasons unknown.
codezeromind @ Feb 1st 2009 5:53AM
If they ever do come to the americas, you can bet your lovely 8mp camera will be replaced with a 2-3mp camera along with lots of other lovely cost reducing modifications while still retailing them at the insanely expensive price.
So the phones for the america's will still be below par when compared to these phones in terms of specs which makes me sad. I look at camera phones here and all I see are ones with 2-3mp lens and only recently seeing 5mp on a select few. then i think back and remember seeing japan got their 5mp camera phones a few years ago.
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 6:36AM
@codezeromind- Actually, they did keep the 8MP camera (as I mentioned, its international version is the C905), but not much else.
redleader158 @ Feb 1st 2009 1:38PM
SE will never give us a phone like that because no american service provider will subsidize SEs high-end phones.
Sam @ Jan 31st 2009 6:25PM
Those phones are more powerfull then our smartphones, seriously.
Jeremy @ Jan 31st 2009 6:52PM
Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go kill myself now... tata
Jeremy @ Jan 31st 2009 6:54PM
Meanwhile we're stuck with flip phones that have 2.2 inch screens if we're lucky... I hate America and I want to die now...
Jeremy @ Jan 31st 2009 6:54PM
Oh yeah... Iphone sux...
tekdroid @ Jan 31st 2009 7:50PM
so much for the regular bar form-factor with no sliding or flipping nonsense.
kewsvnet @ Jan 31st 2009 7:54PM
I guess we have a little longer to wait till feb 16 for the mobile world congress....where hopefully we shall see our fair share of nice new phones!!!
btw it seems people in japan really don't seem to care about touchscreen!!! any ideas why?
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 3:19AM
Touchscreen doesn't present too many advantages for them. They're a bit of a niche (and the iPhone's having a hard time selling because its arse has been handed to it by the Sharp 931SH with the 1024x600 screen, TV, 5MP camera and all the nice stuff).
umijin @ Jan 31st 2009 9:47PM
Well, I live in Japan and I'm not impressed by these phones. Boring designs, boring (and non-utilitarian) features, many much larger than they need to be.
My 3 year old waterproof Casio G'zOne is more rugged than any of these handsets, with plenty of great functions. I can't sacrifice it just for a bigger screen or better camera or waste of bandwidth 1-seg.
Perhaps many Japanese will find AU's new line up sexy, but nothing there really stands out IMHO.
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 3:37AM
(hope I didn't doublepost)
Jamar @ Feb 1st 2009 6:32AM
You've been in Japan too long then. One Sharp phone and I was hooked (now on a Toshiba). I'm never going back to Nokia/Moto/etc. Now THOSE are boring.
Rob @ Jan 31st 2009 10:17PM
@kewsvnet One major adoption hurdle for touch screens in Japan - especially in the cities - is that they are difficult to use with one hand. Urban Japanese spend up to 3 hours a day standing on trains, one hand holding a train strap, one hand holding a mobile. That is a LOT of viewing time, and one of the reasons that Internet access happens more from cellphone .
@umijin Go G-Shock! The term is "lifestyle waterproof" ... but is it waterproof enough to support the "lifestyle" espoused by your profile pic? :) Click here for my lifestyle .... http://picasaweb.google.co.jp/lh/photo/poPfLc45jdB9vsai1yN6BQ?feat=directlink .. a favourite party trick.
umijin @ Feb 1st 2009 3:59AM
Heh - You got the newer GzOne. I wouldn't do that very much, as the acid pH in your beer will probably harm exposed metal parts of the phone.
I won't be diving with my phone, but hate it when mine gets soaked when I'm cleaning up or caught in the rain, or even on the bench in the lab. Many of the new non-sports phones also claim to be water proof, but maybe not shock resistant.
NuShrike @ Feb 1st 2009 2:50PM
They also spend a lot of time texting one-handed. The whole mobile culture derives from these mass-transit lives which is why it's a shockingly non-translation to car-based lifestyles in the USA.
The other thing is phones outnumber PCs there not only in raw numbers but as the primary Internet access device. There are even entire movies based around people dating each other due to phone messaging.
ark_v2 @ Feb 1st 2009 12:41AM
Ehm...I would take the "entry" level one anytime...
haX0r @ Feb 1st 2009 7:20AM
Dear American Cell Phone Companies,
FUCK YOU for not making better cell phones for the U.S. Market. You let the Japanese beat you at your own game?
Shame on your and your lack of innovation. One iDud doesn't hold a candle to half of these phones.
Get with it and break out some decent handsets with the following MOST features: at least 800×400 wide screen, qwerty, with 32+gigs of storage (+ expandable), multi-touch screens, 5 meg camera, shoots video, Pre/Android like interface, etc. etc.
Is your R&D that non-resourceful to come up with a better phone fast, or is your company CEO so over paid and technologically retarded that he can't put 2+2 together?
Come on get with it! Make some phones worth owning.
NuShrike @ Feb 1st 2009 2:57PM
Actually, the Japanese are the leaders in cellphones. It's their game and always has been. Even 3G UMTS is their invention. American companies are just un-innovative babies playing with hand-me down toys and wanna-be envy.
Also, cellphones in Japan don't have to compete with the PC, laptop, nor netbook for primary Internet and almost most expensive tech device owned (since most don't have to also pay for car and insurance either).
Thats What He Said @ Feb 1st 2009 10:28PM
and 2.5G EV-DO is ours...
(crying)
Kristie @ Feb 1st 2009 10:22AM
:) !!! ...... :(
This is the most uplifting but depressing post.
Chris Nicholls @ Feb 1st 2009 7:39PM
@iPhonerulez,
There are many reasons why the Japanese phone manufacturers keep their phones for the Japanese market. Number one is simply sales opportunities and manufacturing limits. Until very recently, Japanese companies have made so much money from the local market, and as such been running at full manufacturing capacity, that they have not had to, or had the manufacturing capacity to, send phones overseas. Only Sharp has recently started to send phones to China, and that's only because, by their own admission, the Japanese market is slowing and sales opportunities now HAVE to be found elsewhere.
Number two, as you point out, so many Japanese network-specific features would not work overseas that it would be hard to justify the huge cost of the phones to the overseas networks (who still subsidise to a large degree in Japan).
Number three, it is a software engineering issue. GPS programs in Japanese phones are all in 3D and thus far more advanced than Western phones. Dumbing them down is just not in the Japanese psyche, and re-engineering them for global markets would be too much hassle. Also, while Japanese phones are all bi- or even trilingual, they often do not have English T9 predictive input. All this would have to be engineered into the phones before sales overseas.
Lastly, it may well be that Japanese manufacturers are cautious after every single major company (bar Mitsubishi, who have since pulled out of even the Japanese market) failed miserably to enter the global market a few years ago. This was down to a number of reasons, most prominent of which was the networks' abject failure to sell them properly. AU$1000+ for a Sharp SH903? When you could buy one subsidised in Japan for $150? Stupid Vodafone.
qi @ Feb 2nd 2009 9:35AM
good to see they start to try oversea market again. don't think there software is that good yet. otherwise they can produce 2 set of software one for local market and one for international.
Jamar @ Feb 3rd 2009 10:07PM
Network-specific features?
FeliCa- Tested and it's fully compatible with at least one RFID payment system used in the US today (the RFID system currently used by Visa)
GPS- Why re-engineer it? American GPSes are also 3D.
T9- NEC has been doing it for years despite only selling to Japan (and Chinese too in their latest model). Theirs should be a piece of cake to convert for foreign sales.