It’s the time of year when Japanese operators reveal their all-important spring handset collections and last week, DoCoMo and au announced 10 new models each. Today, Softbank announced their new collection and it’s their most colourful yet - literally.

The very bling Swarovski crystal-studded 707SC is aiming to be the jewel in the crown of Softbank’s new collection (if you’ll excuse the pun).

Unlike our phone stores which are lined with silver handsets, colour variations are very important for handsets in Japan. The new Softbank 812SH takes the colour variation game to a whole new spectrum (sorry, couldn’t resist). Sharp has teamed up with Pantone to release the handset in no less than 20 colour variations.

Slightly less colourful is the X01NK (aka Nokia E61), which is sadly only available in jewel-free silver.

Labels: handsets

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 6:30 pm 0 comments

While at first glance, the P703i by Panasonic isn’t the most head-turning handset in DoCoMo’s recently announced spring lineup (that prize would probably go to the touchscreen clamshell D800iDS, the waterproof F703i which you can allegedly use in the shower or the SO703i which has swappable fragranced fascias), on closer inspection, the handset has a rather novel feature – “Feel*Mail”.

“Feel*Mail” is a new function along the same lines as “Feel*Talk” which appeared in a Panasonic handset I wrote about last summer. When the handset receives a message, “Feel*Mail” analyses its text and displays one of 45 different animations depending on the emotion detected in the message.

In the unlikely event this function ever comes to the UK, I wonder how well the it would cope with txt spk?

Labels: docomo, handsets, panasonic

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 10:13 am 0 comments

Today, DoCoMo and au each revealed 10 new handsets to go on sale later this year. They’re an interesting bunch as usual and designer handsets are once more a prominent trend, including the former concept-phone “Media Skin” which I mentioned only yesterday.

The most radical phone from the new DoCoMo handsets is the D800iDS from Mitsubishi (codenamed “Direct & Smooth”). When closed, the handset looks like an ordinary clamshell, but open it up to reveal that, instead of a keypad, the phone sports a touchscreen sub-display.

The phone is obviously inspired by the success of the Nintendo DS in Japan (even the model number appears to be a homage) and it will be interesting to see what applications and games developers create to make use of the touchscreen. The D800iDS is slated for launch mid-February.

Labels: handsets

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 11:17 am 0 comments

Sometimes it seems that some of the handsets released in the Japanese market would be more at home displayed in an art gallery - and that’s exactly what’s going to happen. KDDI announced today that the Museum of Modern Art in New York is going to display four handsets from au’s Design Project collection of designer mobiles.

The first handset is the “Infobar” which went on sale in 2003 and was au’s first designer handset.

London designer Marc Newson’s “Talby” will also go on display.

Last year’s “Neon” with customizable LED display is the third model chosen.

The lineup is completed with the concept handset “Media Skin” which au revealed in 2005, but was never commercialised. The designers of the simple, smooth handset say it is meant to represent a “second skin”.

It’s a great chance for anyone in New York to check out some really stunning handsets from Japan.

Labels: handsets

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 10:41 am 0 comments