Casio's 8.1 megapixel W63CA with 480 x 800 pixel OLED flips out in Japan

We had a chance to gaze through the wireframe of this 8.1 megapixel Casio W63CA Exilim cellphone back in August courtesy of the FCC's finest. Now check it in high-gloss, plastic flesh. The latest Japanese super-phone squeezes 480 x 800 pixel into a 3.1-inch OLED display. Let that sink in for a second... the very same 384,000 pixels on a display smaller than the 3.8-inch LCD heralded by the Touch HD. The camera features a wide-angle lens, 9-point auto focus, face detection, anti-shake, and a YouTube video mode that records VGA video at 30fps to microSD. All this in a Japanese-only flip measuring 110 x 50 x 17.4 ~ 22-mm when it launches in early November. Color options after the break.

[Via Impress]

[Ryuken @ Oct 27th 2008 5:15AM]

thx for increasing my jealousy of the japanese >_<

[Techie @ Oct 27th 2008 7:55AM]

The question I think everyone wants to know is how much will it cost.

[Samboini @ Oct 27th 2008 2:32PM]

Let's hope the time between shots is at the lower end of the spectrum. As much as I love my N95 it can be painful waiting for the next shot. That aside, I think this could possibly be my next phone unless Nokia can beat it; I'm going to skip the touch phones for a generation.

[Jordan @ Oct 27th 2008 5:21AM]

Cool phone... just don't drop it : P

[Ayman @ Oct 27th 2008 9:42AM]

its not a phone, its a Camera with a phone feature

[paul @ Oct 27th 2008 5:29AM]

holy fuck me. me want

[lanosian @ Oct 27th 2008 5:59AM]

is holy hot?

[Daza @ Oct 27th 2008 6:09AM]

Holly?

[Greg Mcp @ Oct 27th 2008 6:17AM]

I agree with the above sentiment.

[iEye @ Oct 27th 2008 8:43AM]

Fuk Mi?

Fuk Yu!

[Steve Childs @ Oct 27th 2008 11:39AM]

I hope Casio get their act together and get that out in the UK ASAP, my wife loves flip phones and she's got a Exlim camera anyway!

And its in Pink, what more could she want!?

(Ok, a lot more, but she's a woman).

[Fusion Fuzo @ Oct 27th 2008 5:39AM]

VERY NICE, will something this sexy ever come out in europe?

[KA @ Oct 27th 2008 5:43AM]

Nice. How much does it cost?

[kk @ Oct 27th 2008 11:56AM]

I'm betting in the $600-800 USD range. When I was phone shopping in August, the highest megapixel shooter with AU (the new phone's carrier) was a 5.1 megapixel Sony Ericson Cybershot number to the tune of $590 USD... and that was just a regular TFT display.

[Ian @ Oct 27th 2008 5:47AM]

If it's 3G, wouldn't it be possible to buy from Japan and use in Europe, The Americas, etc?

[aeth @ Oct 27th 2008 6:11AM]

Not all regions use the same frequency for 3G?

I think that's right.

[nephersir7 @ Oct 27th 2008 10:45AM]

assuming you colud understand japanese menus

[Ian @ Oct 27th 2008 10:03AM]

Again? That's just really dumb. Companies really should use their purportedly awesome mobile service and call up telcos in other countries an have a 10 minute chat once in a while.

[Fernando @ Oct 27th 2008 11:50AM]

This is a au WIN phone, it uses cdma

[Ricardo @ Oct 27th 2008 5:48AM]

Sounds very nice. I wish my Touch Pro had a better camera.

[Mike @ Oct 27th 2008 6:07AM]

This looks great, but I can't help but wonder about the total domination of the flip phone in Japan. I was there recently and almost every phone is exactly the same form factor. You hardly ever see a candy bar phone.

[Amol @ Oct 27th 2008 6:19AM]

If I showed the picture presented after the break to my friends, they'll ask me what the model number of that camera is (because it seriously does NOT look like a phone). Seriously, this whole "camera phone" thing has gone a bit too far. I reckon that's why so many RAZRs have been sold.

[jimmy @ Oct 27th 2008 8:40AM]

duh, seriously, the razr is a cameraphone. i'm seriously not following

[Pyrotech @ Oct 27th 2008 6:23AM]

Dual LED's on an Exilim branded phone??

[Johan S @ Oct 27th 2008 6:22AM]

This phone is plain awesome.

[DeoWulf @ Oct 27th 2008 4:48PM]

Seriously, it has WIN written right on it.

[bocardo @ Oct 27th 2008 10:22PM]

heh, someone else saw that

[)law( @ Oct 27th 2008 6:25AM]

where is the hot model to go with this hot phone. Wonder if can be used stateside...

[IT News Blog @ Oct 27th 2008 6:26AM]

what an awesome looking camera!

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 27th 2008 6:28AM]

Now that's the first flip phone I've drooled over since the Star Tac...

[CNot @ Oct 27th 2008 6:29AM]

Japan just plain rocks! You get nifty tech like this and I am really going to miss the 100mbps fiber optic internet I get for $60 a month ..... ={

[gad get @ Oct 27th 2008 6:35AM]

Holy smokes! Me want!

[callum @ Oct 27th 2008 6:35AM]

what you heralded up there with the 3inch 800x480 screen is old news in the world of technology, my toshiba g900 has one the sony xperia x1 has 1 and i'm sure there are several others in the world of windows mobile that do as well

[Jon @ Oct 27th 2008 7:14AM]

The key word here is OLED.

[naz @ Oct 27th 2008 6:40AM]

japan always gets the cool stuff first

lol

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Oct 27th 2008 6:58AM]

WOW i CANT BELiEAVE HOW GOOD THiS LOOKS, AND iTS NOT MADE BY APPLE WOW

[eiki @ Oct 27th 2008 8:41AM]

that screen is pretty common in Japan right now, as to the image, i think they mean Shine Pink, lol, or Shane Pink whoever he is!

[seven @ Oct 27th 2008 8:52AM]

sooner or later they're gonna start recording in 720p, and then then next big technology will be recording in 1080p

[Rude Retro @ Oct 27th 2008 9:14AM]

Which provider will this be attached to?

[KC @ Oct 27th 2008 9:48AM]

au by KDDI, it is a CDMA 1xEV DO Rev A device but for several reasons (au does not use ESN/MEID, the phone has 800Mhz but the uplink and downlink channels are different then those used by North American carriers, even if it technically was possible to make it work, the carriers here wouldn't let you)

[smoo @ Oct 27th 2008 9:56AM]

Hello Casio! Bring it to Europe! Please! I always wondered why no producer has ever managed to merge camera and phone perfectly. Full phone AND camera functionality - that's what I want

[Acronyc @ Oct 27th 2008 10:32AM]

All Japanese phones come from the manufacturer locked to a specific carrier, so even if the technology can be used abroad the phone will not accept a foreign sim card unless it has been unlocked. There are very few Japanese phones that have been unlocked. The most success has been with the Samsung models (I have an unlocked Samsung SCII from last year), though in the past there have been a few DoCoMo and Vodafone (before it was sold to Softbank) phones that have been unlocked. I haven't seen many newer models get unlocked.

The government here in Japan has actually tried (and I think succeeded) in making unlocking phones here illegal and many of the old unlocking shops in Tokyo have closed down, so unfortunately it's probably going to be next to impossible to use these phones outside of Japan unless you are roaming with a Japanese provider or the manufacturers make their phones for other markets. It's really too bad because there are some awesome phones here and it is really great to have an unlocked phone with Japanese text input for those communicating back to Japan from abroad.

[fh @ Oct 27th 2008 11:04AM]

au/KDDI is CDMA and thus cannot be unlocked for use on other carriers. Softbank, Docomo, and e-Mobile 3G-capable handsets use UMTS (with a number of models featuring GSM) and thus will work unlocked elsewhere -- although Softbank and Docomo use UMTS I (2100mhz) while e-Mobile uses UMTS IX (1700mhz, but not T-mobile's UMTS IV 1700mhz), meaning they're useless in North America unless you fall back to GSM.

You can easily get hypersims to unlock the phones without any software hacking -- provided the hypersim works on the given phone -- and it's perfectly legal. What is -illegal- is selling phones to unregistered foreigners, ie: black market. But even if you can use it on UMTS I or are willing to fall back to GSM, you will almost certainly be strictly limited to voice and text. "Japanese" features are almost always hard-coded to carrier specific settings (built-in browser & MMS), have no coverage outside Japan (1seg & keitai-saifu), or simply aren't intended for English markets (no T9, certain carriers break double-byte characters, etc).

So Japanese cellphones are pretty much only high-tech inside Japan; anywhere else and they're just not that special, and it's not because of a carrier-lock.

[fh @ Oct 27th 2008 11:10AM]

A quick search on eBay for "Docomo" or "Softbank" will net you the latest UMTS I / GSM offerings that are hypersim-unlockable. Notable are a few of the latest 906i series and of course the aforementioned Samsung series. But of course the selection is limited (and overpriced), and again come gimped when used anywhere else besides Japan.

[abubasim @ Oct 27th 2008 10:37AM]

8.1 MP CMOS camera... me want this very much.... NOT!

[contreras @ Oct 27th 2008 10:40AM]

mechanical zoom?

[asdffdsa @ Oct 27th 2008 11:26AM]

quad band?

[andrew @ Oct 28th 2008 10:07AM]

The phone may look bad but what theve done has never been done befor for a consumer product. Not only in the screen 3.1 in with a 480x800 screen but it's OLED. OLED is the future for all screens and this screen doesn't eat up batttery when compaired to LCD.

[Montusama @ Oct 27th 2008 12:20PM]

Maybe we should all write Casio a letter requesting them release a Quadband GSM Tri-band UTMS for the European and American market......

[Mega 777 @ Oct 27th 2008 1:13PM]

why is it that Japan gets all the good stuff
cause i really want to get that phone.