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iida Ply and Prismoid phones strut their stuff at CEATEC (video)
While Fujitsu's design entrants already boggled our minds here at CEATEC, KDDI au is looking to take things one step further by actually shipping a pair of decidedly futuristic handsets in Japan. Just months after the iida sub-brand was formally launched, the Ply and Prismoid are making their debuts on the show floor. The latter sports a 2.7-inch primary display, a 0.6-inch OLED sub-display, a microSD expansion slot and a design to die for; the former packs a 3.2 megapixel camera, 1seg TV tuner and a 3-inch panel. Have a look at the gallery below (and video past the break) if you're yearning to see just how lovely a dumbphone can be, and trust us when we say you've only yourself to blame if you carelessly let this opportunity pass you by.%Gallery-74792%
KDDI's curious Ply goes from concept to reality in one years' time
This phone began life as a member of Japanese carrier KDDI au's ongoing Design Project series, a line of concepts geared at envisioning tomorrow's phones -- and a pretty impressive number of those concepts ultimately go on to become production phones. In checking out the Ply concept last year, we said "the phone itself is pretty stunningly beautiful, so we'd love to see it on the streets of Tokyo even if it meant nixing the printer," and indeed, that's what they've done; the original idea was for each "layer" of the phone to represent some wild function like printing or pico-projecting, but now, the layer tabs are nothing more than stylized buttons accessing totally pedestrian features like keylock and camera. Here's our take: when your phone looks this much like five pieces of wood sandwiched together, that's a totally acceptable sacrifice to make. It'll be available in three colors later this month as a member of KDDI's iida designer series, which means that if you're outside Japan, your odds of getting in on it are precisely zero.
KDDI's "Ply" concept lives up to its name
As carriers go, Japan's KDDI au seems to spend more time than just about anyone dreaming up crazy concept handsets -- some of which actually go on to become production models (this is Japan, after all). Alongside those Yamaha-branded musical instrument phones, KDDI has been showing off the plywood-inspired "Ply," an expansive touchscreen backed by a number of layers that represent the phone's various functions. Said functions are actually pretty far-fetched -- there's a printer, pico-projector, and analog clock with a minute hand that actually swings out beyond the body of the phone itself, for example -- but the phone itself is pretty stunningly beautiful, so we'd love to see it on the streets of Tokyo even if it meant nixing the printer.[Via textually.org]
