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.
Sony Ericsson Walkman Premier3
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.
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Hitachi H001 Woo
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?
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Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot S001
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.
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Toshiba T001
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.
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Casio CA001
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.
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Sharp SH001
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?
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Panasonic P001
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.
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Kyocera K001
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.
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Kyocera NS01
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.
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Pantech NS02
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.
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