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Mobile Phones: The Grass is Always Greener…

8 Jun 2006 Category: Features, Products, Technology, Worldwide

Mobile Phones: The Grass is Always Greener…

Summer is on the way here in Japan and as usual around this time, the big mobile communications companies are rolling out their latest generation of handsets. Japan seems to excel at adding more and more functionality to their phones without increasing their size. Many of the new wave of Japanese handsets have features such as the ability to use them as electronic payment devices, fingerprint security, group voice chat, digital television and more. But I wonder…how do they measure up to phones from across the ocean? Lets take a quick look at some of the latest and / or currently popular handsets from Japan and the West…

Written by Jon

The neon by AU is a sleek, minimalist model designed by superstar product designer Naoto Fukasawa. Focusing firmly on aesthetics, this particular handset lacks some of the features we have come to expect from the latest models such as electronic payment (”scan” your phone over a sensor to make payments at the supermarket, train station etc) and digital TV. However it makes up for this by being, well, beautiful. So beautiful in fact that public demand for this handset was extremely high and many stores in Tokyo are still sold out, despite it now being on the market for a couple of months.

The phone features a “hidden” LED readout on the front face that shines through the plastic. It can display a message or various patterns.

Across the ocean, the Motorola RAZR is probably the closest Western equivalent to the neon, in that it is a highly popular handset that focuses on design rather than incorporating as many functions as possible. Something of an urban status-symbol, the RAZR obviously isn’t aimed at everyone, with it’s retail price tag of $600.

Back in Japan, the brand new Vodafone 905SH is developed by Sharp and its most significant feature is the crisp, Aquos-branded (Sharp’s name for its line of LCD TVs) 2.6 inch screen, that rotates in order for you to watch digital TV. The phone is also capable of multi-tasking, allowing you to watch TV as you write mails or even as you are calling someone. The wide aspect ratio also makes for a more traditional gaming experience and the opportunity for mobile game designers to break free from the limits of the usual, vertically-aligned screens on mobile phones.

Lets fly back across the ocean for a moment to look at one of Nokia’s latest handsets - the N93. The N93 is Nokia’s new “multimedia” phone and features a whacking great big Carl Zeiss lens for recording video. The phone can then plug directly into your TV for previewing of your video, or you can download the video to a computer. Personally I’m always skeptical of devices like this that try to do too much - but perhaps Nokia are anticipating video moblogging to be the Next Big Thing(tm)?

Back to the land of the rising sun, and another “designer” phone. NTT Docomo’s Dolce SL is, incredibly, bound in leather for that luxury feel. Not shy on the features either - this handset has most of the functionality we have come to expect from Japan’s cutting-edge mobile market, such as electronic payments, GPS, video conferencing and a range of security measures such as fingerprint scanning, voice recognition AND face recognition!

Lastly, lets look at Sony Ericsson’s W950 which is available in most countries except Japan. The phone features a touch-sensitive screen for easy operation and 4GB of onboard memory - for this phone doubles as a walkman. Whilst it is quite normal for a phone to be a multimedia platform nowadays, Sony seem to have gone the extra mile with this model, from the generous memory to the Opera browser with which to surf the internet on its large screen.

So the question is, which one do you want? Personally, I’m a complete sucker for pretty-looking things and I’ve been obsessively ducking into the nearest AU store every week for the past month to see if they have any neons in. Alas, I’m always too late :(

19 Comments

nice phones :)
Have you seen the Nokia 7380?
pure design, I love it. here is a link:
http://www.europe.nokia.com/nokia/0,,83040,00.html

Posted by: Monica on June 9th, 2006 at 1:31 am
All of the stylish Japanese phones are of the flip design, is this a general trend? Is the candybar design dying?
I don’t mind as those phones look supersweet.

Posted by: Tingle on June 9th, 2006 at 3:55 am
Clam-shell has been the prevalent design choice in Japan. At least for the last couple of years that is.

Posted by: drone9 on June 9th, 2006 at 7:04 am
Anyway when the ‘phone’ term will be outdated? These are complex multimedia and well-priced self-define-helper gadgets and voice calls just a minor, more and more disliked feature of them. Like Microsoft Word’s destiny: Who wants to use a digital typewriter with 3000 builtin functions when no one uses paper now? Information is just drops off the csicsa.

Posted by: dH on June 9th, 2006 at 7:09 am
The “neon” looks pretty good but RAZR sucks! Thus, the two of them cannot be used as comparison. :)

Posted by: Ben Tong on June 9th, 2006 at 8:49 am
yea the razr is awful and own one!

Posted by: augustus on June 9th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Wow, the neon is pretty sexy. It’s design is very DS Lite-esque, with the boxy font and solid rectangular shape.

Posted by: kareno on June 9th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
I am a fan of sony ericsson phone, at the moment targeting the SE W950. I don’t know why i alwasy use SE phone.. :D

But its too expensive for my wallet :D , wait for a while until the price cheaper :-p

Posted by: Kuswanto on June 9th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Razr, is the no. 1 in the last years mobile sale in usa!!

–
Balakumar Muthu
http://i5bala.blogspot.com

Posted by: Balakumar Muthu on June 9th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
really shit nice

Posted by: Olltta on June 9th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Do you know if the phones in Japan can be bought outright? Or must you always have a plan? I’d like to take one home to Australia with me.

Posted by: Chidade on June 9th, 2006 at 7:47 pm
I’m unite with the author - I’d undoubtedly took AU KDDI Neon if I would be able to.

Posted by: GK on June 9th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
the RAZR costs more like 150-300 dollars… $600 is just exagerated.

Posted by: Francisco on June 11th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
I have a RAZR… I got it for FREE + $80 back to me rebate. I got it with a contract though :]

Posted by: TEODOROOOOOO on June 11th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
I’m aware the RAZR can be had cheaper, but most websites say that the RRP of a RAZR (off-contract) is $599.99, so I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration.

Posted by: Administrator on June 11th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
the trend is not only the flipphone design but there are some that are “inline” like a real phone. flat slim and beautiful.KDDI has some designer ones worth a look. http://www.au.kddi.com/english/audesignproject/index.html

The “info bar” is its name i believe. the neons remind me of cake for some reason. so boxy and the colors are like powder. then there is the egg style. Softbank- formally Vodaphone has international plans for Aussies and others. check these out. http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/

Posted by: mark hill on November 3rd, 2006 at 1:01 am
Nokia N93 is really cooool!!
I have this phone with me right now

Posted by: Ninja on December 12th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I prefer Razr too its also nice

Posted by: Melen on December 23rd, 2006 at 12:32 am
razr has like 15 versions, v3 which is identical to that version is $200 or so unlocked new from the manufacturer

Posted by: cartufer on April 3rd, 2007 at 4:10 pm

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