• Video: KDDI's iida INFOBAR Android Handset Boasts Unique Design, UI [Update: New Video]

    Serkan Toto

    Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

    Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

    Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI au unveiled its summer line-up of cell phones today, and one of the 15 new models is particularly interesting: the so-called INFOBAR A01 [JP], which is part of KDDI’s designer sub-brand iida. The biggest selling points are the Android phone’s pretty unique design and UI.

    First, the specs:

    • 3.7-inch LCD with 960×540 resolution
    • Android 2.3
    • 8MP camera
    • e-wallet function
    • digital TV tuner
    • infrared
    • USB, microSDHC ports
    • Bluetooth 3.0+EDR, Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b/g/n)
    • CDMA GSM
    • 6-axis motion sensor
    • size: 118×63×11.8mm, weight: 113g

    And the UI is simply beautiful, as you can see in the video embedded below (it’s in Japanese, but that doesn’t matter too much in this case):

    KDDI plans to start offering this Android INFOBAR in Japan this summer.

    Update:
    Our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo just posted this video (subbed in English) they took of the handset earlier today at the KDDI press conference: