Cry if you’re not in Japan: KDDI announces Summer 2007 Collection handsets

It’s always like that — Japanese are getting the most coolest-looking and most feature-packed devices. And it’s not just a single device, but a bunch of the handsets sold exclusively in the Land of the rising Sun sport so many features, so stylishly packed. Going with that, KDDI announced its “Collection 2007 Summer”, an array of new devices available to its customers. Let’s briefly showcase each of them…

Sanyo (OTCPK: SANYY) W53SA seems to target the Japanese females — or, at least the available color palette suggests so. This water-resistant clamshell device has a 2 MP camera, a high-res 400×240 display, and a tiny cool-looking OLED display on the front.

Casio W52CA is basically the same as the Sanyo W53SA, except the outer display which this device lacks, and the looks which indicates that men will most likely be the customers for the W52CA. Again, it’s a water-resistant handset, sporting the same high-res display as Sanyo-made phone. Thickness of just 21mm is still pretty impressive for a clamshell.

Casio W53CA goes one step further. There’s a 5.1 MP camera (have I heard “Wow?”) and an ultra high-res screen that can display resolution of up to 800×480 pixels. All this is packed in a clamshell form factor, only 18.9mm thick. Wow!

We’ve already discussed the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) W52S today. I’ll just repeat, that this is probably one of the best Walkman-branded devices the Swedish-Japanese handset manufacturer ever made.

Talking about style? The clamshell Panasonic (NYSE: PC) W52P has what appear to be an actual Allen screws fastening the top of the clam. Two displays – one external (96×64 pixels) and a WQVGA internal. Standard QVGA seems to suck in Japan.

Similarly to Casio W53CA, Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) W54T also sports the 800×480 ultra high-res display. However, Toshiba went for a slider form factor and more metal components to design this baby. Hmm, Toshiba…

Hitachi W52H is a basic phone or what? Actually, basic in Japan means mid-range device in rest of the world. There’s an ultra durable battery and a 2 MP camera. Good for music, I guess.

Sharp W52SH is yet another ultra-thin (17.6 mm) clamshell handset sporting WQVGA (what else?) screen, 2 MP camera, microSD expansion and on, and on.

Unlike Toshiba W54, the company’s W53T model is an 18mm-thick clamshell device. Again it’s the looks that Toshiba knows how to do well. Plus, the WQVGA screen can be rotated 180 degrees and folded flat when you’re in one-seg mode. Of course, the camera (2 MP) is also present.

By far, you’ve noticed the trend — a WQVGA screen and a 2 MP camera. That’s exactly what Sanyo W52SA packs. Plus, there’s a very small external screen for basic network information.

That’s it folks. Lot of new phones have been announced by KDDI. Why, oh why Japanese carriers hate bloggers this much. It would be way more convenient to write about each of them every day — not to put them all in a single large post. Hack, it’s their way, and we’re here to cover it all… (via: Engadget)