Dare I say this is the first Korean handset in Japan?

No, I daren't. But I know this is the first foreign-made handset for AU since their deal with Motorola in 2000. I await the day Samsung enters the Japanese mobile market.

KDDI and Okinawa Cellular will release the "A1405PT," a CDMA 1X handset from Pantech and Curitel, in late November. Pantech & Curitel is a Korean handset maker, and this is the company's first handset for the Japanese market.

The "A1405PT" is a small and light folding 3G handset that uses CDMA 1X. Its claim to fame is a flat form that has no protuberances, and the "Stream Screen" is a long type organic EL display o­n the outside of the body. Text of mails that arrive can be displayed o­n this screen with its autoscrolling feature. It also has an emergency buzzer, so by pushing a button o­n the back of the unit for a while, it will play a loud sound.

Chaku Uta are supported, and Chaku Melodies up to 64 channels are supported. ATOK for au and APOT (with predictive text) are used as Japanese input systems.

The main display is a 2 inch, 240 x 320 dot (QVGA) color LCD, and the subdisplay a 180 x 18 dot, 1.5" organic EL screen. It features a 0.33MP camera, and while it does not offer external memory, it has 20MB of internal memory.

The size of the phone is 47 x 93 x 20mm, and it weighs about 98g. The continuous idle time is about 240 hours, and the continuous talk time about 150 minutes. Sky Grey, Silky Pink, and Royal Blue colors will be available.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/26020.html

Press Release:
http://www.kddi.com/corporate/news_release/2005/1011/index.html