Au announced their new phone today, clearly intended as competition for NTT's 900i series.

KDDI and Okinawa Cellular will release the "A5505SA" phone from Sanyo in the first part of May. The phone features an FM radio function, megapixel camera, and supports international data roaming.

The A5505SA is a terminal of Sanyo make that supports international data roaming via the GLOBAL PASSPORT service. GLOBAL PASSPORT used to be voice-only, but  in cooperation with Korea's SK Telecom, o­ne can now use mail functions and consult EZweb sites. It has English-Japanese (around 20,000 words), and Japanese-English (around 10,000 words) dictionary functions, as well as a function that can read English, Chinese, and Korean text aloud.

[1]Inside the phone is a FM radio turner that can be used overseas, and o­ne can listen to the radio using the twin speakers without headphones. However, the connection of a part of the headphone cable is still needed, since it acts as an antenna. It can also playback the FM radio using 3D stereo DSP effects, as well as the ringers using these 3D sound.

[2]EZ Navi Walker is also supported. The phone has an internal digital compass, so that the advancement direction is always "up." EZ Appli are supported with BREW, and the BREW data folder is 2MB.

As for the camera, it's a 1MP CCD camera, with a maximum resolution of 1144 x 880 dots. Using mail mode, megapixel sized pictures can be sent as attachments in mails. It supports the reading of QR codes. The data folder memory is 10MB, but it is also equipped with a miniSD card port - and a 16MB type miniSD card is included. When connected to PC using the included USB cable, it can act as removeable storage for the PC. Also, when o­ne connects the USB cable to printer support "PictBridge," it can print directly without the need for a PC. Other features include a voice recorder which uses the QCELP recording format.

The main display is 240 x 320 dots, and is a 2.4 inch, 260,000 color TFT screen. The subdisplay is a 160 x 120 dot, 1.5 inch, 65,536 color TFT screen. It even features keys o­n the outside under the external display, which can control various functions of the phone without the need to open it. The phone uses Advanced Wnn for text input.

The continuous talk time is 210 minutes, and the continuous idle time is 220 hours, with a recharge time of 120 minutes. The size is 51 x 99 x 26mm, and it weighs 130g. The body colors to be available will be Shiny Gold, and Shadow Purple.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/18080.html [3]

Press Release:
http://www.kddi.com/corporate/news_release/2004/0317/index.html [4]

Product Information:
http://www.stel-web.com/press/a5505sa/ [5]