There’s been several smartphones exclusive to Japan recently that we would wish to see available over here, but perhaps none more so than KDDI’s just-announced INFOBAR A01, that’s set to hit the rustic in July. It runs Android 2.3, but you would not realize it from the interface: an entirely custom UI designed by Yugo Nakamura that follows some similar glanceable design principles to Windows Phone 7 , or what KDDI describes as a “single band of info.” The telephone isn’t any slouch hardware-wise either — it boasts a three.7-inch qHD display (that’s about 300 ppi), an 8 megapixel camera, a 1Seg TV tuner, and dual-mode GSM / CDMA connectivity (no word at the processor, unfortunately). As you will see that, it also has some tile-like buttons — a typical theme with with previous INFOBAR phones — and it’s available on your number of four different color schemes, no less, together with some optional silicone and leather cases designed to compare the telephone (by the phone’s designer, Naoto Fukasawa, incidentally). Hit up the gallery below for a more in-depth look, and head on past the break for a couple of videos showing the interface in action.
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