CTIA 2008 - Live Report

Kyocera Wireless, now the 6th largest cell phone manufacturer in the World (after the Sanyo acquisition was just finalized), announced a total of seven new devices – three CDMA and four GSMs for the Latin America market.

Starting with the most interesting one, Neo E1100, which offers a quite unique design. The whole front surface is very glossy with a hidden OLED display at the lower right corner. As it is quite small, it only provides the most basic information. A really cool feature is the blue LED light, which runs through the whole front from top to bottom. The left side features the volume rocket and the camera button. Both are very close to each other and have very small relief, so are somewhat hard to find by touch. The back, in contrast to the shinny front, has a soft feel, which helps for a better grip.

Opening the shell reveals the flush keypad, which still has slightly raised key separators. The keypad offers good tactile feedback.

The 2.2" QVGA display was great, but beyond the main menu, the actual UI of the device was not working. Overall, it seems like a great low-mid tier device with a very eye-catching design!



Kyocera Mako S4000

The phone falls in between the Neo and the low end Adreno. The glossy finish of the Neo is gone, and instead of it the whole front and back surfaces have a soft, rubber like feel. The display is now color with not very great brightness. The side buttons are the same as on the Neo, but especially on the left side, are quite hard to press.

Opening the shell reveals a very small relative to the whole body display, with low 128x160 resolution. The keypad offers OK tactile feedback, but the SEND and END keys are just way too small for our taste.




Kyocera Adreno S2400

The lowest end of the line is the Adreno S2400. The whole device looks and feels like a kid's toy. Just because Kyocera has used again material, which has rubber-like feel, the target market is supposed to be the sport fans (there is no sports related functionality whatsoever).

The front has a small, one line display like on the Mako, while the internal one is still 1.8" but it is not even TFT.

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