|
 Available
now
27th July 2011
Billed as the world's first Windows Phone 7.5 (codenamed "Mango")
handset, the Fujitsu Toshiba IS12T is heading exclusively to Japan,
but offers a glimpse of what next-generation Windows Phones might
look like.
Sales of Windows Phone 7 devices so far have not been a huge
success, but then neither have they been an absolute disaster. Despite
the "7" in the name, this operating system is a complete
rewrite from the ground up, and is effectively at version 1. Although
version 7.5 is based on the same operating system, the indications
are that this is a significant improvement. Nokia too are on board
with Windows Phone 7.5, so there's a good chance that sales will
start to pick up.
Windows Phone 7.5 can view and edit Microsoft Office documents,
it comes with Internet Explorer 9, can share data through Microsoft's
"cloud" service (Windows Live Skydrive) and the whole
user interface has been reworked. There's a smallish but growing
application library available for Windows Phone 7 too.
 Not
only is the operating system new, but the brand on the phones is
pretty new too. Fujitsu Toshiba is (unsurprisingly) a merger of
the mobile phone businesses of Toshiba and Fujitsu, although Fujitsu
is by far the largest partner. Fujitsu Toshiba aim to be the biggest
vendor of mobile handsets in Japan.
Back to the phone itself, this is a pretty standard slabby affair
to look at, although if comes in several colours other than black
(including magenta and citrus). On the front is a 3.7" 480
x 800 pixel display, on the back is an impressively high-resolution
13.2 megapixel camera. The IS12T is dustproof and waterproof, a
feature that is common in Japanese phones but pretty rare elsewhere.
The Fujitsu Toshiba IS12T supports both CDMA/EVDO and GSM connectivity,
plus WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1.
The IS12T weighs about 113 grams and measures 118 x 59 x 11mm.
Talktime is about 6 hours with up to 11 days standby time. Internal
flash memory is 32GB.
Even more so than Android phones, Windows Phone 7 (and 7.5) devices
are very similar. So although you won't be able to buy this handset
in Europe or North America, you can bet that the upcoming crop of
WinPho 7.5 smartphones will not be very different.
The Fujitsu Toshiba IS12T will be available on the KDDI network
in Japan from September onwards.
|
