Hands-on with Sony Ericsson’s G9 and the KDDI iida mini projector

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by Serkan Toto on April 10, 2009

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I had the opportunity to test Sony Ericsson’s newest mobile phone, the G9, in Tokyo today. The device is the first KDDI au is selling in Japan under the so-called iida brand. It’s not officially on sale yet, but I could lay my hands on finished versions for a few minutes in a KDDI showroom. The G9 will be available in Japan next week.

Design-wise, the phone is nothing special. A typical slider with a keyboard featuring sloped buttons made of aluminum, that were nice to press (but who cares if there is the iPhone). The G9 measures 115 x 50 x 17.4mm, weighs 128g and comes with a quite conventional 3.0-inch LCD panel (resolution 480 x 854). It has a nice stainless frame and a 3MP camera that can take good pictures. But again, this is nothing really special.

I surfed the web with the G9, but compared with Android or the iPhone, the experience was so 2007. May the Japanese phones have digital TV tuners, better cameras or e-payment functions, I still would never want to replace my iPhone.

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The mobile projector linked to one of the G9s was more interesting. It’s limited to 3,000 units in Japan (price: $400) and is made by Toshiba. KDDI showed the device project a movie on a mini screen and the quality was surprisingly good.

The pico projector weighs exactly as much as the G9 and measures 50 x 112 x 18.3mm. KDDI says the it can be used for 130 minutes and takes 110 minutes to charge its battery. It’s compatible with a number of other Japanese handsets and was very, very cool. I wonder when they will build these things into cell phones.

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