Nexus 7 - Google's 7 inch Android Tablet

On my last trip to Europe, I picked up a new Google/Asus Nexus 7 tablet at the airport. If you don't know what that is, it is a 7 inch Android tablet, made by the Taiwanese manufacturer Asus, with the latest version of Android from Google, 4.1 Jelly Bean. The "Nexus" branding means that it runs "pure" Android as Google intended it - that means no manufacturer skins or overlays, no carrier-installed bloatware, and always the first to receive the latest software updates directly from Google without any third parties in between - in software terms, then, the closest thing in the Android world to an iOS device.
*at the time of purchase, the tablet wasn't available in Japan, so I thought I had pulled off a bit of a coup, but as luck would have it, while I was away, the device was also released in Japan, at a slightly cheaper price!

Hardware

The first thing to talk about with the hardware is the size. 7 inches. I saw an iPad owner on Twitter today commenting that he thought 7 inches would be too small. I say it's the perfect blend of portability and viewability. It is small and light enough that I can hold it in one hand when browsing Flipboard, for example, but large enough that Web pages and text are clear and easily readable. IPad users will want to note that pretty much every other tablet in the world, including the Nexus 7, have a 16:10 aspect ratio, not 4:3, and as such lend themselves more to be held in portrait orientation rather than landscape. Much like a Kindle, it's about the same shape and size as a paperback book. Of course, for watching movies or YouTube content, you can flip it on its side and get proper wide screen content without letterboxing.

That brings me nicely to the screen. The screen is a 1280x800, 216ppi IPS panel. This means you have HD on a 7 inch device, and while the pixel density does not quite qualify as "retina", it comes pretty damn close. Text is sharp and crisp, and movies and photos look fantastic. Being IPS, colours are not as warm and saturated as AMOLED displays, so those coming from Samsung devices may find it a little washed-out, but they are probably more true to life. Whites are certainly plenty white enough, and blacks are deep and rich.

Build quality is otherwise solid; the back is textured plastic, but it gives you a decent grip without feeling cheap. There is one adequate but not stunning speaker on the back, and the tablet is heavy enough to feel solid in the hand while still being light enough to use for extended periods of time. I haven't yet had the opportunity to really push the battery yet, but using the tablet in the morning before work and most of the evening after coming home leaves me with plenty of battery in reserve. There are no hardware buttons, other than a small volume rocker and power button on the side; OS functional buttons appear automatically on screen at all times except when in full screen apps like video or games.

There is a front-facing camera for Skype etc, NFC connectivity so that you can "beam" files directly to other Android devices, and Bluetooth to talk to your car stereo, headphones, or portable keyboard.

The one drawback for some may be that at the moment, the tablet is only available in a wifi version. There are rumours of a 3G version, but at the moment, they are just that, rumours. I'm primarily using mine at home, in the office, and in hotels while travelling. Outside I have had to be a little more creative, finding free hot spots in airports or cafes where possible, or using the Wifi Hot spot mode on my phone if I am stuck and really desperate to use the tablet. In general, though, this device is seeing a lot of use for reading/gaming/blogging/viewing on the sofa or lying in bed, simply as a more comfortable alternative to the phone. Using 3G on the move in Japan is not a great experience anyway, and to be avoided if possible in my opinion.

The tablet also comes with "only" 16GB of storage on board, and no way to expand it. However, as it is a wifi only device, most of the time you will have access to cloud or streaming services, so it shouldn't be a problem. For my 12 hour flight from Europe back to Japan, I loaded 3 movies onto it with space to spare; you will run out of battery before you run out of storage.

Software

The tablet runs the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean, and this is simply a fantastic OS. Google have really got their act together with this one, and the stock apps work really well on the tablet. The larger size of the screen is used nicely with split-screen views for the stock email client and the Gmail app, giving you your folder list on the left and mails themselves on the right.


The launcher allows up to 6 apps to be placed in the dock at the bottom for easy access, and to simplify placing of widgets and shortcuts on your home screens, icons now move out of the way if you give them a little shove with whatever you want to put in their place. Widgets from Google, notably the calendar widget and email widgets, are now fully resizeable, so you can shrink or stretch them as you like to reveal more content. This is great if you have a full schedule or lots of mails that you want to keep track of without having to continually open the app.


A big addition in Jelly Bean is Google Now. I plan to write more fully about this, but in short, Google Now is intelligent information, based on your location, search history, and calendar. I found it really useful on my travels, with it providing me with reminders accessible from the notification bar at all times of: the time back home in Japan, the exchange rate for the country I was in at the time; journey time in current traffic to places I had searched; and reminders and travel times of upcoming appointments. I find it less useful at home, where it is mostly "reminding" me about the weather, but it does at least give me a reminder whenever a Tottenham game is coming up, and tell me the time it will be on in Japan.


One thing that Android fanbois used to crow about when scraping the bottom of the barrel for advantages over iOS back in the day was support for Flash. That, however, is no more, as Flash is not compatible with Jelly Bean. That's why decision on Adobe's part, as they have decided to cease development of mobile Flash, so just like our Apple friends, we will have to learn to live with it.

Price

The Nexus 7 is available online directly from Google through the Google Play Store, which you can access from any browser (not just from Android. In fact, if you access from Android, you can't buy hardware). The Japanese retail price is 19,800 yen, and this is perhaps the most appealing thing. You can buy it pretty much as an impulse purchase and it won't make a serious dent in your wallet. It may just change the way you consume content and use your phone though.

*until October 30th (activation), you also get a free 2,000 yen credit for the Play Store to spend on apps, books, or movies. Definitely worth doing to get some premium apps or tablet-specific versions. And don't forget, you can install your purchased apps on all of your devices, not just the one you bought them on.

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 A fantastic little machine, only really let down when you are stuck without a wifi connection.

Softbank trade-in campaign, aka Why I won't be getting a new iPhone 5, Part II

Yesterday I talked about why the hardware on the new iPhone 5, even if another steady step forward from the iPhone 4S, was not enough to convince me to switch from my current Android phone. However, phones are about more than hardware, and the main part of the user experience is created by the software. Android's last two evolutions, Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Jelly Bean (4.1) have brought massive changes and vast improvements to Gingerbread (2.3), which, while satisfying enough to most of us geeks, certainly lacked a lot of the polish of iOS. In fact, we are now at the point where the feeling is definitely that Apple is playing catchup on the software front as well as the hardware front. So, how does iOS 6 rate against the latest Android software?

• Home Screen: We'll start here, as it's where you naturally start with the phone. In iOS 6, your only option for the home screen is a grid of icons. As it was in iOS 5, and iOS 4, etc... If you are on an iPhone 5, you get 1 more row of icons on your grid. Whoopee!
  The Android desktop allows you to leave entire screens blank. You can put icons anywhere on the grid you like. You can add widgets, such as weather displays, clocks, music player controls, calendars and pretty much anything you can think of. If you don't like the home screen ("launcher"), you can replace it with a custom one from the Play Store. Of course, if you want, you can just line up rows and rows of icons and make it look like an iPhone. But why would you do that if you had a choice?
• Turn-by-turn navigation: Built into Android since 2008. Next.
• Panorama mode in the camera: Has been part of the Android camera since ICS (released October 2011)
• Siri: Last time I had a look at Siri in person was on the iPhone 4S with iOS 5. At that time it was most definitely a beta product, and of little use here in Japan, even when it did manage to recognise what you were saying. From what I hear, it has improved a lot in iOS 6, with new functions as well as improved speech recognition. On the other hand, Google has also made vast strides with their Voice Search and Google Now. It is not a full personal assistant like Siri, but will carry out a range of searches and commands when commanded by your voice. The voice recognition is excellent, and you can now download the recognition files (about 20MB per language) for voice recognition even when offline. Obviously you won't be able to search if you are offline, so this is mostly useful for voice typing. The usual "shootout" videos between iOS 6 Siri and Jelly Bean Google Voice Search will no doubt be cropping up on YouTube soon enough; in the meantime, though, I will call this a draw, while also adding that I have never seen anyone using Siri or Google Voice Search (I only use it when there is no one else in the room myself!)
• Maps: iOS 6 removes Google Maps and replaces it with Apple Maps. I'm not going to go into great depth about this here, but particularly outside of major US cities (hello Japan), it seems to be a bit of a disaster, with streets, stations and major landmarks missing, in the wrong place, or wrongly named. Google Maps was always better on Android, and now Android has a big advantage in this department. As if to rub it in, Google released an update to Google Maps today - for Android only of course.
• Facebook integration: iOS can now sync your Facebook contacts with your phone contacts, giving you a boatload of extra info for all your friends, accessible directly from your phone book. This is a cool, if non-essential feature. Standard Android doesn't do this (it did, until Google and Facebook fell out - sound familiar?), but some custom Android skins, such as HTC's "Sense", which runs on top of Android on all HTC phones, provide this additional functionality. You can also use the "Haxsync" app to duplicate it on stock Android.
  The other useful addition to iOS 6 is the ability to share to Facebook from any app. But this is another place where Android has a big advantage over iOS: while the list of possible outside apps to share to is decided on an app-by-app basis in iOS (decided by the developer), in Android, every app that is capable of accepting a particular type of share (URL, photo, message, phone number etc), registers itself with the system, and then is available in every other app as a share destination. Meaning you get the full list, every time.
• Reply to a rejected call with a text message: When you can't take a call, you can now reject it and send a pre-baked text message to explain why. This is just a feature copied from Android, to be honest.
• Add a photo to an email, from inside the email app: Frankly, I'm just astounded this is a "new" feature. It should be just common sense. In Android you can add any file, at any time, to your emails, and you have always been able to do so. Android also has a proper file system and a proper file browser, giving your phone storage a lot more power than the restrictive Apple version.

Unfortunately, as an Android user, there is really nothing to get excited about here at all. In fact, there would be a lot more that I would miss from Android than I would gain from iOS if I were to change. Apple has played catchup, but to me it is still not enough. And the world's expectation of Apple is not that they play catchup, but that they lead with new features and innovations. None of that has happened this time round. Perhaps they were too busy suing Samsung.

In conclusion then, I am going to be an Android user for at least another year. If you are on Android 4 or above, I would recommend you too to stay with it. For users on Android 2.3 or lower, whose phones have no chance of getting updated (you are probably coming to the 2-year upgrade stage anyway), the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 are definitely up there with the best Android has to offer. But I'm pretty certain that they are not better.

Softbank trade-in campaign, aka Why I won't be getting a new iPhone 5, Part I

This is primarily an Android blog, so I haven't made much of the release of the new iPhone 5. However, today, I briefly considered - then rejected - the idea of seeing what the fascination was about for myself.

Today, Softbank announced that they would be offering trade-ins of old smart-phones for anyone signing up to a new contract or changing contract to "Any 4G/LTE smartphone". Funnily enough, Softbank currently only offers one "4G/LTE smartphone", and that is the iPhone 5. We can but hope that the floodgates are opened to the plethora of choice that is out there - but I digress.

Very few smartphones are eligible for the trade-in. Why? Basically, because what Softbank is going to do is SIM-unlock them, then sell them on overseas; most likely for more than what they paid you for it. Trust me, you can get more money for your old phone on Craigslist or Yahoo Auctions than you can from Softbank:

iPhone 4S: 20,000 (64GB), 18,000 (32GB), 16,000 (16GB)
iPhone 4: 12,000 (32GB), 10,000 (16GB), 8,000 (8GB)
iPhone 3GS: 5,000 iPhone 3G: 4,000
X06HT/X06HTII (HTC Desire), 001HT (HTC Desire HD): 3,000
001 DL (Dell Streak), 101DL (Dell Streak Pro): 2,000
(Source: Softbank Mobile)

Especially the HTC's are a joke. With the ease of unlocking them yourself, and the fact that once you do so, you can still upgrade them to the latest version of Android (4.1 Jelly Bean), they have a lot more aftermarket value than that.

Anyway, before I had gone on the website and found out how little Softbank were actually offering, for a brief moment I considered it. Trade in my old HTC Desire - which is currently sitting under the TV, running on WiFi and purely acting as a Google Play Music player connected to my stereo - for a sparkling, shiny new iPhone.

Then I thought: I already have a pretty new smartphone (HTC One S), which was released in April this year. OK, Apple has 6 months on it, but things can't have changed that much, can they?

So, the question was, what would the iPhone do for me (or other Android users), that my current Android phone wouldn't? I set off to do some more in-depth research on the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 to make sure there was nothing really cool that I was missing.

The new features, as I see them, are as follows:

iPhone 5 (hardware)

1. Thinner and lighter: The iPhone 5 weighs in at 112g and 7.6mm thick. My HTC One S is a full 7 grams heavier at 119g, and 0.2mm thicker at 7.8mm. Definitely not a game changer here.
2. Bigger Screen: Up from a mighty 3.5 inches to 4 inches, Apple have finally admitted that people might want a little more screen real estate. On the other hand, good luck finding an Android phone with such a tiny screen. I chose mine because of the relatively small screen size, and it is 4.3 inches. Even then, Apple only got this by stretching lengthways, and the screen didn't get any wider before. Plus, apps that haven't been optimized yet will have ugly black bars top and bottom until the developer gets round to updating them. Win for Android.
3. 4G (LTE): From a crippled HSPA+ speed in the iPhone 4S (see my last blog), the iPhone 5 becomes capable of super high speeds on Softbank or au's fledgling 4G networks. OK, this I am a little jealous of. My phone reaches up to 14Mbps on HSPA+, but gets smoked on speed by LTE. On the other hand, LTE connectivity is still fairly sparse, especially outside Tokyo. And LTE phones have been out on Docomo for the best part of a year now, so Apple is really only playing catchup. Still, I'll score this one to Apple.
4. New "Lightning" connector: Every other smartphone in the world charges and transfers data over standard micro-USB cables. Of course, Apple had to be different. They always have been different, but this time they have screwed over their own customers by forcing people already in the ecosystem to either buy all new accessories for their phone, or buy an expensive adaptor. And still not be able to share everyone else's charger when in a bind. Major fail for Apple here.
5. Camera: I'm concentrating on hardware only here, as well as features that can actually be compared. So "quality" is out of the equation here (although the HTC One S is consistently reviewed as having one of the best cameras of any smartphone). Thus, the main hardware improvement to the iPhone 5's camera is that is is faster than its predecessor. However, it is still nothing compared to the HTC, or Samsung's Galaxy S III. Not only do the latest Droids also have "zero shutter lag", the HTC can take up to 100 pictures in "Burst Mode" simply by holding down the camera button at a rate of around 4 exposures/second. Eat your heart out, Apple.
6. New Processor: The iPhone 5 uses a new A6 processor. Details on this are scarce, but it is probably the fastest mobile processor out there right now. Win for Apple; but the HTC One S has the second fastest mobile processor out there (Snapdragon S4 "Krait", faster than Nvidia Tegra 3 in most benchmarks), so I'm not crying into my jelly beans just yet.
   

As far as big new hardware features go, I think that's it. Nothing here to really convince me so far. LTE is tempting, but I spend most of my time on WiFi anyway, so I hope I won't miss it too much. Hopefully by the time I get my next phone, LTE will have improved to the point where LTE roaming abroad is possible.

This post ended up a lot longer than expected, so I'll deal with iOS 6 vs Jelly Bean in Part 2 tomorrow.

Improvements to the Softbank Network

Softbank's "Platinum Band" service went live on 25th July. Platinum Band is Softbank's name for the extension of their 3G service to include the 900MHz waveband. So what qualifies this as "Platinum"? Until now, Softbank has been at a distinct disadvantage to NTT Docomo and au by KDDI, in that it lacked at low-frequency band for 3G services. Softbank only had 2100 and 1500MHz bands, while Docomo and au also had 800MHz spectrum. The advantage of the lower frequencies is greater penetration, particular in rural or mountainous areas and inside buildings. The upshot was that Softbank gained a reputation for poor connectivity, so much that when au acquired the iPhone, its main marketing strategy to differentiate itself from rival iPhone carrier Softbank was to question the point of a smartphone that can't connect to the internet because of poor signal.
Like many others, while I was excited about the prospect of an improvement to Softbank's poor connectivity, when the 25th July came around and the Platinum Band supposedly went live, I saw no difference. Checking Softbank's homepage, it appears that the rollout is an extremely gradual process. The current states of Softbank's various (and confusing) services can be found here. Even some parts of Tokyo are still not covered by the service.
Other than the slow rollout, a further problem is that most phone models on Sotbank sold before this summer do not support the 900MHz band. Notable exceptions are the iPhone 4(S) and the HTC Desire (X06HT / X06HTII). Alternatively, most international smartphone models support this band, so if you are using a SIM-free phone, then chances are you will benefit from this improvement.
While the Platinum Band is supposed to bring improved connectivity, hopefully meaning less dropped data connections and less waiting for a connection before your page starts loading, what it does not promise is improved speed. For data speed, there are a multitude of related technologies in play:

• 3G: Also known as UMTS or W-CDMA, the basic data network technology in use today. Can reach speeds from 384kbps to 2mbps. Supported by Softbank's Platinum Band
• HSPA: Softbank calls this "3G High Speed", allows data download up to 14Mbps. Most modern phones support this as well as 3G
• HSPA+: Also know as "Evolved HSPA", Softbank is introducing this on the Platinum Band and also on the existing 2100MHz frequency band. Allows download speeds up to 21Mbps. Not too many phones support this.
• DC-HSPA: Softbank calls this "Ultra Speed", and it stands for "Dual Cell HSPA". It doubles the speeds of HSPA, allowing downloads up to 42Mbps. Uses the 1500MHz frequency band on Softbank. Again, few phones support this.
• LTE: "Softbank 4G", up to 110Mbps download in the 2.5GHz spectrum. As yet no phones support this, only mobile wifi routers.

Depending on your phone, you may be able to take advantage of faster speeds. On Android, you can see your connectivity next to the signal bars, where you will generally see either "3G" or "H" (for HSPA) indicated. If you have "H", you are on the "faster" connection.
I recently upgraded the OS on my phone to Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), specifically the CyanogenMod 10 version. In this latest version, they have added support for further icons; now there is a "H+" icon (for HSPA+), and a 4G icon for LTE or DC-HSPA (in the USA DC-HSPA is marketed as 4G, although it doesn't technically qualify). Since updgrading, I have occasionally noticed that I am getting an "H+" indicator next to the signal bars. At first, I thought this was a mistake or a bug. Then I noticed that it was mostly in subway stations, and I figured that Softbank had prioritised stations in their network upgrade process. So I decided to run a couple of tests using the SpeedTest app(repeated multiple times to make sure nothing was anomalous), and here are two representative samples:
HSPA Network ("H"):

*After the test, the connection dropped to 3G, hence the "3G" displayed in the status bar.
HSPA+ Network ("H+"):

*As above, after the test, the connection dropped to 3G, hence the "3G" displayed in the status bar.

As you can see, neither network comes close to reaching the theoretical maximum speeds, but when I can get an HSPA+ signal, the network speeds are around twice the best speeds I can get with plain old HSPA. And you can really feel it - web pages and Facebook load in a flash on HSPA+. The only problem is, I haven't yet found anywhere outside of Tokyo Metro subway stations and a couple of select (underground) stations on the Tokyu line that have it. I really hope Softbank rolls this out more widely in the very near future.

iPhone 4S users, if you look up your phone specs on the internet, you will find that it supports HSPA+. However, Apple used an older generation Qualcomm radio that doesn't support the full HSPA+ spec, so even with HSPA+, you still only get 14.4Mbps speeds - in other words no improvement over HSPA. This was a big controversy in the US, because AT&T had Apple change the icon for this to "4G", even though it is nothing of the sort. But for real HSPA+ support, you'll have to wait for the iPhone 5. For DC-HSPA support, you'll have to get an Android, although as I mentioned, even with Android there are not many phones supporting this technology yet. LTE is another kettle of fish altogether, which I am avoiding for now, but suffice to say, phones from one country have a 99% likelihood of not working on another country's LTE network, so from the point of view of the SIM-free enthusiast, it's currently more of a troublesome technology than an interesting one. For LTE, buy domestic and use domestically.

How to Use an Unlocked (SIM-free) 3G Phone in Japan

Due to the dearth of quality, cutting-edge smartphones available in Japan (unless you want an iPhone or a Galaxy), for my latest phone, I decided to go the SIM-free route. I bought an unlocked HTC One S from UK online reseller Clove Technologies, and have since been using it on the Softbank network with no troubles whatsoever. And since I bought the phone for export, I avoided the horrendous 20% UK VAT, and only had to pay a meagre 5% Japanese import tax, charged by the DHL guy when the package was delivered, so I ended up getting a pretty good deal, especially when the strong Yen is figured in. And now I have a phone that practically no one else in Japan has, rather than having to blend in with the Apple/Samsung-toting crowds; plus the joys of running Android 4, which is to Android 2.3 much like Windows 7 is to Windows 95.

So, if you want to get your own SIM-free phone up and running here in Japan, what are your options, and how do you go about it?

First, choose a carrier. You have only 2 realistic options; NTT Docomo (Docomo) and Softbank Mobile (SBM). au by KDDI is a CDMA carrier, so you can't get a SIM card from them, plug in and go. E-Mobile is a minor carrier who I unfortunately don't know enough about to comment on. Suffice to say, I have never met anyone who has an E-Mobile phone (although their data services are getting more popular). Finally, there are a number of MVNO (virtual carriers) such as B-Mobile, who piggyback onto Docomo's network. I'm also not going to discuss those here, but Japan Mobile Tech has extensive information about their products and tariffs.

1. NTT Docomo

There are 2 main contract types at Docomo these days: FOMA (3G) and Xi (LTE, pronounced "crossy"). You might think that you are getting a 3G phone (don't try and get an LTE phone from abroad, as LTE phones are highly unlikely to work in countries other than where they were intended to be used), so you only have a choice of the 3G network, but it doesn't quite work that way. You can get yourself a Xi SIM card, and while your phone won't magically have access to the blazing speeds of LTE, it will fall back to the old FOMA 3G service, whilst still subjecting you to the billing terms and conditions of the Xi service. And here is why you would want to do that:
With FOMA, Docomo filters access to their APN (mobile access points, for data) by IMEI (a unique handset identifier, which cannot be changed by the user). So if you didn't buy your phone from docomo, your IMEI number is not in their database. And it just so happens that the "pakehodai" APN (all-you-can-eat data), "Mopera U" (mpr2.bizho.net) is only available to phones in the database. So with an unlocked phone, you cannot access the 5,980 Yen/Month APN, even if that is the plan you got with your SIM card. You must use instead the "Mopera" APN (mopera.net), which will cost you 8,190 Yen / month.
The alternative is signing up for the Xi service, and using the SIM in your 3G phone. You can always get a Docomo-approved LTE phone later if you feel like it. Xi uses the same, non-IMEI filtered Mopera APN, which you can access with your unlocked phone. However, for Xi you only need to pay 5,985 Yen/month, and you get up to 7GB of data. After that, your speed will be throttled. But in my experience, 7GB is an awful lot of data to get through on your mobile phone. Then again, people's usage may vary; I use a lot of WiFi, you may do a lot of tethering (connecting your PC/iPad through your phone's network). The other thing with Xi is that Docomo shop staff may be a little confused why you want to get an LTE SIM when you don't have an LTE phone. However, with some gentle persuasion (maybe tell them you will get the phone some time later), they do apparently hand over the goods.
Once you have made your choice (I hope it's obvious), you need to find out the APN settings and input them into your phone (you can do this with Google, just search for something like "mopera.net APN settings"). Then you're away!

Japan Mobile Tech has a comprehensive rundown of Docomo APN's and their potential dangers here.

2. Softbank Mobile

With Softbank, there are 3 kinds of SIMs for smartphones. There is a black SIM, which comes with iPhones, a Silver SIM, and a grey, white & green SIM (it says "smartphone" on it). Depending on which SIM you get, you will need to use a different APN. For The black SIM, it is "smile.world". For the silver SIM, it is "opensoftbank". And for the gray/white/green it is "andglobal", or in some cases still "opensoftbank" (see which one you can connect to, you will only be able to connect to one or the other). As above, the settings needed for each of these can be found on your favourite search engine.
Softbank does not filter by IMEI at the present time, so you can use any of the APN's; it just depends on your SIM card. However, if you connect to the wrong APN, you will get charged per packet of data use. Softbank will send you a warning by SMS when you go over 30,000 yen for the month, but you should definitely keep an eye on your usage in the first month anyway! You can use the free application "My Softbank Checker" to watch your bill. I learned this the hard way and 70,000 yen later.
Softbank's all-you-can-eat data plan will run you 4,200 Yen / month.

Frequencies

Finally, before you hit the "order" button on that shiny new handset, you will want to check that the phone's radio actually supports the frequencies offered by your chosen carrier. Those are:

Docomo: 2100 / 1700 / 800 MHz
Softbank: 2100 / 1500 / 900* MHz

*Softbank's 900MHz band is scheduled to go live on 25th July 2012.

Most international smartphone models support 2100 MHz and some combination of the others, but it is definitely worth checking beforehand.

DoCoMo launches smartphones for kids and old folks

CNET: DoCoMo launches waterproof kids' phone

NTT DoCoMo this week announced its lineup of summer phone models. While most of the limelight was stolen by the much-anticipated launch of the Samsung Galaxy SIII, as well as impressive ICS-loaded models from Sony, Fujitsu and other domestic manufacturers, two interesting models slipped under the radar.
The first is a 2-inch smartphone aimed at kids, the second a 4-inch "raku raku" (easy to use) smartphone for the more mature members of society.

The kids smartphone features a parental lock that can disable selected functions, and presumably access to certain websites. But still, what need is there for kids to have a smartphone? Maybe I'm just getting old, but I can't see it. Of course we didn't have mobile phones when growing up, but I do understand the convenience and security in today's changed world of having a simple means of reaching your child during the day. But really, all this needs to be is the most simple of models, that can receive calls and make calls to certain restricted numbers. Even being able to mail is an unnecessary luxury, in my opinion. Perhaps I'm being Spartan. But seriously, what do kids need to access the Internet on their phones for? Or at all, in fact?

Next up, we have the Raku Raku smartphone. Like the above, this is something that has been around in the feature phone world for a while. Big fonts, easy to press buttons, simple menus and limited functions. Sound like an Android smartphone to you? Didn't think so. The phone allegedly features on-screen buttons that feel like real buttons - why not just give it real buttons then? And how do you combine the concept of a "smart" phone with near-unlimited functionality with a "raku raku" phone which, by definition has limited functions to keep it simple? Finally, how do you persuade the technophobic elder generation, who have just about mastered their raku raku keitai feature phones, to step up to the latest and greatest in new technology, smartphones? I think DoCoMo is onto a loser here.

The trouble is, out of 19 new models announced for the summer, 16 are smartphones. I think DoCoMo is getting too carried away with the smartphone boom, which in Japan is nowhere near as big a boom as it might seem to someone living in central Tokyo. Compared to Europe or the US, the rate of smartphone adoption in Japan is very low.

A further problem with this strategy is the burden on networks. DoCoMo's network has suffered several well-publicised outages already this year, blamed on the "unexpected" explosion in smartphone traffic. They are begging for people to use data-light feature phones to relieve pressure on their network; yet at the same time, they release swathes of smartphones, half of which are either junk or make no business sense, thereby leaving feature phone users who are content with a feature phone almost no choice when it comes to upgrade time.

Not every needs a smartphone, DoCoMo. Not everyone wants a smartphone. Not everyone should have a smartphone. Hopefully the replacement for outgoing CEO Yamada has a better understanding of this.

Breaking News - 900MHz Band allocated to Softbank

In an earlier blog, mentioned that a part of the 900MHz "Platinum Band" would be up for auction and available for use by July. The auction took place today, and from the candidates for allocation (Docomo, KDDI, E-Mobile, Softbank), Softbank was selected as having the most merit (9 points out of 10, with E-Mobile getting 8, and Docomo and KDDI only 5 each).

The 900MHz band has a high penetration over long distances, so this has the potential to greatly improve Softbank's network quality. Let's see what happens when the new infrastructure rolls out.

Source: k-tai watch (Japanese)