Fujitsu has made quite a name for itself amongst the older generation people owning smartphones in Japan. The company is launching its first smartphone for the European market. The Fujitsu Stylistic S01 is also going to be targeted at the older audience and would be introduced in France to begin with. Orange would be the only network selling the handset.
Stylistic S01 is definitely a phone that is exceptionally easy to use. It is based on the standard Android 4.0 Ice Cream sandwich but has a heavy User interface on top of it. The phone allows vertical scrolling only which can be a real boon to those wanting to keep things simple. The icons are really huge and are all present in primary colors ensuring that even people with defective eyesight can see them clearly. The display offers a 800×480 resolution. While this might sound dire when compared to the other phones in the market, the truth is this phone is not about for a snazzy display. It is more about the comfort and ease of use.
This ease is further augmented by the tactile feedback technology used in the phone. The screen does not respond immediately to any touch, instead you need to press an icon for some time before it responds while sending a zing through your finger. This ensures that people who might not have complete control over their fingers can use the phone effectively and do not end up opening apps inadvertently. Another great feature is its home button which when pressed closes all apps automatically preventing any apps from taking a toll on the battery.
The phone also has an audio technology that can automatically adjust the frequency of audio and also slow the incoming speech to aid understanding. Every section in the handset has its own help guide which makes it very simple to use. A 1.4GHz single core Qualcomm processor ensures decent performance.
It’s not like smartphones are particularly complicated to use. It seems to me that if you need one “dumbed” this far down for you, then you should probably just get a feature phone. You wouldn’t even have to bother with an expensive data plan.
Love Fujitsu equipment. Prefer their laptops to any other I own. They’ve always been ahead of the curve. I’ve got a P200 Fujitsu laptop with USB ports on it (way before they were standard on desktops, much less laptops).
Wish this phone were available in the US. I can think of several people who could use it.
Apple will probably respond quickly to this attack on their core userbase.