I tried to live with a high-end feature phone. I can't.
The feature phone. Still big in Japan. Still being sold in the millions. Still relevant, though? And does it even matter what a 30-something tech writer at a Western tech site thinks? Japan's large elderly population -- people who haven't even heard of Angry Birds, Gmail or Uber -- they're the ones sticking to their flip phones. Hardy, easy to use and cheaper than an iPhone. (If you need a primer on the phenomenon of gara-kei, you should probably read up on that here, but in short, it's how Japan's mobile phone market sped ahead with early technologies, then faltered when smartphone competition arrived.) So let's try using one. The best and newest feature phone available in Japan, no less. It's pitched as bringing the best smartphone features to the flip form factor. Is it better than a plain, old smartphone? Good lord, no.
After picking Japanese carrier KDDI's brains about why the country was still infatuatedwith the feature phone, I requested the company's AQUOS K feature phone to try out. Let's start with why it's a step above existing feature phones: This handset taps into LTE, meaning not only is everything faster, but also the phone is capable of displaying the kind of internet we use on PCs (and er, smartphones and tablets too, but anyways). This also facilitates more downloading, of course, and the AQUOS K can indeed download apps... it just can't download many. There are roughly 20 to choose from, but I was hard-pressed to find many I actually wanted. I picked up a puzzle game as well as one to help me navigate Tokyo's metro, but I was left aching for the apps I open weekly, if not daily: Instagram, Tinder (don't judge), Kindle, Fitocracy, Spotify, WhatsApp, Line. Well, actually, Line messenger is here.
