NEC 500is/N412i: thin GSM with EDGE

Here's the latest RAZR-killer -- at least for Japan and some European markets. It's NEC's 11.9 mm N500is, the company's follow up to its earlier skinny boy, the L1. It has EDGE, i-mode support, a 1.3 megapixel camera, 176x220 LCD, and a monochrome OLED secondary display.

[Thanks, Corey]

[Jonathan @ Feb 9th 2006 11:47AM]

GSM/EDGE isn't going to be very useful in Japan.

[joel jaeggli @ Feb 9th 2006 12:03PM]

Japanese phone manufacturers make GSM phones mostly for the Chinese market unless it supports UMTS as well it won't be very useful in japan.

That said, as soon as it gets picked up by the hong-kong resellers you should be able to get one shipped to the good old USA... assuming it has an fcc-id or sneaks through customs as another brand of phone (chinese phone pie-rats are a creative lot).

[William @ Feb 9th 2006 12:27PM]

At this rate sooner or later all our cell phones will be so small they will live in our ears.

[Eric @ Feb 9th 2006 2:14PM]

That is definitely something I would trade in my Razr for.

[David P @ Feb 9th 2006 7:51PM]

NEC phones are robust (although some were plagued by unexplainable problems). I had an NEC GSM phone with ATT that was stolen, but it survived falls and what not... If it's more solid (and more reliable) than previous models it should fare well against Motorola. I just think that most people in the USA don't associate NEC with anything special, however.

Additionally, I'll interested in seeing how they'll market their products (if they come to USA), since I'm slightly tired of iPod dominance. They have a good product, but it's not the best in the market, just the more dominant (as with some other electronics).