Casio offers best of both worlds with CA001 touchscreen phone

When Apple released the iPhone it created a market for mobile phones with touchscreens and other manufacturers have followed. Some people prefer the touchscreen interface, while others may still want access to a proper keypad. Casio’s latest phone aims to cater for everyone by combining both a touchscreen and a keypad.
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The Casio CA001 can look like both a typical clam shell phone, or a touchscreen input phone. It achieves this by using two separate screens – one is a touchscreen the other one isn’t. As you can see in the image above the CA001 looks like a normal phone sporting a keypad, but if you twist the screen round and lay it over the keypad you get something more akin to the iPhone as you can see below.



Casio have also included a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot. Buttons along the side of the phone suggest the company are going to push the music capabilities of the phone and it is also capable of wireless music playback with the right headphones.



Viewing the CA001 promotional website it looks like that are going to offer a range of dual-color case options including brown-black, yellow-silver, and white-silver combinations. There is also an area of the case that looks like grating, which actually turns out to be a very simple display showing the time and whether you have any text messages or e-mail. It is called the Illumi-Sign Sub Display and exists so you don’t have to fire up one of the main, energy-sapping screens to see if you have messages waiting.



The CA001 is set to be released this month in Japan, but there is no information on whether the phone will ever be released in the West.

Read more at DVICE and ITmedia

Matthew’s Opinion
With touchscreen phones still being a fairly new addition to the range of models you can buy I’m sure a lot of consumers are still dubious about trying them. When you consider most will be locked into a 12 or 18 month contract with the phone they choose you can see why many would fall back on what they know.



Casio’s phone solves that problem. If you don’t like the touchscreen change the phone to the more well-known screen and keypad design. On the flip-side, if you are unsure about the touchscreen this is a phone that lets you try it safe in the knowledge it has an alternative setup.

I really like the Sub Display feature. It looks to be a very low power draw on the phone while active, but gives you the information you need before deciding to bring your phone fully out of sleep mode.

I hope we do see Casio bring this phone to Western markets, but as with many Japanese phones, it may stay exclusively in its home territory.