Related Articles
Richard Trenholm / CNET
BARCELONA, Spain–One of the great things about a trade show like Mobile World Congress is seeing the cool phones and tablets we won’t get. Hang on, did I say great? I meant depressing — I’d love to get my hands on a 4G Android smartphone as powerful as the Fujitsu Arrows X F-02E, or a water-resistant 4G Windows 8 tablet like the Fujitsu Arrows Tab.
Both devices are only available in Japan, and unlikely to go on sale elsewhere. Which is a shame: the Arrows X F-02E, Fujitsu’s flagship phone, has specs to die for — and who wouldn’t want to take Windows 8 in the bath?
As soon as you pick up the Arrows X F-02E, you’re smacked in the face by the glorious 5-inch, 1,920×1,200-pixel high-definition screen. That excellent screen dominates the face of the phone, with just a thin strip of plastic down each side to allow you to hold it without interfering with the view.
Beveled corners give it a suitably futuristic feel. But the classy styling is undermined somewhat by the front-facing camera and other black blobs dotted unevenly across the top.
Most of all, the F-02E has power coming out its ears: beneath that exquisite screen pulses a quad-core 1.7GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, accompanied by a 2,420mAh battery and a 16.3-megapixel camera.
Oh, and it’s water- and dust-resistant. And it has a fingerprint scanner. And a great big aerial that pops out of the top, probably just for the fun of it.
Being able to survive a dunking is pretty standard for Japanese mobile devices, and the Arrows Tab is no exception.
The Tab runs Windows 8 on a 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 chip, with a 64GB solid-state drive (SSD). It comes with 4G LTE or just Wi-Fi, and sports a gorgeously bright and vibrant 10-inch screen.
For more envy-worthy phones and tablets check out our in-depth news, previews, and videos from Mobile World Congress. It’ll give you something to do while you’re saving for a ticket to Japan.
