I have been interviewing Balmuda since the time of "BALMUDA The Toaster" as a person in charge of white goods, but this time the situation is different. What a smartphone. I wondered if I would compete in a different way from white goods, but Balmuda does not shake. Niche, commitment, good price. A one-shot game with a one-point bet. It's amazing courage.
Once again, Balmuda announced the first smartphone "BALMUDA Phone" on November 16th. It is a small 4.9-inch model that is easy to hold with one hand, and the price is 104,800 yen for the SIM-free version. The carrier version is exclusive to SoftBank. As a kid who loves small models, I was very much in favor of a small smartphone that draws a soft arc and is easy to grip, but it was a shock to have a battery capacity of 2500mAh and exceed 100,000 yen.
I was surprised when the drip coffee maker "BALMUDA The Brew" was said to cost less than 60,000 yen, but smartphones exceed that surprise.
4.9 inch small model.The LCD display has a hole in the front camera
Power button with fingerprint sensor (upper left), camera (upper right)
The reason why the price was high and the battery capacity could not be increased is probably because of its small size and its unique shape that sticks to the curve thoroughly. I imagine that parts such as liquid crystal displays were expensive and there were few places to put batteries. It seems that the reason why the front camera did not escape to the bezel on the upper side of the main body and a hole (punch hole) was made in the screen was because the main body was drawing an arc and the camera unit could not be placed on the upper side of the main body.
The main body is particular about ease of holding and is softly curved
On the other hand, it is said that it has a deep commitment as a product, for example, the back surface is specially textured so that the more you use it, the more it tastes. The grain transferred to the mold is 3 to 4 times deeper than usual, and if you continue to use it and the paint is removed, the color difference between the shallow and deep areas will increase and the taste will be organic. Elaborate specifications. It's an interesting concept that goes the opposite of the recent slippery smartphones.
The back of the special grain processing is said to taste better as you continue to use it
We are focusing not only on the shape and material of the main body, but also on the app. We have developed our own scheduler, memo, calculator, alarm, etc. The scheduler makes it easy to find the schedule you have entered, and the calculator can display the number of Chinese characters of "100,000", making it easy to use for work.
A scheduler that makes it easy to find annual schedules
A memo app that is easy to organize like a sticky note
Computer app with "100 million buttons" that can add the number of Chinese characters
Who is this smartphone and how is it supposed to be used?
I haven't tried the actual machine for a long time, so I don't know the details, but the design of the main body and the idea of the application are all by Gen Terao, the president and chief designer of the company. In addition, the president said that he made the BALMUDA Phone as what he wanted, so I felt that this was the "president's smartphone".
At least, people like me who always have a smartphone in one hand and consume the battery like a demon on Twitter or Pikmin Bloom, and put it on the smartphone for about 70,000 to 80,000 yen are the target. It seems to be out of the question.
