KDDI's recent resurrection of its au iida Infobar designer phone series seems to have been a success, as the next model is launching in a few days. While last year's A01 had a unique look that touched on the series' design history, it largely stuck to the standard "slab" smartphone form factor that a lot of Japanese customers remain unconvinced by. Its followup, the C01, mixes old and new by taking a 3.2-inch, 16:9 (854 x 480), 306 PPI touchscreen and fusing a traditional "ten-key" Japanese keypad to the bottom. It's running the same "iida UI" found on the A01, which is a heavily (and actually quite attractively) skinned version of Android 2.3 that you can see in the video below.

There are various features standard to the Japanese market, such as a one-seg TV tuner, "osaifu keitai" FeLiCa NFC, emergency earthquake notifications, and infrared data transfer. Unlike a lot of recent Japanese smartphones, however, it's neither waterproof nor WiMax-equipped. If you're in Japan, you'll be able to get your hands on it from February 3rd, though be quick — its matching leather case is limited to 1,000 units.