Sharp's RoBoHon
is definitely not your normal smartphone. For starters, it's a robot.
Secondly, it dances. Can your iPhone or Android phone dance? Exactly.
How much for Japan's quirky robot smartphone?
Too much! Sharp's taking pre-orders
for RoBoHon at 198,000 yen (about $1,800) with shipments slated for May
26 in Japan. To put that in perspective, you could buy four iPhone SEs and still have some change leftover for a cheap Android phone.
RoBoHon
was unveiled at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo last
December. The 7.6-inch tall "smartphone" is on par with a midrange
phone. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 400 processor and 2GB of RAM. The lil guy has 16GB of
internal storage and a 1,700 milliamp-hour battery.
On
the back of the 'bot phone is a 2-inch display with 320 x 240
resolution. That's lower than the original iPhone's 480 x 320 resolution
screen!
An
8-megapixel camera sits between RoBoHon's eyes for taking selfies.
Above the camera is a projector capable of projecting a 1,280 x 720
resolution display on walls. RoBoHon is like R2-D2's distant cousin,
only you know, it can't project holograms.
RoBoHon
also responds to voice commands. "The reason people are not utilizing
the highly improved voice recognition function is because it feels
strange to be speaking into a square tablet," said Tomotaka Takahashi,
CEO of Robo Garage. "Then, would it be a different feeling if the device
you were speaking to was shaped as a human or animal? Wouldn't it feel
more natural? That is what I thought."
Like
R2-D2 and BB-8, nobody can accuse RoBoHon of not being charming or
adorable. But $1,800 is a bit too high. And owners will need to pay $6
per month to use voice commands? Sorry, but GTFO.
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