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Posted by Ray on 28th Apr 2019
I saw this phone in some Android forum posts last year and was excited for its release and when I found Kyoex, I was ecstatic to see I could import it here to the US. In terms of Kyoex customer service and communication, the experience was top notch and Kazuto really made the process easy. The phone arrived as expected fairly quickly.
I am based in AZ and use Google Fi as my carrier (MVNO that uses T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular); I was a little nervous that the phone would not be compatible with the service, but after activating the sim-card on my other device I was able to place phone calls and SMS messages - data was another story. You will probably have to dive into the Access Point settings and manually input your carrier's APN to get data to work, and I still haven't been successful enabling MMS messages. Navigating the phone is fairly easy, although like a previous purchaser noted, the UI has some unique choices in terms of settings and menus (no volume key, so volume adjustments across the entire device are found in the settings menu, notifications are grouped in one place but no real contextual information is given on the home screen so you have to go to the notification screen to dismiss and read notifications, etc). Also, no headphone jack so Bluetooth or an adapter is necessary. Call clarity is honestly the most surprising part - compared to higher end Google phones I've had (Nexus 6P, Pixel 2 & 3), this is honestly the best I've ever experienced; crystal clear without static and disturbance. I'm hard of hearing so I generally avoid talking on the phone but now I have no worries in that department. Installing APKs is easy with the included app store, but your mileage may vary depending on the app (the phone does not support the Google Play Store so any Google legacy apps probably won't work), and navigating with the Pointer turned on is a little slow but serviceable.
Overall I've had a good time getting to know the phone and its quirks; I wanted to step away from the smartphone world for a little while, and I've already noticed the difference. If you know what you're getting into, you will probably enjoy this phone, but don't expect a smartphone world crammed into a small but very eye-catching package. It's a trade off but I'm enjoying the other side.
Posted by Alex on 5th Mar 2019
I live in the US and am on T-Mobile. I bought this as a second phone (on the same number) since I wanted to be able to text and call without being overwhelmed with all the access a modern smartphone gives you. The build quality of the phone is great, and the look is timeless - Naoto Fukasawa did a great design job, as usual! The OS is a simplified version of Android 5.1. Through the APK installer/manager app that Kazuto pre-installed for me, I was able to download and get a lot of apps working nicely! The unfortunate thing about most of these apps is that they're supposed to be used with touchscreens, and most don't support using the arrow/enter keys to navigate the apps. The Infobar XV fortunately comes with a way to use a "cursor" you can move around the screen and click on things, which definitely comes in handy. Some of the way the phone operates is a little counter intuitive, and some of the built-in app shortcuts can't be modified in any way. I also haven't found a way to install a different keyboard, so having Japanese as an option in the typing modes can cause some frustration when switching between letters and numbers in T9. Call/audio quality is great, and I've gotten a surprising amount of use out of the built-in audio player. I've had no issues connecting to all of my Bluetooth devices, either!
Overall, this is a very great phone - just know what you are getting into up front. You won't be able to nearly everything a modern smartphone can do, but if you wanted that, you wouldn't be looking into getting this phone!