Japanese firm Kyocera has a new smartphone in tow and it's washable, resistant to both foaming hand soap and foaming body soap: meet "rafre."
Kyocera is known for making durable, heavy-duty smartphones designed to withstand rough conditions - some even a bubble bath.
Taking a new turn, the company launched its first washable smartphone back in 2015, introducing the DIGNO rafre, and now it's back for more bathing with its second washable smartphone - the new rafre.
"The product is a successor to the orignal DIGNO rafre, which launched in December 2015 as the world's first hand-soap-washable smartphone," says Kyocera. "In addition to resistance against foaming hand soap, the second-generation model possesses resistance to foaming body soap."
Kyocera Rafre Washable Smartphone
The new Kyocera rafre is not only washable with foaming hand soap or body soap, it can also withstand hot water and it can be used even when wet (including the touch screen). This means that users can give the rafre a good old-fashioned bath without worrying that soap, hot water or being soaking wet will affect its performance.
Intriguingly enough, the smartphone also comes with a cooking app preloaded, which allows users to operate the handset with hand gestures so they don't need to touch the display.
Kyocera Rafre Specs
When it comes to specifications, the new Kyocera rafre features rather mediocre specs as its main attraction is being washable. That said, the handset comes with a 5-inch HD display (720p), 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of expandable storage (up to 200 GB via microSD). The company makes no mention of processing power, but the rafre most likely packs a midrange processor.
Other specs include a 13-megapixel rear camera with the company's proprietary image-processing AINNOS Engine for quality photos in low-light conditions, as well as phase detection autofocus. On the front, the smartphone features a 5-megapixel camera for selfies and video chats. A 3,000 mAh battery keeps the show going, while Android 7.0 Nougat rules the software side.
Kyocera Rafre Features
The company also touts a number of helpful software features, such as a Smart Sonic Receiver, a weather forecast alarm clock and a Blue Light Cut app.
The Smart Sonic receiver aims to guarantee quality sound even in noisy environments by transmitting sound to the eardrum via the smartphone's display rather than just a speaker hole.
The weather forecast alarm clock, meanwhile, offers users quick updates on weather conditions. When the alarm clock starts to ring, the Kyocera rafre will read out the weather forecast. Users can also set the smartphone to trigger the alarm earlier on days with rain in the weather forecast, thus avoiding potential delays due to weather conditions.
Lastly, the Blue Light Cut app is designed to make the smartphone's display easier on the eyes to reduce eye fatigue with prolonged usage. Kyocera doesn't offer additional details, but this feature seems similar to Apple's Night Shift mode.
The Kyocera rafre is available through KDDI in Japan and comes in three color options: Coral Pink, Marine Navy, and Cashmere White. It remains unclear at this point whether the smartphone will be exclusive to Japan or will eventually make its way to the United States and other markets worldwide.
Kyocera smartphones have made their way to the United States before and while the company is not among the most popular ones in the States, the DuraForce Pro stirred plenty of interest last year. The rugged, waterproof and shockproof DuraForce Pro launched on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon. That said, the Kyocera rafre has no U.S. debut set, but it doesn't seem out of the question either.
For now, check out the video below to see the Kyocera rafre taking a foamy scrub.
