As part of the winter 2010 ~ spring 2011 lineup of Docomo’s PRIME series of featurephones is Fujitsu’s F-01C, a high-spec waterproof clamshell with a 3.4-inch touchscreen on a swiveling neck. Its body is only 13.9 mm (half an inch) thick, and its 13.2 megapixel camera (with LED flash) is powered by Sony’s Exmor for mobile sensor and a Milbeaut Mobile engine, giving it a 0.5-second booting speed and a 7.5 frames-per-second mode for sports games and… bird-watching, I suppose. Additionally, the camera can also take full HD (1920×1080 resolution) videos, with a micro HDMI (“Type D”) port to export media to HD televisions. It’ll be available in four colors: magenta, black, gold, and white.

This phone has a Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) antenna in it – which isn’t very surprising, in this day and age. What is really surprising, though, is that it has what can only be termed a tethering feature, although it is admittedly very stunted compared to smartphone tethering modes (no voice comm, SMS, or MMS while tethered); up to four devices can be connected, including handheld games and computers, although data fees incurred by tethering are not eligible for any of Docomo’s unlimited data plans.

Also reminiscent of smartphone features is an Augmented Reality app called Location Radar, which superimposes infographic icons of stores and resturants from three of Japan’s popular business review and coupon websites – Taberogu, Gurunabi, and Hot Pepper – on an image from the camera. The touchscreen also supports handwriting, which helps for looking up difficult kanji in any of the three J-E, J-J, and J-Korean-E dictionaries that come with the phone out of the box. Finally, the phone comes with Bluetooth, an FM transmitter (for car radios), and a 1-seg antenna for on-the-train TV, as well as a fingerprint reader on the back (next to the camera) for additional security, in lieu of the annoying four-to-eight-character password that most people don’t set up.

This phone is also part of Docomo’s new My Select line of customizable phones: the front panel, the bar on the outside along the swivel, the keypad, and the wallpaper are all selectable in different colors and designs, available on the Internet from Docomo’s online shop.