You can call me a germaphobe, but I among others want to keep my phone clean. That is the reason I don’t take my phone to washroom or use it while eating etc.
However, smartphones tend to get smudgy and they’re like dirt magnates – too bad you can’t wash them or can you?
Well there is a new phone “Rafre” from the Japanese company Kyocera, that is soap and waterproof. It is actually the second iteration of world’s first soap-washable smartphone launched in December 2015.
A Smartphone That Can be Washed:
The Kyocera Refre phone features resistance to soap and hot water. The touchscreen can be used even when the user’s hands are wet or when wearing gloves.
So, you don’t have to worry about taking your phone out in a rainy day and if you feel its getting dirty, you can rub the soap all over it.
Washable Phone with Hand Gestures?
The main selling point of Kyocera Refre is the ability to wash it, however for some strange reason this phone features a hands free operation as well.
It has a cooking app, that allows you to use hand movements in order to scroll through recipes, set timers and answer calls. Well, users don’t actually need this, because they can wash their phones, remember?
A Glance at the Hardware Specifications:
This phone doesn’t offer dual-cameras or other gimmicks like 8GB of RAM, but the specs are good enough for most of the users.
Rafre phone packs a 5-inch 720p screen with 2GB of RAM and 16GB internal memory. You can also use a microSD card to expand storage.
There is no information provided about the SoC, but this phone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. It also provides dual-SIM 4G LTE connectivity, Bluetooth and Wifi – all powered by a 3,000mAh battery.
The primary camera boasts 13-Megapixels along with a LED light and auto-focus. There’s also a 5-Megapixel selfie camera. There is no earpiece on the front so it uses Sonic Receiver technology that uses vibrations to transmit sound to the eardrum via the phone’s display.
Availability & Price:
The bad news is that Kyocera Refre is going to be launched in Japan only, leaving the rest of us in a bit of a lurch. The price isn’t determined yet, but it would be sold around $200 when it is launched next month. Although we can hope to see this phone become available on e-commerce portals like AliExpress very soon.
