Hitachi's C309H features a 256-color super-twisted nematic (STN) LCD with resolution of 120 by 143 pixels. 

That's good enough to show animations and some very basic images. Pricing is not available; typically, service providers bundle mobile phones with subscriptions.

WAP Web sites that support color are still few, although several applications, such as mapping services, are expected to make use of the color option.

The phone measures 1.84 by .76 by 5.2 inches. 

It has a talk time of 170 minutes and a standby battery life of 190 hours, which is almost eight days.

Extras: Answering Modes, Music

A useful feature of Hitachi's phone is its capability to switch among three user-defined modes. The settings are intended for situations when answering the phone might be difficult. They include normal use, use while driving, and use in a meeting. The meeting mode, for example, sets the phone to vibrate instead of ring and plays a message telling callers that you are in a meeting.

The C309H comes with some built-in animation to amuse you. In normal mode, you can view a selection of backgrounds, such as landscapes. 

An altogether more fun "hamster mode," designed primarily for Japan's character-crazy young female consumers, features a cartoon hamster that dances on the screen.

Also, Hitachi has gone the extra mile and built in a digital sound processor of higher quality than most handsets. This enables the phone to produce four sounds at once, instead of the standard single sound. The result improves on the typically tinny ringer tones. 

The handset comes with 12 ringer melodies and 9 memory positions for original tones that you can compose or download from your service provider.

The phone also has a built-in sensor that detects the lighting level and adjusts the volume of the ringer accordingly, so that the phone rings more quietly after it has been removed from your bag or your pocket, for example.