[angus77]

Wow. I've only owned Toshiba phones (on both au and SoftBank) before I got my HTC Desire, and making a call was always a matter of clicking the 電話帳 button and selecting the name. Although I've used other people's phones plenty of times, and it was always pretty much the same. I've never used anyone's Sony Ericsson, though.

[delackner]

Just tapping the name actually placed the call? What an idea. Just for fun, I looked at an older Docomo model on my desk by NEC. It is even worse:

Phonebook > Search > List of ways to search, NONE of which is just "show me my phonebook".

Let's try name lookup > Enter a string to search for > Search results > Choose a result > Dial.

Let's try Group > List of Groups > First Group > Choose name > Dial

[kalleboo]

Just tried the docomo NEC (N-02A) I had lying around. Down arrow > Left right to pick the first kana of their name > select name > Press dial button. Not that bad, but a far far cry from the european Sony Ericsson's smart phonebook.

Right now I have a SH-12C as my main phone, and it's basically an Android phone with a kickass screen and all the crazy japanese features jammed in it (1seg, mobile suica, 3D camera+screen, privacy veil, etc). And it's great - Google software really makes those features finally worth it. There's even an Android widget to display your Suica balance.