The Sharp Aquos R7 is the newest addition to our ongoing series on “amazing phones you can’t purchase in the United States.”
You can still design a unique smartphone today. This phone will be on sale in Japan in July, and it proves it. The Sharp R7 has a unique look and feel that fixes a lot of the strange mistakes that other smartphone makers have made.
To begin with, Sharp’s smartphones will continue to ship with humongous camera sensors. The 47.2MP camera has a 1-inch sensor and a big lens that dominates the back of the phone. Most smartphone makers include three to four small cameras on the back that may or may not be useful, but Sharp gives customers the option of a single large camera that could take better pictures.
An additional, smaller 2MP sensor sits next to the massive one. However, the product page refers to it as a “distance measuring sensor,” which implies it cannot be used for taking images.
In addition, the exhibition is a sight to behold. An IGZO OLED with a 240 Hz refresh rate is used in the phone’s 6.6-inch display. The best part is that the display is flat, unlike other Android flagships that use a curved display that distorts the screen’s edges. Curved displays have never been explained by their manufacturers.
With Android running at 240 frames per second, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will have to rise to the occasion (good luck with that). Other features include a 5000 mAh battery, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. MicroSD card support, IP68 dust and water resistance, a 12 MP front camera, and a USB-C connector are all included in this device. Sharp even managed to squeeze in a top-mounted headphone jack.
Qualcomm’s “3D Sonic Max” fingerprint sensor is another great-sounding feature that is supposedly only available on hard-to-find smartphones. Because it is so large, this in-screen fingerprint sensor stands out from the crowd. No specific measurements have been provided by Sharp, but prior presentations have indicated that the sensor can accommodate two fingers. The lack of a tactile indicator on a glass display for where to place your finger while using an in-screen fingerprint sensor is a key drawback of this technology. The in-screen fingerprint sensors can be improved by simply increasing the size of the device, which is a simple but expensive solution. It’s 2019. Qualcomm announced this sensor, yet only a handful of phones have used it since then.
Most of our complaints regarding slab phones have been addressed with the R7, which makes for an intriguing slab phone. Having a single big camera, a massive fingerprint sensor, and a flat display? It’s time for the rest of the smartphone industry to learn from us.
