Hands-on: Sharp’s IGZO-powered smartphones [VIDEO]
Sharp is hoping to revolutionize mobile displays with their IGZO technology, a new sort of screen that features in the company’s latest smartphones. The Sharp Aquos Phone SH-02E has been available in Japan for a little while now and sports a 4.9-inch 720p display. The handset is powered by a quad-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. It also carries an impressive 16MP camera. Sharp’s second Aquos Phone with an IGZO display will be available this March in Japan and features a similar spec sheet to the SH-02E.
The real selling point of both phones is the display. It boasts better battery life, improvements in almost all visual areas, and enhances touch responsiveness. It all adds up to pretty nice screen experience. The improved responsiveness was noticeable when scrolling through video playback.
Sharp plans to push its IGZO technology pretty heavily moving forward. We’ll be seeing more phones and tablets and eventually larger screen sizes such as monitors and TVs. The future even holds the promise of flexible displays that could deploy similar technology.
There is no info on a potential release of these Sharp models outside of Japan, but based on their track record it seems fairly unlikely. But IGZO itself could make its way to other smartphone brands, including Android devices and even the iPhone (Sharp is the primary provider of iPhone displays currently).