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Whether it’s masochism or just our full blown Android addiction, every now and then we like to take a look on the other side of the globe, just to see what tasty treats Android OEMs are cooking up in other regions. Japan has long boasted some of the most powerful, cutting edge smartphones in the world, but because the vast majority never seem launch outside the country, they tend to get little coverage.
Sony Xperia Z1 (left) vs Sharp AQUOS Phone Xx 302sh (right)
Sharp is one manufacturer we’ve been keeping an eye on. Back in October the Japanese OEM announced their all new Sharp AQUOS Phone Xx 302sh. The phone is an Android fanboys wetdream, featuring a healthy set of specs, and some of the smallest bezels we’ve yet to see from an Android device. The math? The 5.2-inch display covers nearly 80.5% of the device’s total face, putting it well ahead of the competition. This means the phone is actually smaller than say, a 5-inch Sony Xperia Z, with the AQUOS Phone 302sh putting its 5.2-inches to much better use.
Today Sharp announced a few new devices headed to Japanese carrier KDDI: the 7-inch Sharp AQUOS Pad, and the AQUOS Phone SERIE Mini SHL24 (a rehash of the AQUOS Phone Xx Mini). Both feature respectable specs in their given categories and Sharp’s trademark uber thin bezels (Sharp calls it their “EDGEST” design). While the AQUOS Phone Mini still has a little bit of chin, we think it does a pretty good job given its all around smaller form factor and “tiny” 4.5-inch 1080p display. Again, we don’t expect these to ever make their way stateside, but they sure are fun to look at…
Looking ahead to the rest of the year and beyond, we’re hoping more Android manufacturers will jump on the trend of ever shrinking bezels, giving us the best display-to-bezel ratio for our buck. You never know what the future holds for Android. Great, isn’t it?
[Sharp | Sharp AQUOS Pad (KDDI) | Sharp AQUOS Phone SERIE Mini (KDDI)]
Wait, are those capacitive volume buttons on the bottom bezel? o_O
Hideous.
I live in Japan, my first android phone was a sharp, and I had a love hate relationship with it, but enough negative feelings I swore not to get another sharp phone. Biggest problem was it had like 700mbs of internal storage and about the same amount of RAM. I couldn’t uninstall all the pre-installed bloatware like mixi, & Twitter. Maybe it was softbanks fault.
I do have to admit that sharp phone looks nice. My phone now is Fujitsu and it’s bezel are thin on the sides but a bit thick on top & bottom. Has 64 gigs of storage, waterproof, and a fingerprint scanner, which I can choose individual apps to lock via fingerprint/password. The link below has all the info
http://www.theverge.com/products/arrows-nx-f-06e/7058
I am really liking my phone so far, just no OS updates :-(
Are any of these phones able to work on USA networks? Thanks
Never realised the Sony had such huge ugly top and bottom bezels. With not even a button there.
This is one thing that really puts me off Sony’s designs, supposedly their Z1 follow-up will have thinner bezels though.
Soo beautiful, i love this Design^^
The thinner bezel should be on the bottom not the top. It makes it much easier to reach the top of the screen that way.
Love it, would definitely buy!
Great until you put a case on it that wraps around. While I haven’t experienced this personally on my devices, I already have had customers telling me they cannot access the edge of the screen (for example keyboard letters in the sides of the keyboard) with some cases on due to the new thinner bezels.
I have a G2 with a full case and I have no points of the screen I cannot touch, and I think my side bezels are about the same as that.
I like it. I’m okay with our side bezels right now because I couldn’t highlight text in gmail easily on my Nexus 4 when it was on the edge due to my case.
But my top and bottom bezels on my Nexus 5 can go to hell. Those on screen buttons along with the chin take up a ton of space!
now that’s what I’m talking about….
I like the specs on the Aquos Pad tablet. If it were priced right, it could be worth importing. (Translated from source link via Google Chrome)
Basic specifications
Product Name: AQUOS PAD SHT22
OS: Android ™ 4.2
Manufacturer: Sharp Corporation
Display: About 7.0 inches IGZO / WUXGA (1920×1200 – 323ppi)
Weight: About 263g (9.27oz – 0.57lb)
Camera: Main camera: about 13.1 million pixels / CMOS Sub-camera: about 2.1 million pixels / CMOS
Battery capacity:4,080 mAh
size: About 104 (W) × 173 (H) × 9.9 (D) mm about 10.8mm thickest part
Memory: About 16GB (ROM) / about 2GB (RAM)
Standby time: Standby time: (3G) about 980 hours about 1170 hours (LTE)
Color: White
External memory: microSDXC ™ (up to 64GB)
WiFi: a/b/g/n/ac
NFC
Bluetooth 4.0