latest
This phone has a huge 1" camera sensor and it's from a manufacturer you probably forgot existed
Sharp's Aquos R6 flagship boasts impressive specs and a jaw-dropping Leica camera
At the moment the arms race in mobile phone cameras is all about the number of them, with two, three, or four rear lenses and sensors being commonplace. Sharp is bucking that trend with the Aquos R6, which features just one massive rear camera bump. It's a 20.2 megapixel sensor with a massive surface area of one square inch, f/1.9 lens made by Leica, and it's paired to a phone that's no slouch in other departments, either.
26 new devices from Oppo, Xiaomi, and Samsung now officially support ARCore
Guess you can say Google likes AUGMENTING this list
Mixed reality experiences continue to play their roles in helping us understand concepts, tell stories, market products, or in just letting us hang out with a virtual Pomeranian for a hot second. For Android phones, that means having Google certify that your phone supports its ARCore APIs. We've got our first batch of new supported devices for 2021 right here.
Anyone in the market for a new TV might want to take a look at this offering from Best Buy. The company is discounting the 50” Sharp 4K Roku TV by $200 and including the highly reviewed Nest Mini for free.
With everyone moving away from cable subscriptions to various streaming services, it's becoming more judicious to have some form of Smart TV in the house. Either you get a set that has the functionality built in or you buy a separate top-box, but in both cases, you can't go wrong with Roku's ecosystem as it's the most widely-supported by all streaming providers (Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play, etc...). And today, we have a few deals that will make your purchase a little sweeter.
Sharp has been making strides in the bezel-elimination race for years. In 2014, it released the Aquos Crystal, which had practically no bezels at all on three sides of the display (and a huge one on the fourth). Then, in August 2017, the company beat Apple and even Essential to the punch with the first commercially available notched-display smartphone. Now, Sharp is continuing to try new things with the Aquos R2 Compact, which has not one, but two display cutouts.
If there ever was a market that could do with more competition, it's the OLED smartphone display industry. Samsung has long ruled the roost with its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, with LG and Sony several paces behind. There are other, less visible players in the market, of course, but overall it's a relatively small group, considering the panels are now a hallmark of premium handsets. A new competitor has entered the market as of today, however. Japan's Sharp has announced that it will offer OLED panels in its new smartphones this year starting with the AQUOS Zero, and also plans to sell displays to other manufacturers.
The year 2017 will go down in history for being the beginning of the end for bezels. Who needs 'em anyway? Samsung, LG, Apple, and others are doing everything possible to get rid of all that unused space on the front of their phones, but Sharp has been tinkering with the bezel-free approach for some time. Remember the Aquos Crystal from a few years ago? Now, Sharp has unveiled the Aquos S2, which bears a striking resemblance to the Essential Phone.
Sharp hasn't sold phones in North America for a while, but the company is still working on some very interesting devices. Back in 2014, it released the Aquos Crystal, one of the first "bezel-less" phones to hit the market (I use that term loosely, because it had a massive bottom bezel). Now it appears to be working on two similar phones, the Sharp Aquos S1 and S2.
Over in Japan, Sharp has taken the wraps off of its newest flagship. Dubbed the Aquos R, it features some top-tier specs with a lot of hype around the display technology and included artificial intelligence. The choice of the letter 'R' has a four-fold meaning around which the phone's marketing will be unified: Reality, Response, Reliability, and Robotics.
While it's hardly taking the world by storm, it looks like Android TV is gaining enough of a footing that there are now high-end televisions equipped with Google's entertainment OS being discounted on a regular basis. (Of course, that might simply indicate that no one is buying them. Either way, it means low prices for us.) Today's television deal comes from Sharp, and it's a big-un: the LC-70UE30U, a 70-inch, 4K smart TV. Buydig's eBay outlet has a new model on sale for 99.99, a solid $200 off of the price for most remaining new stock.
It was inevitable. Inevitable, I tell you. With the smartphone market becoming a ridiculous battlefield of overpowered spec sheets, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to cram a 4K resolution into a phone. That someone is Japanese smartphone maker and frequent part supplier Sharp, who revealed a 5.5" screen module with a resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels. That's a density of 806 pixels per square inch, for those of you keeping score at home.
Google's lone Android TV box is getting some company, but not in the form of a more capable over-the-top box. Sharp has announced three new 4K TV series at CES 2015, and two of them have Android TV built-in. It'll cost you, though.
If you own a Sharp Aquos Crystal on Sprint, you've got an update on the way. According to Sprint, there are quite a few bug fixes as well as some new bloatware added, such as Sprint's new premium caller ID service that lets you see a caller's name as well as their phone number, and integration with Yahoo's Communications Suite.
The Sharp Aquos Crystal is very close to being an Android nerd's dream device. It has virtually no bezel (except on the bottom) and comes with a stock version of Android 4.4.2. It looks unlike anything else on the market in the US today, and many Sprint customers will no doubt be happy to pick one up from the carrier starting today at $239.99 off-contract. People who prefer to walk out without putting any money down can get the phone for $10 a month.
Phones produced for the Japanese market are usually so radically different than the ones we're used to that you don't really feel like you're missing anything. However, the new Sharp Aquos Crystal may pique your interest. The difference is that you might have a chance to buy this one soon. This device comes in two sizes—5-inches and 5.5-inches. Both of them have teeny tiny, miniscule bezels. Almost none of the body peeks out from the edge of the screen.
We've been taking a close look at some of Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo's 2013 offerings: LG's flagship Optimus G Pro, Panasonic's similar Eluga X, and the dual-screen NEC MEDIAS W. DoCoMo announced three other phones at the same time, all of which are at the head of their manufacturer's lineups. We've already seen Sony's Xperia Z, Xperia Tablet Z, and Huawei's Ascend D2. Fujitsu's ARROWS X F-02E matches up to both, more or less. In the more mid-range areas are Sharp's Aquos Phone EX and a new 10-inch tablet from Huawei.
Sony has announced that it will launch its PlayStation Store next month, bringing PlayStation Mobile titles to certified devices across 9 countries.
I know what you're thinking: "Oh no, not another Android skin!" That was my initial thought, too; after seeing what Sharp and frog (the design firm behind this skin) have done with Feel UX, though, I actually kind of like it.