Sharp unveils touch phone with 1024x480 LCD

Breaking relatively new ground for Japanese cellphone makers, Sharp on Thursday launched the FULLTOUCH 931SH for Softbank. The AQUOS-branded phone is one of the few full-touchscreen cellphones from the country but is also record-setting through a new, landmark display: the 3.8-inch touch LCD carries a 1024x480 resolution that rivals smaller notebooks and provides an extremely sharp view for browsing and videos, including live TV from its 1Seg tuner. The phone supports two-finger input for zooming into website views and even uses touch to focus its built-in 5.2-megapixel camera.

Sharp's phone shares roots with the iPhone 3G through the inclusion of a motion sensor, Bluetooth, GPS and HSDPA-based 3G, but adds more features that are absent in its American challenger. FeliCa is onboard for making wireless payments, a magnetic compass provides a cardinal direction without invoking the full GPS unit, and an image stabilizer for camera shots. Storage is handled almost exclusively through microSDHC cards.

The 931SH will appear in black, pink-tinted gold, red and silver colors when it ships in Japan by late November. Sharp's high-end phones rarely leave Japan, though the phone supports tri-band GSM and HSDPA and so works in most parts of the world. [via Impress]