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Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has revealed the lineup of mobile devices that it will start offering over the summer. Eleven models make the cut, including nine smartphones, one tablet, and one "Raku-Raku" simplified smartphone. Notable additions include a new Sony Xperia smartphone, the Aquos Phone Zeta, and the Aquos Pad tablet from Sharp.
Sharp will start shipping its first smartphone using the company's new IGZO display technology from November 29th in Japan. The Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E uses the new ultra low-power consumption display, built using an indium gallium zinc oxide technology, which requires significantly less backlighting than other displays to be visible.
Sharp has taken the covers of its new AQUOS Quattron 3D XL TV series. In addition to featuring Sharp’s Quattro four primary color technology that includes a yellow sub-pixel, the new TVs incorporate a new technology Sharp is calling ‘Moth-Eye.’ This is said to significantly reduce glare by cutting light scattering as well as internal reflection.
The first smartphone to be launched with Sharp’s vaunted IGZO display technology will be one of Sharp’s own models. The Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta (SH-02E) sports a 4.9-inch display that uses a ultra lower power consumption technology built using indium gallium zinc oxide technology. As the display is more translucent than a typical LCD, it requires less backlighting, lowering power consumption dramatically.
Today's deals from DealNN include discounted Blu-ray players, headphones, and more. One of Newegg.com's weekly deals is the refurbished Sharp AQUOS Blu-ray Player, with built-in Netflix streaming and parental control, an HDMI 1080p 24Hz output, and pop-up menu system. Currently featured at DealNN, the Blu-ray player has now dropped to $44.99 after mail-in rebate and offers savings of up to $105.
Sharp has announced that the next wave of its Aquos smartphones will feature a custom-designed user interface atop the Android operating system. Dubbed Feel UX, the user interface was built by the design firm Frog. The redesign was explicitly focused on differentiating the Aquos line from other Android handsets, and it covers everything from the unlock screen to app and contact management.
NTT DoCoMo has announced that the Sharp Aquos SH-07D, SH-09D, and SH-10D smartphones will be appearing on its network this summer. The three phones, each running Android 4.0, will debut separately on the network in a variety of colors.
Sharp has posted (pdf) what it is referring to as an ‘extraordinary loss’ largely due to LCD business restructuring. Sharp expects that the costs incurred in converting its production lines for large screen Aquos LCD TVs will be recouped by focusing more closely on mobile displays and developing new-generation IGZO displays. It now joins compatriots Sony and Panasonic in suffering heavy losses due to the highly competitive nature of the LCD TV and display market.
Sharp this week started shipping the two higher tiers of its 2012 Aquos TVs. Both the 7-series and 8-series both revolve around SmartCentral, a new UI intended to make Internet features more accessible, including both quick access to favorites and a filtered system that makes it easier to find Internet music, video, game, and social sources such as Netflix and Skype.
Sharp has unveiled a slew of new devices this week ahead of CES in Las Vegas. The product lineup includes a projector, 20- to 85-inch Aquos televisions and connected services, Blu-ray players, sound bars, shelf speaker systems, and several solar charging products for home installations.
Japenese provider NTT DoCoMo has just officially announced that the Sharp SH-01D will ship on December 2. The Android 2.3-powered smartphone is waterproof and gets a 4.5-inch LCD with a 720x1280 resolution. The Aquos-branded screen uses a parallax barrier design for glasses-free 3D images.
LightSquared landed a key deal Monday for Sharp to supply devices. Carriers using LightSquared's LTE-based 4G network will have optimized smartphones and tablets. The newcomer didn't mention which devices, but Android hardware such as the seven-inch Galapagos tablet and high-end smartphones like the Aquos 104SH are candidates.
Sharp has announced its latest flagship Android smartphone, the Aquos 104SH. The 104SH is an extremely thin (8.7mm/0.34in.) handset and features a 4.5in., 720 x 1020 HD touchscreen. It will use the same Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 processor as the Google Nexus Prime, a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU that has been optimized for the next release of Android, version 3.2 "Ice Cream Sandwich." The main camera is a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor that can shoot full HD video at 30 FPS. The auxiliary camera has a 3 megapixel CMOS sensor. It will ship with a 2GB MicroSDHC memory card.
Sharp's has just revealed the 80-inch LC-80LE632U, which it claims is the largest LED-lit LCD TV commercially available. It sports a 1080p resolution and is labeled as a Smart TV with both Wi-Fi as well as access to apps such as Netflix, CinemaNow and Vudu. Sharp is quick to point out the TV has more than double the screen area of a 55-inch TV.
Japanese carrier KDDI has announced its winter lineup for the last quarter of 2012. The second largest wireless provider in Japan will be offering six Android phones, two feature phones and a new tablet. In a unique touch, most of these phones offer waterproof protection.
Sharp has unveiled a new Aquos smartphone, the SH8298U, which will be initially offered to customers at Japanese carrier SoftBank. The device is focused on 3D capabilities, built around a 4.2-inch glasses-free display with qHD resolution. Users can also capture 3D video and stills from a dual-camera configuration with two eight-megapixel sensors.
Sharp Japan just introduced a new 70-inch Aquos LCD TV, the LC-70XS, for its home market. The set sports an above average 15,000,000:1 contrast ratio with according brightness and is LED-backlit. Its 240Hz panel displays 1080p content and can also show 3D images with active shutter glasses.
Sharp claimed a world's first for Android on Friday with a clamshell phone. Superficially, the Aquos Hybrid 007SH resembles a classic Japanese keitai (cellphone) design with its long, rectangular flip design and dialpad but runs a full version of Android 2.3 and takes touch input through its 3.4-inch, 480x800 swiveling screen. The device has dedicated Android navigation buttons but follows many of the rules of feature phones with D-pad input and shortcuts, down to dial pad text entry if they like.
The biggest Japanese wireless provider, NTT DoCoMo, on Monday announced the upcoming release of a number of new handsets, including the Sharp Aquos Phone f SH-13C. Chief among the phone's features is its out-of-the-box Qi wireless charger and pod, a first of its kind for smartphones. Users just need to place the phone onto a pod or any other Qi charger for cable-free power.
Sharp pushed to keep Android on top in Japan by launching a new flagship with multiple firsts for the country. The Aquos SH-12C carries two rear eight-megapixel cameras that, like the Evo 3D, can shoot 3D video or still photos. Its 4.2-inch display is both one of the sharpest in Japan at 540x960 but also provides glasses-free 3D to show off the resulting footage.
Apple virtually dominates the Japanese smartphone market, MM Research Institute found in a new study. By the end of the fiscal year ended in March, the iPhone had 72.2 percent of the field with 2.34 million units on Japanese. Its next-closest rival, HTC, had just 11.1 percent, while local phones didn't register until third place Toshiba's 6.8 percent.
At its press conference at CES on Wednesday, Sharp announced it would release LED-backlit HDTVs with new QuadPixel technology that is said to increase the number of individual color reproduced by conventional sets from 1 billion to 1 trillion. Conventional TVs use red, green and blue, but QuadPixel adds a fourth, yellow subpixel. This is said to provide richer yellows, golds and light blues, while Sharp’s X-Gen panels, which use the RGBY pixels, are also said to be more energy efficient.
Japanese telecoms provider Softbank on Tuesday announced an upcoming lineup of handsets, including revealing that it will launch an Android-powered smartphone by the spring of 2010. The device will use a 3.7-inch OLED and be powered by Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon CPU but has received few other details. Otherwise, Snapdragon is already found or to be found in a number of other smartphones from various manufacturers.
Sharp on Tuesday announced the upcoming release of four new HDTV sets using LED backlights. The AQUOS LX-series includes the 40-inch LC-40LX1, 46-inch LC-46LX1, 52-inch LC-52LX1 and 60-inch LC-60LX1. The advanced lighting gives them a 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, and all are said to be 30 percent more efficient than Sharp's preceding GX-series of HDTVs launched in January of 2008. The power draw is the lowest in its segment, according to the Japanese firm.
Sharp Japan on Friday announced it has added five new HDTVs as part of its AQUOS DX2 lineup, with all sporting built-in Blu-ray disc recorders that are claimed to fit seven times more recorded content on them than a traditional Blu-ray disc without sacrificing picture quality. The new LCD HDTVs are available in 26-, 32-, 40-, 46- and 52-inch sizes, with the top three models sporting 1080p, 15,000:1 contrast ratios and 3 HDMI inputs, while the 26- and 32-inch models make do with 720p resolution, 7,000:1 contrast ratios and 2 HDMI inputs each.
Sharp on Tuesday introduced its latest AQUOS LCD TVs, including several models featuring LED backlighting. New models in the E77 series include the The 65-inch LC-65E77UM and 60-inch LC-60E77UN, each featuring 1080p resolution and the company's Advanced Super View technology designed to reduce haze and reflectivity. Both offerings support 120Hz frame-rate conversion and a pixel response time of 4ms.
Sharp today introduced the world's first 20-inch LCD HDTV with a built-in Blu-ray recorder, the 20-inch AQUOS DX. Combined with a built-in digital TV tuner, the set lets users record digital broadcasts onto BD-R/R DL and BD-RE/RE DL. While users cannot write to DVDs, they can play media stored on them, including MPEG-4 and AVC (H.264) format files. Up to 30 hours and 20 minutes of HD video can be recorded on dual-layer Blu-ray discs in a 7X recording mode.
SoftBank has recently showed off this high-end camera phone, the Sharp 933SH AQUOS Shot. It not only sports a 10-megapixel camera but has an extremely high ISO sensitivity range, at up to 12,800, for capturing images in low-light environments without blur. The camera functions are accessed via a 3.3-inch, 854x480 rotating LCD touchscreen that is mounted on a two-axis hinge. Continuous autofocusing is also built in, and touching a subject on the screen will result in it always staying in focus, even if it moves.
Sharp made a push in earnest into Internet-capable TVs on Monday with the launch of the AQUOS D series in its home country of Japan. The new sets add support for a Yahoo video service that streams multiple content channels online using a built-in Ethernet link. They also bring 1080p, faster 120Hz panels and 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratios for every set.
Sharp Japan on Monday announced the forthcoming release of it’s AQUOS A-series LCD HDTVs, made up of the 40-inch LC-40AE6, 46-inch LC-46AE6 and 52-inch LC-52AE6. All share the same 1920x1080 resolution 120Hz speed panels, a 15,000:1 contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 brightness rating while being very energy-efficient. According to Sharp, the 52-inch set uses 175kW/h over the course of a year, while the 46-inch will use up 145kW/h and the 40-inch model 120kW/h.
Sharp at CES launched aggressively into its third wave of AQUOS Blu-ray readers with two stand-alone players and a pair of home theaters that also carry the new storage. The BD-HP22U (not yet pictured) is the company's first Blu-ray Profile 2.0 player and uses an Ethernet connection to use Internet-specific special features on newer movies; it also bundles a 2GB USB drive to cache Internet features. Both this and the Profile 1.1-only BD-HP16U also have a slimmer design than past models, full 7.1-channel Dolby TrueHD and HD DTS Master Audio sound, and lower power consumption that drops to 19W.
Sharp today joined its rivals in updating its TVs by introducing three key new ranges to its AQUOS models. Leading the group is the BD series, one of the few HDTV lines to include a built-in Blu-ray player. The feature not only lets owners play HD movies without occupying an HDMI port but is also designed to be much more automated than a typical home theater: inserting a Blu-ray movie automatically activates the TV and begins playback.
Sharp will bring two world-first LCD HDTVs to the North American market in January, sporting built-in Blu-ray disc burners and another slot drive for DVDs and CDs, says Sharp Electronics Marketing Company of America president, Mike Troetti, according to a Thursday report. First introduced along with different-sized models in mid-October in Japan, the 32-inch set features 720p resolution and a 7,000:1 contrast ratio, while the 42-inch set has a 120Hz panel with 1080p resolution and 15,000:1 contrast ratio. The new AQUOS DX-series HDTVs are meant to appeal to people who want or need a clutter-free appearance, minimizing the amount of hardware, or want a clean-looking, wall-mount installation, Troetti says.
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 on Wednesday claimed a first by launching the AQUOS DX series of HDTVs. The line is the only to date to carry a Blu-ray burner and uses the slot-loading, side-mounted drive along with a dual digital tuner to record HD broadcasts even while the viewer is watching another channel. By using H.264 encoding and optimizing the bitrate, Sharp estimates as much as 21 hours of TV can be stored on a dual-layer 50GB disc. An electronic programming guide helps for scheduling recording in advance.
Sharp is adding to its recently introduced GX5 line of AQUOS HDTVs with the 65-inch AQUOS LC-65GX5. It replaces the 52-inch version as the largest in the range, and is likewise Internet-ready. The 1080p, 120Hz display panel also features a moderate 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 brightness. Sharp’s ARSS speaker system features a 2.1-channel set-up, while the built-in digital amplifier sends 7.5W to each speaker and 15W to a subwoofer. The viewing angle is 176 degrees from all four sides.
Sharp on Wednesday unveiled several new AQUOS LCD high-definition televisions to the North American market, including two limited-edition models. Sharp's D65U lineup offers a native 1080p resolution, and spans between 42- and 52-inches, featuring a 6ms response time. Sharp touts the energy-saving features of the line, saying it is Energy Star-compliant, with active backlight and contrast controls to reduce energy consumption while the set is in use.
Sharp today opened up its launches for IFA with updates targeted at HD video. The AQUOS XS1 is both the company's thinnest-ever TV at 0.9 inches -- half as much as before -- but is also its most vivid, using LED backlighting to boost the contrast ratio up to 1,000,000:1, besting plasma TVs and rivaling CRTs. The lighting also helps the set reach an extreme color accuracy of 150 percent of the NTSC color gamut, preventing the color banding that has sometimes affected past HDTVs.
Sharp on Tuesday grew its AQUOS TV range slightly by launching a larger version of the SB series. Competing against VIZIO and other budget TV producers, all the sets push a true 1080p image but shed 120Hz panels and other extras that often inflate the price. Despite this, they still manage an average pixel response time between 6ms and 6.5ms and have between two and four HDMI inputs on each model. Dual component inputs and a lone VGA port are also present to attach other HD sources.
Sharp today fulfilled promises made last year with news that it will begin selling what's believed to be the world's largest single-panel HDTV. At 108 inches diagonal, the LB-1085's screen is designed with public view in mind and produce a relatively rich picture for a large screen likely to be seen outdoors. While the contrast ratio is limited to 1,200:!, the 1080p image displays with as many as 76 million colors, or far more than the 16.7 million of most LCDs.
Sharp on Monday announced it will debut 22 new models in all for its AQUOS RX5-, GX5- and DS5-series HD LCD TVs. The flagship RX5 series will be available in 65-, 52- and 46-inch sizes and will allow users to surf the Internet. Either model features Sharp's backlight control technology which endows the sets with a high 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Without it, the panels feature a 3,300:1 static contrast ratio.
Pioneer is likely to release mid-size LCD TVs, the company said late yesterday when discussing its latest financial results. Breaking with its tradition of selling plasma TVs almost exclusively, the Japanese electronics maker says it will start offering LCDs larger than 40 inches starting from August. This will most likely include a 46-inch set, the company adds. Sharp is producing the actual display panels while Pioneer handles much of the design.
Sharp has revealed itself as one of the first TV makers to officially embrace wireless video linkups for its TVs, according to news from DVICE. Upcoming versions of the company's AQUOS X-series HDTVs will include a slot for an Amimon-made WHDI (Wireless High Definition Interface) adapter that accepts both audio and video wirelessly from a matching transmitter; any HDMI devices plugged into the transmitter can broadcast at up to 100 feet away without a sacrifice in quality, including the native 1080p resolution and surround sound.
Having announced its E94U and D74U sets at this year's CES expo, Sharp today revealed yet more AQUOS LCDs at a press conference in Japan. The new X series will be comprised of 37-, 42- and 46-inch sets, each just under 1.4 inches thick. The sets will all be 1080p-capable moreover, and use 12-bit BDE color-rendering. A 120Hz refresh rate should permit fast response to motion, and their contrast ratio is said to be 15,000:1 -- making the sets mid-range within the AQUOS line, but still above-average for LCDs in general.
Sharp on Wednesday took the unusual direction of building a compact home theater in its AQUOS Audio lineup that doubles as a complete stand. While larger models exist, the AN-ACD2 is designed not only as a 150-watt, 2.1-channel receiver and stereo but also as a stand for an HDTV set; with at least AQUOS HDTVs, any 37- to 42-inch set can be supported by the entire device. It also includes a deliberate gap that allows at least two devices such as a Blu-ray player or a cable set-top box, according to Sharp.
Sharp has upgraded its AQUOS sets for CES with a top-to-bottom replacement of most models. The E94U series is Sharp's first connected HDTV line and will pin its hopes on AQUOS Advantage, a new support system: users needing help adjusting the TV or troubleshooting it can pop up a menu that contacts Sharp directly. It also upgrades contrast ratios to a brighter 27,000:1 with a fast 120Hz refresh rate and a thinner backlight. These specs carry across 46-inch ($3,199), 52-inch ($4,199), and 65-inch ($10,999) editions that will start shipping as early as this month for the largest two sets and February for the 46-inch system.
Sharp and Toshiba today vowed to change the TV business with a new alliance that will play off of each other's strengths. Under the deal, Sharp will receive semiconductors from Toshiba to handle the image processing in its AQUOS sets; Toshiba in turn will receive LCD panels for all of its HDTVs from 32 inches and larger. This expansion will be necessary to keep up with the sheer demand for LCDs, the companies say: as much as half of Sharp's circuit needs will be filled by Toshiba by 2010, while 40 percent of Toshiba's screens will come from Sharp at the same time.
