With the exception of the Panasonic Lumix CM1, which was marketed as a communication camera capable of running Android, the Sharp Aquos R6 is the first handset to feature a module of this size purpose-built for a smartphone.
Although Sharp has not confirmed this, the Aquos R6 is said to be equipped with Sony’s rumoured IMX800 one-inch sensor, which was expected to debut with the Huawei P50 series. It has surpassed Samsung’s 50MP ISOCELL GN2, which measures 1/1.12-inches.
It’s the only sensor on the phone’s back, most likely because the company believes it’s adequate for all heavy lifting. The device only supports digital zooming, which is a disadvantage. Leica collaborated closely with Sharp on the camera system, indicating that the optics company is no longer exclusively associated with Huawei in the smartphone space.
The one-inch camera has a resolution of 20MP, an aperture of f/1.9, and a focal length of 19mm. It has a 7-element “Summicron” lens made exclusively for it by Leica. Sharp claims that it has one-tenth the distortion of standard lenses, resulting in sharper images.
The lens is significantly wider than the main camera on most other phones, but it is still not as wide as ultra-wide cameras. The camera, predictably, takes up a lot of space, but it’s not too bulky. It comes with an LED flash and a time-of-flight module.
Aquos R6 includes a Pro IGZO OLED display.
Sharp Display
The Aquos R6 has a proprietary 6.6-inch display with a resolution of 2,730 x 1,260 and a refresh rate of up to 240Hz. Depending on the content being displayed, the refresh rate can be as low as 1Hz. The maximum brightness of the screen is 2,000 nits.
The phone is also one of the first to feature Qualcomm’s 3D Sonic Max ultrasonic fingerprint reader, which was announced in December 2019. It has improvements that address the issues that plagued the first iteration, such as being 17 times larger to avoid positioning issues and being able to read two fingerprints at once for increased security.
The core specifications of the Aquos R6 have not been compromised. The phone is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset, which is paired with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage that can be expanded to 1TB. The device has a 5,000mAh battery and a 12MP front camera. It also has a headphone jack and is powered by Android 11.
On paper, it appears to be one of the year’s best smartphones. Unfortunately, it will most likely only be available in Japan. Nonetheless, it offers a glimpse of what other smartphone manufacturers have in store.
The phone is expected to ship in June, when pricing information will most likely be released. There are two colour options: black and white.
