Last August, Sharp Announced the Aquos S2 – a full-screen phone with a notch like that of the Essential PH-1. Seven months later, Sharp has launched a successor, the Aquos S3, with a notch like that of the iPhone X.
Design
The Aquos S3 is a mixture of new features and some design elements from its predecessor. The bottom bezel that is home to the fingerprint scanner on the S2 is now smaller to make way for the bigger 6.0” display. This gives the S3 a screen-to-body ratio of 91%.
The circular notch has also been replaced with a larger cut-out that houses a front camera, earpiece, notification LED, and sensor. And on the rear, the brushed metal back has been replaced with 3D curved glass. It keeps the dual camera design and is the new position for the fingerprint scanner.
Specs
The 6” display has a 2160 x 1080 resolution with up to 550 nits of brightness. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 630 makes a comeback and it is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
The dual cameras are a F/1.75 12MP wide angle lens and a 13MP telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom. Beneath the camera setup is the LED flash and to the right is a fingerprint scanner with gold accent.
There is also a 16MP 1.4μm camera in front for selfies and features like AI selfie for portrait images and AI beauty mode. Sharp also throws in face unlock.
Under the glass back is a 3200mAh battery with support for QC 3.0 18W fast charging via a USB-C port. There is MicroSD card support for storage expansion (128GB) via a hybrid dual SIM slot (nano only). The Aquos S3 also has support for 14 LTE bands, VoLTE, and VoWiFi. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack.
The phone runs Android 8.0 with Sharp’s Smile UX on top. Smile UX has features like app lock, private space, game mode, and a simple desktop mode for older users.
Price and Availability
It is surprising that Sharp has only released the Aquos S3 in a single color – Black Gold, unlike the S2 that comes in four color variants.
The Aquos S3 will sell for NTD 11,990 when it goes on sale on April 1.
