Vodafone to carry the 3.2 megapixel Sharp 903

The UK will be seeing its first 3.2 megapixel cameraphone drop this week — Vodafone will be carrying the Sharp 903 as of this Thursday. It's a 3G phone with 2x optical zoom, SD storage, and a spacious 2.4-inch swivelling screen. It'll be setting you back £350 for all that juicy megapixel goodness.

[Bushcat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

The user interface is tough. The handset is difficult to open with one hand, and even harder to close after a call. Sharp's sync software is laughable: for example, when transferring images between phone and computer, it cannot show thumbnails, only icons. It syncs data only with Outlook or Outlook Express, and even then cannot handle task lists, only Calendar and Contacts. Finally, it rewrites all-day events as lasting 00:00 - 23:59 and writes the modified events back to Outlook. What a mess of a device, usability-wise.

Vodafone and everyone else seems to think the storage medium is SD. Well, it's miniSD.

Finally, if you have the Japanese version, there's the bass-ackwards DRM stuff.

Try this for a GUI test: receive an email, read it, reply to it and send the reply. Count the keystrokes.

[jefch @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Bushcat, if you're ever back to this page, would you mind commenting a little more on the DRM thing... I've been considering the 903SH to replace my aging Sanyo J-Phone...

[Bushcat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I've not played with the DRM side yet, since it's no fun. But if it's the same as the 902SH, SH-53 and friends, you need to use an application that is (barely) made by Panasonic together with a card reader that is supported by that software, principally Panasonic's or IOData's. I think you may also be able to add your own DRM wrapper with the Pro version of Quicktime, but I gave up long before then!

Anyway, it takes very good pictures. Incidentally, Vodafone will let you borrow a 3G phone before buying one, to check that there is a signal in your home and office. Since Vodafone's definition of national coverage is "if there's a signal at the local ward office, there's a signal everywhere" you may want to take advantage of the offer! I've got 4 bars at one end of the apartment, zero at the other.

[Bushcat @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I've not played with the DRM side yet, since it's no fun. But if it's the same as the 902SH, SH-53 and friends, you need to use an application that is (barely) made by Panasonic together with a card reader that is supported by that software, principally Panasonic's or IOData's. I think you may also be able to add your own DRM wrapper with the Pro version of Quicktime, but I gave up long before then!

Anyway, it takes very good pictures. Incidentally, Vodafone will let you borrow a 3G phone before buying one, to check that there is a signal in your home and office. Since Vodafone's definition of national coverage is "if there's a signal at the local ward office, there's a signal everywhere" you may want to take advantage of the offer! I've got 4 bars at one end of the apartment, zero at the other.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I tend to agree with bushcat that the gui is not the most user-friendly I have ever seen - but it is not the worst either. The lack of a second screen also was a disappointment.
I can't speak from experience on downloading/transferring music to be played in the music player, but it seemes it is going to be a little different from the sh-52. Apparently, you have to use a cord hooked directly to the phone from a music source (I assume using the source's analog headphone jack, meaning a loss of quality). The music player remote control seems interesting - with built-in mic and caller-id. However, not being able to transfer digital mp3 files directly from one's computer keeps this from being a viable music player.
Other than those two points though, this is meaty phone.

[Peter @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Sharps 903v software is the worst I have encountered - it simply does not work - after a week with sharps help desk it still cannot sync my phnebook of 300 entries - it fails after 39 with a cancelled message and an error message which only says 'error'. What use is that? And Vodafone are little help as it is a sharp problem. Overall it is pretty useless.
The other program says it completed with 395 transfers - actually it took 39 across! Now that is just the worst error - you think you have the numbers but actually you haven't.
The lens has no cover so pics are poor unless you clean the lens cover every time before you use the camera.

[Alan Graham @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I live in the United States and I am interested in purchasing the new Vodafone 903SH phone (black) with the 3.2 megapixel camera. Can you direct me to where this can be purchased online?

Thank you