Softbank introduces Sharp Aquos Fulltouch slider with quasi-XGA resolution
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 30th 2008 12:04PM
posted Oct 30th 2008 12:04PM
[Thanks, Paul]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Thank god it doesn't look like another iPhone clone.
I don't think anyone else appreciated your sarcasm as much as I did... iPhone with an ugly pink underbelly... VERY original Softbank, way to waste your skills and resources Sharp. Sharp should have partnered with HTC, that would be a sweet phone I think.
Oh, God. The lock button is in the same spot as the iPhone. iCLONE!!
"Yahoo" dedicated button?
I was hoping somebody would notice that... Its a yPhone!!! Competitor to gPhone!
Many japan phone have Yahoo button.
Y! is actually the Japanese character for "Instant messaging", maybe?
I think that Yahoo is fairly popular in Japan...
Softbank has licensed the Yahoo name for it's internet service in Japan. When they bought their mobile division from Vodafone, they applied that logo to their mobile web service as well. And it's much the same as docomo uses imode, or Au uses Ez-web.
Softbank is the major shareholder of Yahoo Japan, from what I can remember .
I have strong feelings against that slider mechanism. Not that it has one -- but that they did it vertically and now when you slide it, it's a foot tall and the keyboard isn't very big. If they slide it horizontally they could fit a whole QWERTY in there and it wouldn't be an oddly proportioned handset when slid out.
oddly proportioned like the famous zack morris cell phone?
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c395/95sx/zackphone.jpg
japanese is easy to write on a numeric pad, its a different system... english is super long and hard. A qwerty keyboard is not the solution in japan.
It may be unusual in iPhone land, euh, I mean America but lots of people, most notably in Asia, like to have to option to operate their phone with a one hand.
Nobody loves pixels more than I do, but 1024 x 480 on a 3.8" just sounds a bit over the top.
You are not to return to engadget.
WIN! XD
No one at Engadget should be stopped by too much gadgetry.
I'm daydreaming it will be exported in GSM versions like its fellow Japanphone Sharp SX862 (http://www.gsmarena.com/sharp_sx862-2371.php) and/or that someone will slap a good OS and qwerty slider to a screen like that... And de-iPhone the design while they're at it -_-
Beaker is the man.
It appears that I have let reason overtake geekness. My most sincere apologies.
Why is it over the top?
Laser printers being popular over, umm, dot matrix tells us the human eye can make out up to 2600 dpi (that's per INCH) from 12 inches away from the eye (look at your iPhone from that distance you will make out not only the pixels but the thin lines _between_ the pixels). Having this high of a res would mean you can see full web pages readably from 2 feet away from the eye without having to zoom and horizontal scroll left/right.
i'm gonna agree with Johan.
The high resolution is great, but don't forget that the screen is only about 3 inches wide. When you shrink a whole web page down to that size, it would be very very difficult to read without having to zoom in, regardless of the number of pixels. The physical dimensions are the limiting factor here.
Physical dimensions are the limiting factor? Can you please explain why a high res screen would be worse - if you can zoom - than a big screen with crappy res?
Joe you have no idea what you're talking about. The way of the future is higher pixel density and scalable fonts/interfaces. Because you only can comprehend one situation as in resolutions on PCs you can't see the reason behind higher pixel density.
Joe you have no idea what you're talking about. The way of the future is higher pixel density and scalable fonts/interfaces. Because you only can comprehend one situation as in resolutions on PCs you can't see the reason behind higher pixel density.
I've never said that a higher res screen is worse than a lower res but bigger one. I'm merely saying that when your screen is only so big, at a certain point, more pixels will no longer make a difference, given its physical dimensions.
For example, on this 3-inch-wide screen, the difference between 1028x480 and 800x480 would be much smaller than the difference between 800x480 and 320x480. With physical dimensions being constant, this difference will become increasingly smaller/negligible/non-existent as you cram more pixels in.
I didn't plan to get this worked up over this, and I can't explain myself any more clearly. Maybe I'm overlooking something, in which case, I'd love to learn about it.
Joe, sounds like you're assuming that the phone can't be brought closer to the eye? If you have an iPhone (which is supposedly high resolution) and hold it 18 inches or even 2 feet away from your eyes .. a person with 20/20 vision can make out the spaces between pixels .. which are actually about 1/4 the width of the pixels .. so if you can resolve that from 18 inches away .. clearly there is room for much higher resolution .. which would make reading web pages easier (cause you won't have to horizontal scroll).
What you say starts to apply only after HD or higher resolution because it's harder for average people to focus if they hold the display less than 5 inches from your eye (holding it 6 inches away is not THAT unreasonable btw .. if you're sitting down on in the subway or something).
Im with joe, ive got a 640x480 3.6" pda and i wouldnt go below that now but theres a point anything much above it where the gains are almost zero. The smoothness of higher pixel density is great but because of lack of good OS scaling, at 1-to-1 scale it just encourages smaller pages and holding the thing a few inches from your eyes and thats a huge eye killer.
I use a my HTC Universal (VGA @3.6") everyday for web browsing with Opera 9.5.
The screen size is just right, could be larger I suppose (like Touch HD WVGA @3.8"). But more pixels would definitely be better.
So to those people that complain about high ppi, get some fucking eye correction and stop whining!
That's... a _tall_ screen.
Not that I don't like it, of course, it's just tall.
And 300 DPI. I want that screen...
very nice screen resolution, if dual screen at this resolution can be used together, it would be very useful for remote desktop. :)
quasi-XGA?
QVGA Sucks guy is gonna be quasi-happy
Damn right, I do feel a sense of quasi happiness. :)
not QUASI, but QUARTER.
QVGA & VGA:
QuarterVGA is 320*240 (76,800 pixels) is a quarter of the pixels of VGA 640*480 (307,200 pixels).
Sure, I'll go to Japan and bring you a few. But you'll have to pay for both my visit+stay+flight+ect and phones :)
Thanks for the offer, I'll have Pricejapan and DHL handle it for me.
By the way does it remind anyone of first Intel MID wide long silicon chocolate bar?
Has no one said this yet? Wow, okay: put Android on this sucker and I'd be in.
"put Android on this sucker and I'd be in."
That's what a geek said.
Very true. Hardware of the phones is rather secondary nowadays compared to the software. Put Android on your phone and many more people might be interested. Polish the Android in the process and even more people will be interested because you will not only get a better phone but also a do-gooder status (assuming you do good and feed back you changes).
Make it in a less homosexual colour and you have a sale here :)
Btw, i think the height is added by making it 3.8", not by making it thinner. Although thats beyond a 1:2 resolution (thats means its more than twice as high as it is wide for you non-tech savvy people) so bassically, its gonna be crazy. I hope they make the UI nice and high res, and fully use. Thats always been my biggest issue with phones.
Also, is anyone considering the large strain this will put on the CPU for processing. Thats more than 3 times the number of pixels on a regular phone screen (about twice as much as the iphone even).
colours:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/42504.html
Yes, because that particular color phones goes around having sex with phones of the same color.
It's too bad you had to open with such a statement, at least the last part of you post was worth reading.
If the touchscreen software isn't sophisticated enough to handle a number pad, I'm sure the browser experience is going to be greeeat.
I understand wanting a dedicated, tactile QWERTY keyboard, but come on...
JAPANFOOOORRRRR!
no one?
i want it.
looks great. service plan if ever comes here probably better than iPhone with rogers/fido here in Canada.
unless by then iphone drops their data-plan by 50%....
Because japanese people don't like that.
why not have it slide down and have a full qwerty keyppad
I've been wanting a japanese phone on and off for years now, but it seems I might try to do it in a more reasonable time frame, seen some good phones on ebay, including a samsung slider that looked great, but as i'm with sprint, can't do anywhere right now.
As for the phone, I sorta have a thing for sliders and it looks good, color isn't doing it for me, but if I had to, i would get it
Now make one without the slider and in a different color (careful, T-Mobile can sue you!) and you have a buyer!
What is operating system in this phone? Can I use any external apps ?
needs WinMo to make this phone a killer
Fap fap fap
Well, I see your point, but it can help in certain situations like e-books where the text will be very sharp and anti-aliased. Also better detail on photographs which now look so pristine and sharp that you could look at them from inches from your face to discern detail. Absolutely no visible pixels at all also means something that looks like a backlit slide only much larger. I had a Nokia N90 whose pixel density was 262ppi and let me tell you it looked amazing. The thing is that it was 2.1" and I can only imagine a screen as (more) crisp as that but about four times the size.
I think at 300ppi you've reach your limit beyond special applications like medical imaging or forensics.
LOL why are people complaining about higher res and not lower res on a cell phone? or a 5 mp camera and 2 mp camera? anyways, those people that are complaning should go F*** their iPhone. This phone is gorgeous, take your iphone and shove it up your arse and just look at this phone for crying out loud idiots! no wonder technology doesn't advance as fast as other countries, people complain about higher specs on a cell phone when really they should be complaning about the iPhoney 5 years ago specs.
This is pretty good. I can't wait for companies to start manufacturing 720p or 1080p handsets, I think Sharp was either working on such a device or they probably already have it out but i'm not sure.
does anyone know if it will be available in europe? i have been searching everywhere to place an order for the F906i or the N906i but with no luck :(( why don't they sell them in all of the world and only japan? this is called egoism! :(
what's the point of having a little hardware keyboard when you could use a big soft keyboard? It's a toss-up, at best, so why add bulk to the device?
go to the website and watch the intro flash movie. it comes in 4 colors and has a screen magnifier type feature, amongst other things.
i think it looks wicked.