Sharp has been a pioneer of the whole " bezel-less" trend,
having phones with very high screen-to-body ratio before it was cool, so it's
not hard to fathom that the Japanese could simply capitalize on their already
significant experience in the realm of all-screen phones.
The eventual new Sharp phones are codenamed FS8016
and FS8010, and are both said to feature 5.5-inch 1080 x 2048 displays, duo
cameras (12MP + 8MP), and up to 6 GB of RAM, with the difference being chipsets
- the FS8016 is reportedly powered by Snapdragon 660, while the FS8010 has a
basic Snapdragon 330 under the hood. So far so good, but today another Sharp
phone leaked out of Weibo, and this one is pretty bonkers.
Dubbed Sharp Aquos S2 (105 Limited Edition),
whatever that denotes, it is said to sport dual camera setup as well, but
instead of having a 1080p display, the leakster claims that it will land with a
4K panel of size undisclosed. Not only that, but the render and the accompanying
info suggest that it will have in-display finger scanner, something that
Samsung didn't manage to muster for the S8, and Apple is reportedly having
trouble employing on a mass scale. Now, Sharp may have ironed out the kinks,
plus it usually sells its wares only in Japan, so it doesn't have to scale the
embedded scanning tech for millions of units, but we'll still believe there is
an in-display reader when we see it announced.
As for the 4K display, it's not entirely out of
whack, since Sharp announced a 5.5" panel with 2160 x 3840 pixels Ultra-HD
(4K) resolution way back in 2015. It was supposed to enter mass production last
year, but Sharp's financial troubles, and the subsequent acquisition by Foxconn
might have delayed that. The 5.5" screen uses Sharp's power-frugal IGZO
technology, so battery life should be decent, if this thing, along with the
other two Sharp leaks, materialize as rumored. If the panel is indeed 4K,
though, the S2 should have the processing power to match, so it will likely be
a flagship, rather than a midranger like the eventual FS8016 and FS8010.
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