The Sharp Aquos S3 isn’t what you would call
“official”, but the Aquos S3 mini is. Don’t ask how that works and don’t get us
started on a 5.5” screen getting called “mini”. It’s a 17:9 screen (1,080 x
2,040px resolution), the top row of which houses houses a notch similar to the
Aquos S2. The LCD is bright at 550 nits and with high color fidelity (135% of
sRGB).
In fact, there are more than a few similarities with
the S2, including the Snapdragon 630 chipset. There’s plenty of RAM (6GB) and
storage (64GB + hybrid microSD slot) for such an affordable phone. The dual
camera was dropped, however, and the Aquos S3 mini has a single 16MP camera on
the back (f/2.0, PDAF). The camera does pixel binning in the dark, which Sharp
advertises as 2µm pixels.
A 20MP selfie camera (f/2.0) lives in its narrow
screen notch, a significant improvement over the 8MP cam on the S2. Both
cameras feature AI enhancements, because why not. The phone will launch with
Android 7.1 Nougat. It has a 3,020mAh battery that charges over USB-C. Bad news
on the 3.5mm front, however. There’s face recognition with the selfie camera as
well as a fingerprint reader below the display.
We called the Sharp Aquos S3 mini “affordable” and
it is – it’s available for pre-order on JD.com at CNY 1,600 (US$ 250/€ 205).
