Last year this month, Sharp launched a phone in Japan named the Aquos R6, and it was a premium flagship with the main USP being the camera. It had only one camera on the back, but that camera had a large 1-inch 20 Megapixel sensor, made in collaboration with LEICA. The brand has launched the successor in Japan, the Sharp Aquos R7. This phone takes everything great about the R6 and takes that one step further.
Since this is a premium flagship by the brand, the design is also premium. There is a flat metal frame around the phone and a circular camera module on the back. The display on the front has a hole punch in the center. This year, the display does not curve over the sides like it did on the last year’s model. The back, as well as the display, have Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The phone is also IP68 water and dust-resistant.
Speaking of that camera, this is still a 1-inch sensor made in collaboration with LEICA, but this time, the megapixel count is bumped up to 47MP from 20MP last year. This sensor has an f/1.9 lens, Octa-PDAF, and 8K video recording support. The Aquos R6 of last year had a time of flight sensor on the rear, but the official website does not mention that for this year’s R7. The phone does have a second sensor on the back, but we do not know what it is used for.
For selfies, there is a 12.6MP sensor.
The display on the front is a 6.6-inch IGZO OLED with an astonishing 2000 nits peak brightness, 10-bit color depth, Dolby Vision, 1-240Hz refresh rate, and a resolution of 1260 × 2730 pixels. If we neglect that the display does not curve on the sides, this is the same panel that the Aquos R6 had.
Under the hood, the Sharp Aquos R7 has Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SOC paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB UFS 3.1 storage (expandable up to 1TB). The battery size is 5,000mAh, and the phone supports wireless charging. There is a Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max fingerprint scanner under the display.
Finally, Android 12 runs out of the box.
The pricing is not yet announced, and like previous Sharp flagships, we are not expecting this to launch outside Japan.