Hasta La Gadget!

What a difference a display makes: in the case of KDDI’s AQUOS PAD SHT21, announced yesterday, it’s the promise of more than double the runtime simply by switching to Sharp’s IGZO panel technology. The new LCD screen system – which plays with chemistry to make pixels smaller and thus reduce backlighting demands – has shown up on its second device for the Japanese market, so we wasted no time in checking out the new 7-inch Android tablet. Check out our hands-on video and some first impressions after the cut.

In terms of basic specifications, the AQUOS TAB SHT21 doesn’t stray too far from the Android crowd. Running Ice Cream Sandwich on Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dualcore MSM8960 processor, paired with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, the Sharp-made tablet includes 4G LTE, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, and 1-Seg digital TV – exactly what you’d expect for a new slate in the Japanese market.

However, it’s the IGZO screen that’s the real talking point here. Most of the time, it looks just like a regular LCD IPS panel, only it’s sipping roughly half the power. Crank up the brightness, however, and it’s significantly brighter at its maximum than a traditional tablet; we weren’t able to take the SHT21 outdoors, but from what we’ve seen we’ve little doubt that you could comfortably use it without having to shade the screen in strong sunlight.

In the hand, it’s easier to hold than our other Japanese Android tablet of preference, the NEC Medias Tab UL, and the digital stylus works well for navigation and sketching. Android 4.0 runs smoothly, even with KDDI’s customizations, and overall it’s slim and lightweight. KDDI is yet to confirm pricing, though we know the SHT21 will hit shelves in December.

With battery technology proving to be the laggard in today’s digital arms race, technologies like IGZO are becoming increasingly important to squeeze runtime out of devices without weighing them down. So far nobody at Sharp is saying when IGZO panels will show up on devices outside of Japan, but we’re hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

Sharp AQUOS TAB SHT21 with IGZO screen hands-on is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

All right, your eyes might go a little bit bonkers there, but what we are trying to do is draw your attention to the Sharp Aquos Pad SHT21. It carries the new IGZO LCD technology from Sharp, and according to Japanese carrier KDDI, the Sharp Aquos Pad SHT21 is tipped to debut this coming middle of December, where the 7” tablet is touted to come with more than double the battery life of its predecessor. How is this possible? Definitely not through the sprinkling of pixie dust or fooling around with magic, but rather, it is due to the low-power characteristics of its IGZO LCD display.

The entire shebang tips the scales at a mere 280 grams, where it runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 processor, offers pen input capability, has 1GB RAM, 16GB of internal memory, a microSDXC memory card slot, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 4G LTE connectivity. Oh yeah, your eyes will be treated to a resolution of 1280 x 800, not quite near the HTC J Butterfly, but decent enough. [Product Page]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sharp 6.1-inch IGZO display has 498ppi, WQXGA resolution, Expert claims Apple used older display technology in their new iPads as Sharp’s IGZO displays weren’t ready yet,

We’ve been hearing about a certain 5-inch HTC phablet for Verizon since July, but it looks like its Japanese counterpart may actually hit the market first. Unveiled by KDDI as the HTC J Butterfly (HTL21), this Android 4.1 device is the first announced phone to feature a 5-inch, 440ppi full-HD “Super LCD 3” panel, and it’s fittingly complemented by a 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 underneath, making this the latest member in the small family of Snapdragon S4 Pro phones. There’s an eight-megapixel camera that naturally handles 1080p video at the back, accompanied by a 2.1-megapixel front-facing imager. Other details include 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSDHC expansion, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), NFC, LTE and CDMA/GSM/UMTS/GPRS radios — that’s right, it’s a global device. Not bad for a 140g package, and it’s waterproof as well, rated at IPX5. But the question is how well will the 2,020mAh battery last under that super dense LCD and high-end processor? Only time will tell — even KDDI has yet to finalize this part of the specs. Folks on the KDDI network can grab hold of this powerful phone in early December, with a choice of red, white or black.

Update: HTC confirmed to us that this phablet will use panels supplied by Sharp and JDI.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC

KDDI unveils HTC J Butterfly (HTL21), the first phone with 5-inch 1080p display originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 01:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While a new crop of smartphones has just been released in the U.S., the Japanese aren’t going to fall behind anytime soon. They just upped the ante with the new Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, which is the first production smartphone with an IGZO display.

What’s so interesting about IGZO? The indium gallium zinc oxide tech promises higher translucency, compared to regualr LCDs, which reduces the energy needed for backlighting and thus saves power – and the backlight is usually the number one consumer of power in mobile devices. The 2,000 mAh battery is no slouch either, though it’s unknown how much battery life is actually improved by the IGZO display.

The phone has a large 4.9-inch screen with 1,280 × 720 resolution, and a 16 MP camera. It has a 1.5 GHz S4 Pro quad-core processor and has NFC-compatibility. Hopefully we’ll get something like this in the States soon.

[via NTTDoCoMo via Engadget]

Japanese mega-operator NTT DoCoMo has just unveiled a interesting addition to its winter line-up: the Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, which is the first production smartphone we’ve seen with an IGZO display. If you hadn’t heard, the indium gallium zinc oxide technology promises higher translucency compared to regular LCDs, which reduces the demand for backlighting and hence means less battery drain — and you can learn more from our hands-on at IFA. Fortunately, in addition to its new-fangled 4.9-inch 1,280 x 720 panel, the SH-02E boasts a healthy spec sheet in other departments too, including a 16-megapixel camera, 1.5GHz S4 Pro quad-core engine with Adreno 320 graphics, NFC and compatibility with NTT’s LTE network. The only slight downer is that it comes with Android 4.0 out of the box, but that’s hardly going to be an issue by the time a model with this type of display lands stateside — assuming it ever does.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

The first smartphone with a low-power IGZO display: the 4.9-inch Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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