SHARP IS03

My trusty old SANYO W63SA started acting erratic the other week, so I decided to retire the poor guy after 30 months of service. I considered joining the iPhone revolution but eventually decided against it since the SoftBank coverage is less than spectacular down here. Since I wasn't too keen on the idea of switching carriers, the decision to pick up KDDI's SHARP IS03 was a no-brainer.





Some specs:

• 3.5-inch screen with 960×640 resolution capacitive touchscreen (rivaling the iPhone 4's Retina display)
• world’s first “combination LCD” combining a main display and a secondary memory LCD (which shows the time and battery life even when the main display is off)
• 1GHz Snapdragon processor
• 9.6MP camera with CCD sensor and auto focus
• Android 2.1 with Flash Lite 4.0 support
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• ports: microUSB, microSD/microSDHC (32GB max.)
• apps for YouTube and Twitter pre-installed
• battery life: 200 hours standby, 230 minutes talk time

Pretty impressive. Here's a shot of the "memory" LCD in action. Although the main display is off, the secondary display will always show the time and battery life.



The feature certainly won't change your world, but it's nice to be able to glance over at your mobile and check the time without having to pick it up, especially if you've got your hands full with paperwork. I was also somewhat surprised to find that the phone still had a pull-out digital TV antenna.



In a sense, the IS03 does its best to combine the glitz and power of the new wave of smart phones with the more traditional bells and whistles that have come to define Japan's keitai generation. I'm hearing now that the battery life isn't quite up to par with manufacturer claims, but I guess we'll see.