Sharp Aquos SH930W Full Review

Sharp sent over a review unit of their latest phone + tablet (Phablet) a few weeks back. The Sharp Aquos SH930W immediately got out attention and from that day on, we decided to test it extensively for daily usage.

Initial Impressions
I must say that this phone looks a lot like Samsung Galaxy S3 but there is something in Sharp's design that I like better. It might be the smoother curves and the elegant glossy full black screen. The looks of this unit will surely standout against other phones. The screen is gorilla glass so it won't scratch even without a screen protector.


The volume rocker control in on the left and on the top upper right is the standby switch. The top upper left is where the 3.5mm jack is located. For girls, this phone is compatible with those 3.5mm accessories and it won't look awkard.

Holding the phone is a handful already so it might be hard to type with just one hand.if you're trying to reach the other end of the screen. The back part is plastic but the pearl white color is a nice touch. On the upper left is the camera and on the bottom part is a horizontal line of small speaker grills. It charges via micro-USB.

What I somewhat don't like is the branding all over the phone. I think they can just leave the front facia clean and just put all the branding at the back part of the phone.

Performance
This is the first phone to have a 5-inch 1080p (1920 X 1080) HD resolution. That's going to have around 440 ppi! Highest that we have tried so far. As per checking initial reviews, this phone runs on Sharp's CGS display and not the IGZO display. I don't have complaints on the display per se but for some reason, I like the iPhone 5's display better. Might be because of the retina display which is only at 320+ ppi by the way.

This phones OS by default is Android Jellybean. It is running on Qualcomm 8260A dual-core 1.5GHz processor w/ 2GB RAM. We downloaded several applications and tried to run and see if it plays on smoothly. Below is a video of how it actually performed, with installed applications. Real world usage. I just had to put it in flight mode because I was testing the battery life.
We didn't have problems about the phone complaining that is has not enough memory. We just noticed that it was lagging on some other games but the others were very smooth. It might be compatibility issues because I don't think the game "Solitaire" is graphic intensive compared to the "Bad Piggies" or "Temple Run 2".

This made me realize that a phablet that is around this size is a good substitute for tablets. I have an Apple iPad and when this came, I didn't bother bringing my iPad with me when I go out. With this, I can simply slide it in my pocket compared to me needing to bring a bag just to put my iPad in.

Did some benchmark test using Antutu and Quadrant Standard. Here are the results:

Antutu results for Sharp SH930W

Quadrant Standard results for Sharp SH930W

Calls and SMS
Call clarity was okay and we never had problems with it. The feel when holding your phone against your ears is not awkward even though the size of this phone is bigger than your average phone. For SMS, typing was easy. You can always get the keyboard software that you are familiar with via Play Store anyway. If you don't use shortcuts often, try the app "Touch Pal Keyboard".

Camera and Video Samples
Specs are good so far and based on the papers, this phone has a 2-megapixel front facing camera and an 8-megapixel camera. Let's put that to the test.

Below is a photo comparison taken with iPhone 5's camera and Sharp SH930W's camera at the same time.

Taken using Apple iPhone 5

Taken using Sharp SH930W

Sharp's image is okay but it lacks colors and details. As for the video, below is a sample taken from the same spot.


Battery life
Battery that came with the package is a Li-Ion 2100 mAh. Using 3G, it lasted for around 6 hours. WiFi will last you for around 9-10 hours. It gets hot after a bit of usage and that might cause the battery to drain even faster. With regards to charging, I wasn't able to time how long but here's a data I got using an app that tracks the battery usage.

Conclusion
The resolution is great, the performance and smoothness is good. Elegant design but over branded. Camera image and video quality not the best around. This phone retails at P19,990

Package comes with:
USB data cable
USB charger
Screen protector
Cleaning cloth
Usual papers
Headset

Pros:
The design of the phone
Huge internal storage at 32gb
Smooth game play
Nice speakers for movies or music

Cons:
Branding all over
Picture and video quality
No external memory expansion slot
Dated chip. Lacks processing power.

Could be better if they,
could make the retail price a bit lower
add LTE connectivity

Cheftonio
PS. Liked the post? Subscribe to my blog by typing in your email below. You'll get my posts in your inbox via email.

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

-->