Sharp Releasing Two Devices with Full HD IGZO Displays

Japanese carrier KDDI revealed on Wednesday that Sharp plans to launch two new devices on its network: one tablet and one smartphone, both sporting the company's IGZO technology. This means both devices should have incredible battery performance given IGZO renders content differently than the standard phone LCD.

Aquos Pad SHT22

For starters, the Aquos Pad SHT22 tablet, shown above, features a 7-inch IGZO display with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. This screen is backed by Qualcomm's beast-of-a-SoC Snapdragon 800 quad-core chip clocked at 2.3 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and a 4080 mAh battery. There's also 16 GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, an impressively large 13.1MP camera on the back and a 2.1MP camera on the front. The OS of choice is Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean."

Aquos mini SHL24

Moving on to the Aquos mini SHL24, this smartphone is actually very similar to the tablet, just on a smaller scale. This phone features a 4.5-inch IGZO screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution (almost 490 PPI), powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip clocked at 2.2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and a 2120 mAh battery. There's also 16 GB of storage and a 13.1MP camera on the back featuring NightCatch, Beauty Zoom, BrightEye and an aperture of f/1.9. This phone also uses Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean."

KDDI also reports that the tablet and smartphone sport Sharp's "EDGEST" design, meaning the top, left and right edges are thinner than the bezel on the bottom of the screen. As for the IGZO screens, these don't continuously refresh images like the typical TFT LCD screen, but refresh only when the screen is in active use. Otherwise, the IGZO screen renders one constant static image, thus saving power and extending the battery's charge.

So far there's no word on when or if these devices will reach the States. The phones will be available with rear panels in magenta, cyan, gold and white, while the tablet's back panel will be white.