Sharp are known for making displays and whilst they’re slowly becoming known for good quality smartphones and they have been known to build and ship the occasional Android tablet. It’s still display technology that we know Sharp for best and they’re not a company to shy away from their prowess in the field. If there’s one thing that’s vital to a decent smartphone or tablet these days, it’s a quality display and Sharp are here to bring us yet another innovation in the sector with the IGZO low power LCD technology. The first place you’ll be able to see this is in ASUS’ newly announced PadFone 2. Sharp aren’t going to be happy to let ASUS have all the IGZO limelight and as such, they’re releasing there own 7″ tablet featuring the new technology: The AQUOS Pad SHT21.
This latest from Sharp comes packing the following:
- 7″ IGZO LCD Display at 1280×800
- Dual-core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4
- 1GB RAM
- 16GB of Storage with room for microSDXC card
- Pen-input
- Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and 4G LTE
- 3460 mAh battery
Whilst these specs aren’t earth-moving they’re certainly pretty capable for a 7″ slate and with the added benefit of the IGZO display, Sharp are claiming this to last you up to two and a half times that of its previous model and presumably a lot longer than other tablets. Unfortunately, the tablet is only announced for Japan right now and it’s sketchy whether or not we’ll see it leave the orient but, it’s an important step for the industry as a whole. For years now, we’ve been putting faster and faster chips into our phones and tablets, bigger and better displays and yet we have yet to find the perfect solution to our battery problem. Sharp seem to have gotten half way there by drastically reducing the power requirements of one of the biggest and most vital parts of today’s devices. Whilst we might not see this tablet hit the states or anywhere else in the West, it’s all but certain that we’ll see the technology make its way into new devices. Everybody wants to slash battery drain and this could be one big step towards that goal for everyone.