Sharp has been a busy bee in the mobile space lately. This Japanese tech giant has announced a rather interesting handset back in August, Sharp Aquos Crystal, which we reviewed recently. This smartphone basically has not bezel on the side or on the top of the screen, everything is located in the “chin” below the display itself. There are also some rumors going around that this company is working on a 4K (4096 x 2160) smartphone display, which sounds really interesting despite the fact it’s kind of insane to use such a panel on a smartphone display. Either way, Sharp just introduced yet another rather interesting product, and no, it’s not a smartphone, tablet or a display, but a smartwatch display prototype.
This Japanese company showcased a 1-inch smartwatch display prototype and considering the quality of their displays, this might be worth a look. In the panel Sharp is using backlight is replaced with a reflective layer which basically means that any light that faces the watch will illuminate the display from the inside and let you see what’s on it. This has a lot of advantages, the first one that comes to mind is of course the battery life, we all know what screens are the biggest battery hogs. This will also make sure you’ll able to see the content on the screen even in direct sunlight, which is a huge plus in my book. How will you be able to see the watch in complete darkness then? Well, Sharp is looking for the best way to make that possible and keep the current technology for daylight viewing. There’s always a possibility of including some sort of backlight which wouldn’t be functional during the day, or something to that effect. Sharp also plans to implement a semiconductor memory which is also a power-saving feature. Semiconductor memory is a random access memory with fast access times which is used for storing and reproducing on-screen images which reduces power consumption in the process. Sharp is using an LTPS (Low Temperature Polysilicon) LCD display with 8 colors in order to produce an image.
Sharp has been talking to a bunch of manufacturers in order to find a partner which would implement this screen as part of their smartwatch. No word on any agreements thus far though, we’ll have to wait and see. This sounds interesting though, let’s see what can Sharp do in order to increase smartwatches’ battery life.