Sharp has been known for putting out some fairly unique phones in the past, and the new Sharp Basio 2 is no different. This new phone sports a huge range of accessibility features that make it about the easiest Android phone to use on the market right now. Just about all of the bases are covered for accessibility, within reason, giving the gift of Android to those who would usually be unable to learn to use a regular Android device or couldn’t see to operate one as well as is optimal.
The accessibility features start with the design. There’s a slider over the camera, and when pulled back, it will launch the phone’s camera app. From there, a dedicated shutter button makes taking photos super-easy. Once the slider is closed, the phone goes back to whatever what going on before the slider was opened. There are also physical call, home, and message buttons. The call and message buttons do a bit more than simply bring you to your dialer or SMS app, as seen below; the messaging button can also bring you to your email, if you so wish. The whole package is water-resistant, with a capless hydrophobic port to cater to an audience that may forget to close the cover on a sealed unit. Gorilla Glass 4 helps to mitigate possible dropping and scratching damage. A homescreen that basically couldn’t be much simpler and a huge number of software features aimed at accessibility and ease of use bring the whole package together to create a smartphone that’s pretty ideal for the disabled, the elderly, or anybody else needing special accommodations to use a smartphone.
One would think that making such a niche device would practically be a license to pack it with mediocre specifications or overprice it, but Sharp seems to have done neither. Those needing an accessible phone will be pleasantly surprised to find a capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 under the hood, backed by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage. The 5 inch screen is set at a resolution of 1280 x 720, making it plenty serviceable, if not exactly pretty. The somewhat low resolution screen and power-sipping processor are touted as being able to pull up to 820 hours of standby time, or 1,170 minutes of talk time from the 2,810mAh battery, which can go from zero to full in just over two hours of charge time. The rear-facing camera is a 13-megapixel unit, while the front-facing is a 5-megapixel snapper. The whole thing runs on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
