Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer Sharp was present at IFA 2017 in Berlin, where the company’s president and CEO Jeng-Wu Tai reportedly revealed new plans for entering the European smartphone market. The first smartphones bearing the Sharp badge are said to arrive in Europe next year, and the company’s upcoming product lineup will be showcased at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018 in Barcelona, Spain, Mr. Tai was quoted as saying.
It’s currently not clear whether Sharp will bring some of its existing smartphones to Europe next year, or if the company intends to create a new series of products for the Old Continent. Either way, it would seem that the smartphones which will eventually be unveiled at MWC 2018 will be available for purchase in Europe at some point next summer. As for Sharp’s recent activity in the world of smartphones, two of the company’s most interesting devices released so far in 2017 are the Sharp Aquos R and Aquos S2. The former was announced in April as a contender in the premium market, while the latter was introduced earlier in August as a direct successor to the Aquos Crystal series. Spec-wise, the Sharp Aquos R is equipped with the premium Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core chipset coupled with 4GB of RAM, and carries a 5.3-inch IGZO display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440, a 22.6-megapixel main camera with OIS, wide-angle lens, and an f/1.9 aperture, as well as a 16-megapixel wide-angle front-facing sensor.
On the other hand, the more recent Sharp Aquos S2 boasts a bezel-less display with a 5.5-inch diagonal and a resolution of 2040 x 1080, amounting to an 18:9 aspect ratio. The device was announced in two main variants powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 660 chipsets alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board memory, or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The smartphone carries a 12-megapixel main camera paired with an 8-megapixel front-facing sensor and is powered by a 3,020mAh battery and Android 7.1.1 Nougat, featuring the Smile UX custom Android skin on top. It remains to be seen if the Aquos S2 will be released in Europe next year, or if Sharp intends on developing and releasing new models targeted specifically at European consumers.