Sharp Aquos S2 hands-on review

Performance

Our review unit of the Aquos S2 came with the Snapdragon 630 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. While we weren't expecting any miracles, the Aquos S2 managed to perform better than what we expected. Launching apps, switching between them, scrolling and such was all performed admirably and we weren't often left wanting for more performance.

Gaming performance too was alright as long as we didn't push the graphics settings to the max in some of the titles. All the games ran in 16:9 just like all the apps but in this case the area around the notch was just left blank.

As for other aspects of the performance, we liked the quick and accurate fingerprint reader that was located conveniently on the front. The network and wireless performance was also as one would expect it to be. Lastly, the single loudspeaker at the bottom was indeed quite loud but also tinny and best used at medium volume.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi A1
  4292
• HTC U11 Life
  4140
• Motorola Moto X4
  4136
• Sharp Aquos S2
  4046
• vivo V7+
  3912
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  3783
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  3603
• Huawei P10 lite
  3344
• LG Q6
  2244

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  913
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  901
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  877
• HTC U11 Life
  873
• Sharp Aquos S2
  869
• Motorola Moto X4
  866
• Huawei P10 lite
  834
• vivo V7+
  767
• LG Q6
  652

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• HTC U11 Life
  72854
• Motorola Moto X4
  71224
• Sharp Aquos S2
  69524
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  63068
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  61762
• Huawei P10 lite
  60895
• vivo V7+
  57791
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  55657
• LG Q6
  40558

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• vivo V7+
  13
• Motorola Moto X4
  11
• Sharp Aquos S2
  10
• HTC U11 Life
  9.6
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  6.7
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  6.3
• Huawei P10 lite
  5
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  4.6
• LG Q6
  3.6

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• vivo V7+
  6.6
• Motorola Moto X4
  5.8
• Sharp Aquos S2
  5.6
• HTC U11 Life
  5.3
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  4
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  3.5
• Huawei P10 lite
  3
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  2.7
• LG Q6
  2

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto X4
  14479
• Sharp Aquos S2
  14298
• HTC U11 Life
  14286
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  10472
• vivo V7+
  9955
• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  9543
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  8721
• Huawei P10 lite
  7588
• LG Q6
  6336

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia XA1 Plus
  191
• Motorola Moto X4
  189
• Sharp Aquos S2
  186
• HTC U11 Life
  183
• Huawei Mate 10 Lite
  146
• Huawei P10 lite
  145
• Xiaomi Mi A1
  136
• vivo V7+
  131