Sharp Aquos S3 mini unveiled: notched phone on a budget, similar specs to the S2

The Sharp Aquos S3 isn’t what you would call “official”, but the Aquos S3 mini is. Don’t ask how that works and don’t get us started on a 5.5” screen getting called “mini”.

It’s a 17:9 screen (1,080 x 2,040px resolution), the top row of which houses houses a notch similar to the Aquos S2. The LCD is bright at 550 nits and with high color fidelity (135% of sRGB).

In fact, there are more than a few similarities with the S2, including the Snapdragon 630 chipset. There’s plenty of RAM (6GB) and storage (64GB + hybrid microSD slot) for such an affordable phone.

The dual camera was dropped, however, and the Aquos S3 mini has a single 16MP camera on the back (f/2.0, PDAF). The camera does pixel binning in the dark, which Sharp advertises as 2µm pixels.

A 20MP selfie camera (f/2.0) lives in its narrow screen notch, a significant improvement over the 8MP cam on the S2. Both cameras feature AI enhancements, because why not.

The phone will launch with Android 7.1 Nougat. It has a 3,020mAh battery that charges over USB-C. Bad news on the 3.5mm front, however. There’s face recognition with the selfie camera as well as a fingerprint reader below the display.

Sharp Aquos S3 mini

We called the Sharp Aquos S3 mini “affordable” and it is – it’s available for pre-order on JD.com at CNY 1,600 ($250/€€205).

Via