Sharp Aquos R3 smartphone launched with two notches, 120Hz display and Snapdragon 855 SoC

From notch-city and the teardrop notch to the pop-up and sliding front cameras, smartphone manufacturers have done and are doing everything possible to maximise screen real estate. And, while most companies are embracing the notch-less revolution, one company has launched a flagship handset with two notches.

Japan-based tech giant Sharp recently announced the Aquos R3 smartphone as its premium 2019 offering. The smartphone features flagship-worthy hardware but rather than maximising screen-to-body ratio, the handset features dual notches. The teardrop style notch on the top houses a 16.3MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, while the notch at the bottom features a fingerprint scanner.

While the decision to put two notches on a 2019 flagship smartphone is questionable, the Sharp Aquos R3 is built to impress. The handset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC coupled with an Adreno 640 GPU. Additionally, the phone packs 6GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage.

One of the standout features of this handset is its display. The Aquos R3 sports a 6.2-inch IGZO display with Quad HD+ (3120*1440 pixels) resolution. However, the big difference with this LCD panel is that it sports a 120Hz refresh rate. The display also features HDR 10 support and Dolby Vision. While the display is quite impressive, Sharp’s decision to put two notches on it is quite disappointing as opting to maximise screen real estate by eliminating a notch would have made much more sense.

The device is equipped with a 12.2MP sensor with f/1.7 aperture for image capture and a 20.1 MP sensor with f/2.4 aperture for video recording. In terms of audio, the Aquos R3 features stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos support. The handset runs on the Android 9.0 Pie OS backed by a 3,200mAh battery with support for 11W Qi Wireless charging.