Sharp 904 / Vodafone 904SH (now Softbank
904SH)
Discontinued 1st March 2006
The Vodafone 904SH is a high-end 3G
handset built by Sharp, exclusively for the Vodafone
network. Initially announced for release in Japan, it
is quite likely that the 904SH will reach Europe bearing
the Sharp 904 name. (Editor's note: at present, Vodafone
have not confirmed any release of the 904)
The Sharp 904 clearly follows on from
the excellent Sharp
902 and Sharp
903 devices in design, with a swivelling screen
in a quite large clamshell design. It certainly looks
to be a better presented handset than the somewhat disappointing
903 model, but the most significant improvement with
the Vodafone 904SH / Sharp 904 is the screen.
Amazingly, the display in the Sharp
904 is a VGA resolution device (480x640 pixels) measuring
2.4" diagonally (61mm approximately). This has
more than four times the pixel count of the QVGA (240x320
pixels) display found in the 903 and 902 models. We
believe that this is the highest density display so
far on a mobile handset.
As with the 903, the Sharp 904 / Vodafone
904SH features a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2X optical
zoom. There's Bluetooth and expandable memory using
miniSD cards, twin speakers and a secondary camera for
video calling.
There are a few other unusual features
with the Sharp 904 / Vodafone 904SH though. One of these
is the 3D motion sensor which can work out which way
the handset is pointing and moving. Vodafone say that
this is useful with services such as their Vodafone
Live! NAVI service, available in Japan, which allows
for location-based services - although it is not clear
how this actually works. One obvious application for
motion sensors would be in gaming. Vodafone will install
Japanese versions of the handset with an application
that will help identify star constellations. Quite how
useful this feature will be in real life is debatable.
Another
novel feature is an inbuilt security system that works
by face recognition. The Sharp 904 / Vodafone 904SH
can scan the user's face using the video calling camera
and this can help to prevent unauthorised usage.. assuming
that the system works.
The Sharp 904 also supports local area
chat using Bluetooth, comes with a WAP browser, email
client, e-wallet, various games and multimedia playback
applications, plus some rather more esoteric features such
as a comic book viewer and karaoke application.
The feature set on the Sharp 904 certainly
looks a bit strange to European eyes, and it's probably
the case that Sharp have included a lot of these applications
simply because they can. This is not a new thing, the
Sharp 902 includes a barcode scanner and optical character
recognition package, and the Sharp
V602SH included a dog bark translator. It's quite
likely that any European release of this handset will
be a little more conservative when it comes to applications.
The Vodafone 904SH certainly seems to
be a nicely designed handset. In our view, the 903 was
a bit dull, but this phone appears to be a much
more attractive design. In Japan, the 904SH will be
available in a pale Blue, Violet and Black colour scheme.
Physically, the Sharp 904 measures 104x50x28mm
and weighs 151 grams, so it's quite a large device.
Talktime on 3G is around 3 hours with 15 days standby
time. In addition to UMTS 2100 (3G), it supports GSM
900/1800/1900 with GPRS, meaning that the Vodafone 904SH
can be used pretty much anywhere in the world.
Vodafone say that the 904SH will be
available in Japan from April 2006. There's no word
on a European release, but it is very likely that a
version of this handset will be made available there,
following on from the 902 and 903 devices.
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Sharp
904 / Vodafone 904SH at
a glance
|
Available:
|
Q2
2006
|
Network:
|
UMTS
2100 + GSM 900/1800/1900
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Data:
|
UMTS
(3G)
|
Screen:
|
480x640
pixels. 262k colours (main)
|
Camera:
|
3.2
megapixels (main)
|
Size:
|
Carge
clamshell 104x50x28mm
/ 151 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
Yes
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
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3 hours talk / 15 days standby
|
|
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