• AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH: Sharp Shows World's First Clamshell Android Phone

    Serkan Toto

    Dr. Serkan Toto is an independent consultant and advisor focusing on Japan’s web, mobile and social gaming industries. Based in Tokyo, he works together with financial institutions and startups worldwide. Serkan has been the Japan contributor for TechCrunch.com since 2008. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. → Learn More

    Friday, May 20th, 2011

    If you thought Android and clamshell handsets won’t fit, think again: Sharp today introduced [JP] the so-called AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH, a flip phone running on Android 2.3. It’s the first of its kind (at least by a major company), but that’s not all the device has to offer.

    Sharp actually squeezed a ton of features into the phone:

    • Android 2.3
    • 3.4-inch naked-eye 3D LCD touchscreen with 854×480 resolution
    • 0.7-inch OLED sub-display
    • 16MP CCD camera with 1,280×720 HD video recording support
    • waterproof body
    • IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0+EDR
    • GPS
    • digital TV tuner
    • digital wallet function (Felica/RFID)
    • infrared port
    • Micro HDMI interface
    • Blu-ray recorder connectivity
    • microSD/SDHC slot (shipped with a 2GB card inside)
    • W-CDMA, GSM
    • size: 113×51.8×19.3mm, weight: 140g

    In other words, this thing is quite a monster.

    The keyboard section can also be flipped to the back, so you can use the phone like this:

    The AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH will be distributed in Japan by mobile carrier SoftBank starting next month. An interesting experiment to see how Japanese consumers will react to a smartphone in a form factor they have been used to for over a decade.