Dreams are weirdly underrated. I, for once, had a dream where I was being worsted by notches on my phone. Those notches, as vividly as I can remember, almost covered the entire screen. They housed a variety of technology in them apart from the usual sensors and cameras. One notch had an olfactory sensor, for instance. The point is, each of them did weird things. Terrified, I woke up.
Being a step closer to this dream, the new Aquos 2 Compact smartphone from Sharp, thankfully, isn’t anything like it.
It has two notches. The notch on the top contains a tiny camera (it is also one of the most unobtrusive notches I’ve ever seen). The bottom one—the new addition—though, houses a fingerprint sensor which, by the way, seems humongous in relation to the dimensions of the device.
I have mixed feelings directed towards the notches. First, the device from the front, as a whole looks appealing. The way the bottom notch is cut gives it a rugged look. Second, just pondering over how two notches could disrupt usage repels me away.
Overall, for the notches, I would say they can’t get more tempting.
Another aspect, although, that draws me towards this device from Sharp is its spectacular internals. It has a state-of-the-art Snapdragon 845 processor paired with 4 GB of RAM, a 22.6-megapixel camera, a 2,500 mAh battery, and a 5.2-inch 2290×1080 IGZO LCD screen. These specs alone make this phone from Sharp one of the strongest Android devices there is.
Design-wise, the R2 Compact is an improvement over its predecessor—the Aquos R Compact—, except for the back. I wouldn’t give dibs on it. As much as the front of the phone satisfies your eyes, the back crumbles this satisfaction into dust. And if I was to describe it in as few words as I could, I would say the back looks like a phone made for kids who hate candy.
The screen, moreover, on the Aquos R2 Compact has significantly reduced bezels as compared to the R Compact. However, it isn’t clear why Sharp would consider adding a fingerprint scanner at the front, thereby birthing a notch, while it could easily have shifted it to the back of the device like most Android manufacturers. What do you think?
Also, this is the only phone with two notches yet. Which means it is the only phone that is utilizing Google’s two-notch guidelines so far. And thankfully, it can’t go any higher than two (according to Google’s regulations).
The Sharp Aquos R2 Compact will be available for sale starting January 2019. The device, however, unfortunately, will be only officially available for sale in Japan. Further, based on the price of its predecessor, the Aquos R2 Compact is expected to be priced at around $350.
