Sharp has announced its flagship smartphone. The AQUOS R6 is armed with a 1-inch sensor, and thus, it’s the world’s first smartphone that owns this kind of sensor size. Furthermore, the AQUOS R6 incorporates a Leica Summicron lens on a 20-megapixel camera. Here’s what we know about it. 

Sharp AQUOS R6: 1-inch sensor

The AQUOS R6 is the world’s first smartphone equipped with a 1-inch sensor. Sensors of that size can deliver cinematic imagery, more accurate and vivid colors, and shallow depth of field (bokeh). The technological achievement of implementing this sensor inside a smartphone is pretty decent.

By the way, the screen has an HDR capability and 2000 nits of brightness. Sharp says that this screen constitutes a whole new technology titled “Pro IGZO OLED” which features “High image quality technology and “Rich Color Technology Mobile” that expresses 1 billion colors and bright and powerful image quality” (translated from Japanese).

Partnership with Leica

According to Sharp, it collaborated with Leica to create the 20-megapixel camera of the AQUOS R6. Furthermore, Sharp has partnered with Leica on the entire camera system as well. The lens is an ultra-wide 19mm f/1.9. The 7-element lens design even earned Leica’s acclaimed “Summicron” brand. 

Video capabilities

The AQUOS R6 can shoot outstanding photos for sure. However, what about videos? Unfortunately, there’s no much info about it. The AQUOS R6 was launched in Japan and is aimed mainly at the Japanese market. We tried to Google translate the landing page of the product but still, we can’t be sure about its video capabilities. According to the translation: “Sharp’s 8K HDR up-conversion technology and a large sensor combined allow you to playback the video in 8K”. We can’t conclude that the AQUOS R6 is capable of 8K shooting. Furthermore: “The photos and videos you take will allow you to experience an unprecedented immersive image. With a frame rate of 120 fps, which is twice the normal frame rate”. If so, the AQUOS R6 will be able to shoot 120FPS. But that is it. No accurate info regarding video resolution and frame rates. Sorry!

Final thoughts

There’s no doubt that Sharp wanted to have a solid foothold in the professional segment of the smartphone market. With the AQUOS R6, there’s a good chance to accomplish that. As explained, the engineering utilized to implement a 1-inch sensor inside a smartphone is defiantly impressive. That makes the AQUOS R6 the first of its kind in regard to picture and video capabilities. Nevertheless, there’s no info regarding video specifications nor pricing. We’ll update the article when we get more information about that.