Sharp FX

Sharp is not a company that's in the headlines very often in the cellphone world, but the company is relatively successful in the Japanese phone market, and it used to make SideKick phones for T-Mobile and this Sharp FX clearly reminds us of a sidekick... Just like its cousin, the Sharp FX is a "texter" phone that will be sold primarily to send SMS and emails, in addition to voice calls of course.

Size and weight:

The Sharp FX looks a few decades old, with its cluttered design, sharp edges, and numerous accent grooves. It measures 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs a slightly hefty 5 ounces.

Network and connectivity:

The FX is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and tri-band HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) device, meaning that it hits 3G data speeds here and overseas. Voice quality was quite good—when it was working, which wasn't often. Reception was unusually poor; while I tested the FX in a rural part of Massachusetts, this phone simply couldn't complete calls that a nearby iPhone could.

Memory and Display:

It has a build in memory of 80MB. External Memory type microSD card slot that can be used to expand memory up to 64 GB. The back of the phone is simplistic in feel, as it contains only the camera lens and speaker grill. The front panel of the device houses the 3-inch screen with a WQVGA display that has a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels. Some have said that the colors on the screen look slightly washed out, but I didn't notice that at all. In fact, the screen looks brilliant in my eyes. Granted, it's no Super AMOLED display, but it is definitely a step up from the basic TFT LCD screens that have become standard these days. There is a large bezel area around the screen which may bother some. This is really a personal thing, but it's worth noting. Underneath the display are the Send/Talk, Back/Menu, and End/Power keys. These are hard physical keys that work perfectly.

Camera and Video:

It contains a 2.0-megapixel camera with camcorder & digital zoom. The 2 megapixel camera took "okay" photos, but I would be expecting something much better on a device that costs as much as the Sharp FX does. The camera is operational with no autofocus or flash. The camera specs are almost a slap in the face for a device with this potential and price tag. However, it's there and pictures are decent. Close-up shots come out better than shots from a distance of more than six inches. The camera also captures video though it is only in VGA resolution. Though it doesn't have autofocus, it is equipped with a 4x digital zoom. Overall, I would expect better, but it is enough.

Entertainment Features:

The Sharp FX features threaded text messaging with each message being displayed as a speech bubble. It was aesthetically pleasing enough and the interface was simple. The Sharp FX ships with Opera Mini, which means that web browsing will be slightly improved over other messaging phones on the market. Strangely though, the web browser only works in landscape mode. However, speeds were fast enough, though I wouldn't recommend it for any heavy duty surfing. The phone comes with a YellowPages app and a Facebook app which should cut down the need for the web browser dramatically. Both of these apps functioned surprisingly well and the Facebook app almost made me feel like I was using a smartphone. The media player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+, AMR, MIDI, Music recognition,Video Playback. It also has FM Radio.