Sharp announces smartphone with second camera only for video

Sharp has announced the Aquos R2, a smartphone with a second camera that is only used for video. The Japanese manufacturer has placed a wide-angle lens in front of it, which makes recordings possible with an angle of view of up to 135 degrees.

There is a little bit of the angle of view for stabilization, but nevertheless the angle is much wider than with many other smartphones, claims Sharp. The sensor has a maximum resolution of 16.3 megapixels and can record video with 3840×2160 pixels. An algorithm also monitors which interesting moments the user films, with the other camera automatically taking a photo at those moments. The second camera is a regular smartphone camera with a maximum resolution of 22.6 megapixels. Sharp calls the feature AI Live Shutter.

The phone has a 6.0″ IGZO LCD with a resolution of 3040×1440 pixels and an aspect ratio of 19:9. The LCD has a refresh rate of 100Hz, faster than the 60Hz of almost all other smartphones but slightly less than the 120Hz of, for example the Razer Phone and Sharp’s own Aquos R Compact.The screen has a notch at the top for the front camera, like last year’s Essential Phone.

The device measures 156x74x9mm and has a Snapdragon 845-soc from Qualcomm on board, where Sharp has added 4GB of lpddr4x memory. The ufs storage has a capacity of 64GB, while the battery has a capacity of 3130mAh. The phone will only be released in Japan.