Created: 22 January 2014 · Last edited: 15 September 2026

au have just announced four models from their Spring 2014 collection and two are made by Sharp: the AQUOS Pad SHT22 and the AQUOS Phone SERIE mini SHL24.

The tablet – the AQUOS Pad SHT22 – is also a member of the EDGEST family first launched by Sharp for SoftBank in the Winter 2013 collection, boasting some of the world's thinnest bezels and giving the screen an impressive 80% share of the device's front surface.

The 7-inch display utilises IGZO LCD technology and offers a WUXGA resolution of 1920 × 1200 px.

Sharp have implemented a slim metallic frame around the edges which is both a visual pleasure and hopefully a guarantee that scuffs and peeling around the edges won't appear as quickly as they do on normal plastic frames.

The SHT22 tablet is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon MSM8974 humming at 2.2 GHz, has 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of built-in memory, expandable by microSDXC cards.

It supports both Full Seg and One Seg digital terrestrial television, and you can connect a standard aerial antenna to it for better reception and a Full HD TV experience.

The tablet comes with a "make a call" function that allows it to communicate with your phone to send calling information and launch the dialling screen on the phone just by tapping a phone number on the tablet's display. It is possible to make actual calls directly from the tablet, but only VOIP calls, e.g. when you install an application like LINE or Skype.

The AQUOS Pad SHT22 comes with a 13.1-megapixel camera featuring an impressive f/1.9 aperture for taking night photos. Sharp's NightCatch image-processing technology is also designed to improve image quality in dark surroundings.

Supported connectivity methods include 4G LTE ensuring up to 150 Mbit/s downlink, Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac) with tethering, NFC, GPS and Bluetooth 4.0. Also available are a 3.5-mm audio jack and a microUSB port, where the latter allows you to directly link the tablet to your phone and even use the tablet to charge the smartphone's battery!

The tablet is waterproof (but not dust-proof), weighs about 263 grams – or 9 grams less than its predecessor, the SHT21 – measures 104 × 173 × 9.9 mm, and is only available in white.

The tablet packs a generous 4,080 mAh battery.

The operating system is Android 4.2, no upgrades.