Created: 11 May 2016 · Last edited: 21 September 2026

Sharp's Simple Sumaho 3 (509SH) continues the company's attempt to make smartphones less intimidating, combining a deliberately simple interface with hardware that is considerably more capable than that of its predecessors.

The Simple Sumaho 3 features a 5.0-inch IGZO display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 px (HD). The screen is designed to be easy to read, while the simplified interface uses large text and icons. Dedicated physical buttons for making calls, returning to the home screen and accessing email remain, making the phone particularly straightforward to operate.

The 509SH comes with better cameras: the main camera has a 13.1-megapixel CMOS sensor with autofocus and an LED flash, while the front-facing camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels.

The third smartphone in the Simple series is powered by a more powerful processor, now a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 MSM8952 processor having eight cores, with four cores clocked at 1.5 GHz and four at 1.2 GHz. The amount of RAM is 2 GB and the amount of on-board storage (ROM) is 16 GB. A microSDXC card slot is also provided.

The Simple Sumaho 3 supports LTE, 3G and GSM networks. It supports SoftBank's 4G LTE and 4G networks, as well as VoLTE for voice calls. Dual-SIM operation is not supported.

Supported are Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2. GPS, NFC, infrared communication and One-Seg digital TV are also provided. The phone also supports tethering.

Sharp has retained the features intended to make the Simple Sumaho range accessible to less experienced users. The Simple Sumaho 3 includes "Triple Crisp Talk" for making voices easier to hear in noisy surroundings, while the dedicated physical buttons and simplified menus make common operations straightforward.

The battery has a capacity of 2810 mAh. Unlike the Simple Sumaho 2, the battery is built into the phone and cannot be removed by the user. The phone measures approximately 70 x 142 x 9.9 mm and weighs about 140 g.

The Simple Sumaho 3 runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

There's improvement in the protection department, too: waterproofing is now IPX5/IPX8, dust-proofing is IP6X, and shock resistance has been added so the phone can withstand accidental drops (MIL-STD-810G). It is available in Black, White and Pink.

The Simple Sumaho 3 goes on sale through SoftBank in August 2016, bringing the Simple Sumaho concept considerably closer to a conventional modern Android handset without abandoning its deliberately uncomplicated approach.