Created: 15 August 2016 · Last edited: 19 September 2026

Announced on 25 August 2016, the Sharp FS8002 was released in several South-East Asian markets under the name of Sharp Z2 (Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia) or Sharp A1 (China).

The Sharp FS8002 (Z2/A1) comes with a 5.5-inch FHD display (401 ppi) built using advanced Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon (LTPS) technology, which was advertised as having been developed by Sharp. I am, however, highly sceptical of this claim, because this phone was released in the same month that Foxconn completed its acquisition of a controlling stake in Sharp Corporation. I therefore believe that this LTPS technology was something Foxconn had been working on and that it was branded as "Sharp" simply to make it more credible. Later devices released by Foxconn for the Southeast Asian market seem to confirm that this became an established practice.

Various sources vaguely described the LTPS display as "high-speed". Since I was using machine translation to read Chinese articles, I was misled into thinking that the much-touted "120 Hz refresh rate" referred to how frequently the LCD refreshed its image, as it does on Sharp's Japanese IGZO displays. It turns out that the 120 Hz figure referred to the display's touch-sampling rate, i.e. how many times per second the touchscreen checks for your finger or stylus.

The display also features a 2.5D glass design and a metal body with rather large top and bottom bezels, making it look very similar to the devices released in Japan in summer 2016. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The Z2/A1 is, however, not powered by a Qualcomm processor but relies on a a ten-core MediaTek, the Helio X20 MT6797 SoC clocked at 4 x 2.3 GHz, 4 x 2 GHz, and 2 x 1.4 GH. This is coupled with 4 GB of RAM, more than any Japanese Sharp, and 32 GB built-in storage, expandable using microSDXC cards to up to 128 GB (the memory card occupies one of the SIM slots).

The main camera has a 16-megapixel sensor with dual-tone LED flash and Phase Detection Auto Focus, f/2.0 aperture for quality night shots. It is, naturally, capable of recording 4K videos. The inner camera is 8 MP, 82-degree wide-angle shooter that, surprisingly, has an even better low-light f/1.8 aperture.

The Sharp Z2/A1 comes with a fingerprint scanner located at the back and is a dual-SIM device: two nanoSIM slots, dual standby, but only one of them will support 4G LTE. Supported frequencies include:

• GSM: 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1800 MHz / 1900 MHz
• CDMA: 800 MHz / 1900 MHz
• TD-SCDMA: 1900 MHz / 2000 MHz
• UMTS: 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1900 MHz / 2100 MHz
• LTE FDD: 700 MHz / 850 MHz / 900 MHz / 1800 MHz / 2100 MHz / 2600 MHz
• LTE TDD: 1900 MHz / 2300 MHz / 2500 MHz / 2600 MHz

The Z2/A1 should therefore work on just about any network in the world!

The phone also boasts dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS + GLONASS, an InfraRed transmitter for universal remote control, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

The Sharp Z2/A1 supports fingerprint recognition.

Unlike the M1 released alongside it, the Z2/A1 uses the new USB Type-C connector.

The device supports fast charge functionality that lets you charge the 3000 mAh battery to 50% within just half an hour.

To add a touch of quality, the Z2/A1 has a metal-clad body. The rear cover and frame are aluminium/metal rather than plastic. This is what accounts for a slightly bigger weight of 159 grams. The device measures 153 x 75 x 8.4 mm.

The colour options are not particularly rich: gold and silver.

The Sharp Z2/A1 ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. No upgrades were released.