Created: 18 October 2017 · Last edited: 20 September 2026

Sharp kicks off a new chapter in its smartphone line-up with the AQUOS sense, a new mid-range series that aims to bring some of the company's best-loved features to a more affordable price point. The name “sense” is meant to represent a sensible, well-balanced smartphone — the things people actually need, carefully refined, without paying for unnecessary high-end features. The new AQUOS sense series also signals Sharp's intention to put things in order with its naming scheme, just as it does with the AQUOS R for its high-end phones.

But, sadly, it continues the now-traditional, eye-displeasing and uncomfortable huge-bezel design that makes me wonder if Sharp designers are intentionally trying to bankrupt the company's smartphone division.

The first of the AQUOS sense line appears in no less than five versions for each Japanese carrier. Let's see what it is about.

The AQUOS sense has a 5-inch display built using a 1920 x 1080 px (FHD) IGZO panel using Rich Color Technology Mobile, "inherited" from Aquos TVs, which ensures colour reproduction that corresponds to the DCI digital cinema standard, covering 90% of the colour gamut. The display has a built-in HDR functionality for bright and vivid rendition of video/film content. Like in all recent models, this is the in-cell IGZO LCD type integrating the digitiser into the display, thus improving response (e.g. can be operated with wet fingers or with gloves), energy-efficiency, and brightness.

The rear camera is 13.1 MP with shake reduction and f/2.2 aperture, although good performance in dark scenes is advertised as the sensor's main feature). The camera can capture up to 120 still images in one second, allowing extraction of the best still shot from a short movie clip. The maximum recorded video resolution is FHD.

The front-facing camera is 5 MP, has shake reduction as well, and the same f/2.2 aperture.

The Aquos sense, being a middle class phone, naturally comes with a low-class processor: the Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) that has four 1.4-GHz cores and four 1.1-GHz cores. The operating memory is 3 GB, and the built-in storage space is 32 GB (you can use up to 256 GB microSDXC cards to expand that).

It works on LTE and WiMAX 2+ frequencies in Japan. UMTS and GSM ranges are supported overseas.

Further features include GPS, Osaifu-Keitai/NFC, WiFi b/g/n (single-band only, at 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 4.2. Gone are infrared and digital TV (OneSeg).

The Aquos sense is waterproof and dust-proof. Of all devices released in this series, only the SIM-free model (SH-M05) is shock-proof.

The bottom bezel houses a fingerprint sensor. It can also function as a Home button like in the Aquos R. The 3.5-mm earphone jack is mounted on the top edge.

Like last-season's flagship, the Aquos R, the Aquos sense comes with a optional robotised charging stand Roboqul XN-T01 (purchased separately).

Considering its size and specs, the phone is actually quite heavy, weighing 148 grams. It's quite big because of the giant top and bottom bezels, measuring 72 × 144 × 8.6 mm (W x H x D).

The battery is 2700 mAh and is non-removable.

The AQUOS sense ships with Android 7.1 pre-installed.