Created: 6 September 2019 · Last edited: 22 September 2026

The AQUOS V, model designation SH-C02, is a new mid-range smartphone by Sharp. It is presented at IFA 2019 in Berlin, which starts on 5 September 2019, as part of Sharp's push into the European smartphone market.

The Sharp AQUOS V is built on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998) platform and has an eight-core processor, with 4 GB of RAM. Onboard storage is 64 GB and is expandable via microSD cards.

The display is an unimpressive standard IPS LCD – not an IGZO, alas – with an FHD+ resolution of 2160 × 1080 pixels. Quite who makes the panel is unclear, though, and there does not seem to be any particular Sharp display technology hiding behind it. The AQUOS name is, after all, normally reserved for Sharp's own products – at least as far as I know.

The AQUOS V has a dual main camera, with two vertically aligned 13-megapixel sensors. The main camera uses a back-illuminated CMOS sensor with an f/2.0 aperture, phase-detection autofocus, and optical image stabilisation. The second sensor is monochrome and helps produce depth effects such as Live Bokeh. HDR photography is supported, and video recording goes up to 4K at 30 fps.

Below the dual camera is an LED flash and underneath is the fingerprint sensor.

On the front is an 8-megapixel back-illuminated camera with an f/2.0 aperture and electronic image stabilisation, capable of recording Full HD video.

All in all, a fairly decent camera setup, especially considering the phone's price (read on).

The AQUOS V supports dual-band Wi-Fi on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands (802.11a/b/g/n/ac). It also has Bluetooth 5.0.

The phone supports dual SIM cards. See below for the frequency ranges.

The Sharp AQUOS V (SH-C02) runs Android 9.0 Pie with only light customisation by Sharp.

Hardware inputs include a 3.5-mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port.

Its dimensions are 157 × 76 × 9 mm and it weighs a hefty 173 grams.

The phone is expected to start selling in Europe in the fourth quarter, with a retail price of a mere 229 euro, which is quite nice for a device using a couple-of-years-old flagship processor.

Not a real Sharp, as I like to say, because it has next to nothing in common with the design, specifications, or the glorious IGZO displays of the Japanese models. Oh, and it's not waterproof or dust-proof. "Mid-range" might be an overstatement.