Created: 11 September 2020 · Last edited: 25 September 2026

It's becoming a tradition for Sharp to announce two versions of the "sense" series, a smaller and a larger one: it's grown from 5.8" to 6.7" on the larger – the display, I mean.

The AQUOS sense4 models were all announced on 11 September 2020, together with the AQUOS sense5G models, but the former reached the shelves in late November and early December, whereas the latter started selling in February 2021.

The AQUOS sense4 plus was only sold by Rakuten Mobile and as a SIM-free version, both getting the same designation, SH-M16.

It improves upon the Aquos sense4 in a number of notable ways.

The 6.7-inch screen is actually the largest display in the history of Aquos smartphones. Image quality is enhanced using Rich Color Technology Mobile that Sharp have developed from their Aquos LCD TVs and that is found on flagship models and, as of recent, on the "plus" versions of the Aquos sense line. Curiously, this is not an IGZO display, but looks like a new development of Sharp's traditional a-Si LCDs.

This is also Sharp's first phone that has a 90 Hz refresh rate and detects touch at 120 Hz – for smooth display with little afterimage and agile response, which is great great news for gamers. Another gamer feature is the ability to hide notifications while playing.

To achieve loud and clear sound reproduction, the Aquos sense4 plus has two stereo speakers built in at the top and bottom of the phone.

The processor powering the Aquos sense 4 plus is the same Snapdragon 720G but the amount of RAM has been doubled to 8 GB and storage has been increased two-fold to 128 GB in comparison with the basic model.

The camera setup is also impressive: the rear camera consists of four sensors, while the front-facing one consists of two sensors. This is a first for a Sharp phone.

The rear camera setup includes:

• a standard camera with a 48-megapixel sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 79° wide-angle with a focal length equivalent of 25.3 mm and electronic image stabilisation;
• a wide-angle camera with a 5-megapixel sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 115° wide-angle with a focal length equivalent of 16.7 mm and electronic image stabilisation;
• a macro camera with a 2-megapixel sensor, f/1.2 aperture, 83° wide-angle with a focal length equivalent of 24 mm;
• a depth camera with a 2-megapixel sensor with f/2.4 aperture.

The inner camera has one standard 8-megapixel sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 77.5° wide-angle with a focal length equivalent of 26.4 mm, and one depth sensor with 2 megapixels and f/2.5 aperture.

The Aquos sense4 plus is available in purple, white, or black. It measures 166 x 78 x 8.8 mm and weighs about 198 grams – that might be the heaviest Android smartphone ever released by Sharp.