Created: 20 April 2022 · Last edited: 26 September 2026

An upgraded version of the Aquos sense6, called Aquos sense6s, has been announced by Japanese carrier AU and its subsidiary UQ Mobile. The model number is SHG07. It becomes available on 28 April 2022, with subsidiary J:COM MOBILE following on 16 June. The Aquos sense6s is also available from Rakuten Mobile.

The Aquos sense6s retains the features introduced with the Aquos sense6, including an IGZO OLED display, triple-camera setup and large 4570 mAh battery. The main change is the processor.

The Aquos sense6s comes with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of ROM. At its heart is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 695 5G (SM6375), an octa-core processor combining two 2.2 GHz cores with six 1.8 GHz cores. Sharp says that the new platform improves overall performance by about 12% and GPU performance by about 35%, ensuring smoother graphics and better performance in more demanding games.

So, why did Sharp release the Aquos sense6s barely six months after the original sense6? The answer appears to have had less to do with a sudden desire to redesign the phone and more to do with the worldwide semiconductor shortage. Some chipsets had become difficult to procure, while the newer Snapdragon 695 was more readily available. Sharp therefore replaced the processor, kept virtually everything else unchanged, and created the sense6s. The new chip did bring a welcome performance boost – Sharp claimed 12% more CPU and 35% more GPU performance – although somewhat ironically, the Snapdragon 695 also lacks 4K video recording support, despite being newer and faster than the Snapdragon 690 it replaced.

The display is a 6.1-inch IGZO OLED with a resolution of 2432 x 1080 pixels. It supports 10-bit image processing and is capable of displaying 1 billion colours. This was previously reserved for the flagships (Aquos R3, R5G, R6 and Aquos zero2, zero5G). It is also Sharp's first mid-range phone to feature an IGZO OLED. The Aquos sense6s display offers 1300 nit peak brightness and 13,000,000:1 native contrast, while its touch panel detects input at up to 120 Hz – stuff that many flagships by other makers out there can't get.

The Aquos sense6s is equipped with a triple-camera setup using Sharp's ProPix 3 image-quality engine, introduced with the Aquos R6:

• a standard camera with a 48 MP sensor, aperture f/1.8, wide-angle 79°, focal length equivalent 26 mm, electronic image stabilisation;
• a wide-angle camera with an 8 MP sensor, aperture f/2.4, ultra-wide-angle 120°, focal length equivalent 15 mm, electronic image stabilisation;
• a telephoto camera with an 8 MP sensor, aperture f/2.4, telephoto 45°, focal length equivalent 53 mm, electronic image stabilisation.

The front-facing camera has an 8-megapixel sensor with aperture f/2.0, wide-angle 78°, focal length equivalent 26 mm, no image stabilisation.

The energy-saving IGZO OLED technology, along with the 4570 mAh battery, should ensure one week of use on a single charge, based on Sharp's estimate of 1 hour of use per day and 23 hours of standby.

Despite the relatively big battery capacity and display size, Sharp have managed to reduce the phone's thickness by 11% (compared to the Aquos sense5) to 7.9 mm, the width being 70 mm and the height 152 mm. The Aquos sense6s weighs 156 grams – exactly the same as the Aquos sense6 and considerably less than most phones in this class.

Face and fingerprint recognition are now standard features, just as water- and dust-proofing. Oh, and shock-resistance!

Connectivity is comprehensive, although the sense6s leaves out a few of the traditional Japanese extras. Wi-Fi supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, while Bluetooth 5.1 provides wireless audio and peripheral connectivity. The phone also supports NFC and FeliCa, including mobile payments through Osaifu-Keitai. An analogue FM tuner with Wide FM support is built in, with wired headphones serving as the antenna, but there is no infrared communication and neither 1seg nor full-seg digital TV reception is supported. A USB Type-C port provides the wired connection and charging interface. Yes. The AQUOS sense6s has a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Unlike many others.

The Aquos sense6s also supports Hi-Res Audio, including wireless Hi-Res Audio, with Qualcomm's aptX Adaptive and Sony's LDAC available for high-quality wireless listening.

The AQUOS sense6s rolls out with Android 11. Even though the Aquos sense6 SHG05 received an upgrade to Android 12 on 24 March 2022, the upgraded Aquos sense6s is released running Android 11, too. Why?

All three variants of the SHG07 are offered in exactly the same colours as the AQUOS sense6: light copper, silver, and black. This means that it is impossible to tell them apart visually, unless you spot the tiny SHG07 designation on the back.