Created: 7 October 2022 · Last edited: 26 September 2026

Sharp have just announced the Aquos sense7 – a mid-range phone that beats the flagships from a few years ago into the ground.

Curiously, the new instalment in the Aquos sense series seems to also signal the discontinuation of the Aquos zero series. While many eagerly awaited news on the launch of the zero7, no such announcement was made in Sharp's 26 September presentation, and the Aquos sense7 is now almost identical to the Aquos zero, save for the design.

The Aquos sense7 is the successor to the Aquos sense6, with several significant upgrades to the display and camera system while retaining the same compact form factor. It is released by several Japanese carriers as well as in a SIM-free version.

The Aquos sense7 features Sharp's proprietary IGZO OLED display, following its introduction to the mid-range sense series with the Aquos sense6. The display measures 6.1 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 2432 x 1080 pixels. It is capable of displaying 1 billion colours thanks to its 10-bit processing engine and boasts a peak brightness of 1300 nits and a contrast ratio of 13,000,000:1.

The Aquos sense7 camera won't fail to impress, either. The phone is equipped with a large 1/1.55-inch image sensor, which is an increase by about 66% in comparison with last year's Aquos sense6. The new image-quality engine ProPix4 is the same as found on the Aquos R7! Auto-focus speed is almost double that of the Aquos sense6 thanks to phase-difference AF – this lets users capture images faster and more accurately, with less noise and much greater detail.

The phone has two rear cameras: one standard 50.3-megapixel, f/1.9 lens (wide-angle 85°, 23 mm focal length equivalent), and one wide-angle 8 MP, f/2.4 lens (super wide-angle 120°, 15 mm focal length equivalent). Both cameras use electronic image stabilisation.

The inner camera has an 8 MP, f/2.0 lens (wide-angle 78°, 26 mm focal length equivalent).

To power all of this, the Snapdragon 695 5G octa-core processor is used along with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of onboard storage memory, expandable using microSDXC cards of up to 1 TB. The processor combines two 2.2 GHz cores with six 1.8 GHz cores.

The combination is a rather strange one: a mid-range Snapdragon 695 powering a phone with a 13,000,000:1 IGZO OLED, the same ProPix4 image-quality engine as the flagship Aquos R7, a huge 4,570 mAh battery and 240 Hz-equivalent display processing. Sharp was clearly willing to spend money on the bits that actually matter to the user while keeping the processor firmly in the mid-range.

The built-in 4570 mAh battery, combined with the power-efficient IGZO OLED display, provides the Aquos sense7 with plenty of endurance.

Not only is the Aquos sense7 water (IPX5/8) and dust (IP6X) proof but it is also shock proof, having passed a drop test under MIL-STD-810G and a range of environmental tests under the newer MIL-STD-810H standard.

The Aquos sense7 measures 152 x 70 x 8 mm and weighs just 158 grams.

Connectivity is comprehensive. Wi-Fi supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 5.1 provides wireless connectivity. NFC and FeliCa are supported, including Osaifu-Keitai mobile payments. The phone also supports Hi-Res Audio and Hi-Res Wireless Audio. A USB Type-C port is provided for charging and data transfer, alongside a conventional 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Both nano SIM and eSIM are supported.

The Aquos sense7 runs Android 12 at launch and subsequently received upgrades to Android 13 and Android 14.