Created: 17 May 2012 · Last edited: 9 September 2026

The AQUOS PHONE ZETA SH-09D looks like the flagship of the Summer 2012 DoCoMo collection, and its specifications certainly make a good case for that distinction.

The SH-09D features a 4.7-inch HD display with a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels, using Sharp's newly developed S-CG Silicon LCD system. Building on Sharp's CG Silicon technology, the new display incorporates memory directly into the LCD system, allowing the phone to stop continuously transferring the image from the CPU when the screen is displaying a static image. This significantly reduces power consumption, while improved light transmittance – roughly twice that of previous-generation panels – allows the display to remain bright and clear without requiring as much backlight power. Sharp also equipped it with the new SV Engine 3 image-processing engine, designed to produce more natural colours and sharper, more vivid images and video.

The ZETA is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 processor using Qualcomm's Krait architecture, accompanied by 1 GB of RAM. Built-in storage is 16 GB, a substantial increase over previous Sharp smartphones.

It supports Xi (LTE), W-CDMA and GSM frequencies, making it considerably more versatile than Sharp's earlier Japan-only models.

The camera is a 12.1 MP back-illuminated CMOS shooter with an LED flash, while a front-facing 0.32 MP camera is provided for video calls. The SH-09D also comes with the usual selection of Japanese keitai features, including One Seg, Bluetooth, infrared, Wi-Fi, mobile wallet functionality, and water and dust resistance. It also features Dolby^® Mobile v3 for enhanced audio.

Battery capacity is a generous 1900 mAh, and the phone supports wireless charging.