Sharp continues to sell smartphones in its homeland of Japan. The brand introduces its annual flagship phones every May. This year is no different as the company announced the launch of the Sharp Aquos R8 series earlier today. The brand has launched a “Pro” variant of its flagship smartphone for the first time. Therefore, the new Sharp Aquos R8 Pro is the true successor to the Sharp Aquos R7. The vanilla model, on the other hand, is a toned version.

As with previous iterations, the main selling points of Sharp’s new premium phones are the screens and cameras. For those who don’t know, Sharp is the only hardware manufacturer other than Xiaomi known to use Leica cameras on their phones. In fact, Sharp also sells Leica-branded Leica smartphones in Japan called the Leica Leitz Phone. These devices are rebranded versions of Aquos R series phones. The Aquos R8 Pro may launch as the Leica Leitz Phone 3 later this year.

Technical specifications of Sharp Aquos R8 and Aquos R8 Pro

Returning to the Aquos R8 series, they are equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset combined with LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. Both models offer 256GB of memory with support for expansion via MicroSD card. But the amount of RAM is 8GB less in Vanilla compared to 12GB in Pro.

Despite the 3.5mm headphone jack, the phones are IP68 dust and water resistant. They also offer dual stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support and an in-display fingerprint sensor (the Pro uses an ultrasonic sensor).

The phones have a 10-bit Pro IGZO OLED display with a refresh rate of up to 1Hz-240Hz and support Dolby Vision content. The panel on the R8 Pro measures 6.6 inches and provides a maximum brightness level of 2000 nits and WUXGA+ (2730 x 1260 pixels) resolution. Those numbers are lower: 6.4 inches, 1300 nits and FHD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) for the regular R8.

Similarly, the Aquos R8 Pro has a 47.2-megapixel 1-inch Sony IMX989 primary camera with Summicron lens as opposed to the 50.3-megapixel 1/1.55-inch Hector lens camera on the Aquos R8.

Interestingly, only the standard model has a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera, while the professional model has a 14-channel spectral sensor. The latter can also be equipped with filters from brands such as ELECOM and LOOF. Even the front cameras differ between them. The R8 comes with an 8-megapixel camera while the R8 Pro uses a 12.6-megapixel camera.

Smartphones come with Android 13, and Sharp promises three Android updates and up to 5 years of security updates. The Aquos R8 and Aquos R8 Pro are equipped with batteries with a capacity of 4570 mAh and 5000 mAh respectively. They support both wired and wireless charging. Prices for these devices will be announced when they become available for purchase in July.