The SX862 looks like just another flip phone, but a lot bigger than those from European manufacturers, measuring 50mm x 110.6mm x 18mm (2.0" x 4.4" x .7"). The whole device is constructed with hard lines, and the design is quite minimalistic. There' a step at the front which forms part of the Cycloid screen mechanism. Directly below the step is a small external display, and further down you'll find an LED event indicator. The device's loudspeaker is mounted behind a slit on the hinge, so that it's easier for you to hear when watching videos. The power and USB port is found on the bottom of the phone, with the infrared port and flat-type handsfree jack on the left side of the device. This leaves the volume keys, microSD slot, and shutter button on the right. Upon turning over the phone, you will find the device's camera lens and flash.
Unlike the 920SH, the SX862 is completely covered with glossy aluminum-plastic, with the exception of the camera module's textured surround. The device easily attracts fingerprints, but luckily is reasonably scratch resistant. With its excellent build quality and a weight of 120g, the SX862 doesn't feel like a toy, especially when you flip it open - the mechanism is very solid. Compared to Nokia flip phones, the opening angle of this phone is a lot wider. When you flip open the SX862, you'll find a resting point at approximately 110 degrees, before opening completely to 160 degrees. That resting point is used for watching movies with the device on a table.
Thanks to Sharp's new mobile-ASV technology and anti-gloss surface, the 3.2" screen's color reproduction is magnificent, even under sunlight. Compared to Nokia N-series devices, photos on the SX862 look fantastic, with very natural colors. This is probably due to the display's 6-color filter, compared to the conventional 3-color filter. Putting size and color aside, the resolution is also the highest in the industry at 480 x 854 pixels. This is even higher than that of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. This extra resolution is really appreciated when browsing full HTML sites and watching DVD-quality movies.
In view of the increasing demand for multimedia content, Sharp has included their Cycloid screen mechanism to allow users rotate their screens to landscape. The Cycloid mechanism is different from those found on rival devices, which simply rotate the screen on one pivot. Sharp has created a more complex double-axes arc for their screen to glide. The end result is a perfectly centered widescreen that looks like a mobile TV, with moving parts feeling very smooth and sturdy. In short, the screen on the SX862 is jaw-dropping, probably a year ahead of non-Japanese phone manufacturers.
As expected from Japanese cellphones, the keypad is large and comfortable. The d-pad could be a stretch if you have small fingers, but the spacing and tactile feedback are just right. The keys don't get slippery even after prolonged typing, and the metallic finishing over the d-pad is definitely welcomed. The backlight is a subtle and comfortable lilac color that should please most people, but the d-pad could do with being better lit.
All in all there is little wrong with the SX862's design, you just have to settle with the size if you want a screen this large. The only disappointment to be found is the plasticky finish. Multimedia / Applications
When it comes to the camera, the SX862 looks good on paper, featuring a 3.2MP CMOS with autofocus. In real life, the performance is disappointing, especially when compared to the older Sharp 903. In order to make the device thinner and cheaper, the sensor has been switched from CCD to CMOS, and the optical zoom has been removed. Unfortunately, the indoor color performance is rather poor, and the autofocus is not particularly reliable either. Users can still set their white balance and even select manual focus, but these don't really help. The only appreciable upgrade from the Sharp 903 is the VGA video recording at 30fps, with the resulting videos looking very attractive on the FWVGA screen. Outdoor camera performance on a sunny day is good, but phones at half the price can achieve the same thing.Having said that, the camera interface is markedly improved from the Sharp 903. By calling up the camera options menu, you are presented with a 3x4 grid, laid over the live viewfinder. In the boxes you'll find some easily recognizable icons that correspond to your 3x4 number keypad. Common camera options from exposure to scene modes can all be set here. Each key on the keypad is assigned a shortcut to a specific camera function, allowing options to be changed quickly. Rotating the screen to the landscape position will switch the picture size to 480x854 automatically, which is the resolution for wallpaper. All the icons and menu will be appropriately rotated, and the transition takes less than a second. The camera takes about 1.5 seconds to focus, and another 2 seconds to save a full 3MP picture - quite snappy for a phone.
Although the camera hardware is disappointing, the software is very well implemented. This is also true when it comes to the picture editor. Just like its competitors, the Sharp SX862 is capable of re-touching your photos. You can adjust the brightness, sharpness, and color hue, plus add text, stamps and frames. Pictures can be saved in their original resolution, then cut down to the preset resolutions for caller-ID and wallpaper. To make better use of the large screen, the SX862 allows users to preview the changes they make in a separate column, presenting you with before and after shots. This is excellent for both beginners who are not too familiar with the software, and more advanced users who are skeptical about in-phone picture processing.
The gallery can be viewed in grid, list, or 'display preview' arrangements. There are no fancy animations, but it does the job well. Files can be moved and organized into subfolders easily from the pop-up menu. Thumbnails take half a second to load, but you can always jump into the picture before the thumbnails finish loading.
The video player on SX862 can read H.264, MP4, 3GP, and ASF files. It is best to encode your videos in H.264 if you want it to be smooth at maximal resolution. SmarTone-Vodafone has opened a designated portal for users to download VGA-sized videos on a PC, and transfer them to the device with DRM protection. You can also stream the usual live channels via UMTS, and enlarge QVGA videos to full screen. A nice feature of the video player is that the top status bar can still be called up, so you can keep track of the time, the presence of incoming messages, and the battery life. Under the options menu, you can jump to a specific point in the movie by keying in the exact minute you want to fast-forward to. Unfortunately the loudspeaker volume isn't great, and the sound distorts if you turn it up fully. The SX862 can play MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ formats. Yamaha Sound Tuning technology is included, and the sound quality with headphones is good. The music player can also be minimized whilst in use, and files can be sorted by artist or album. Playlists can be created too, and if the wired headset doesn't satisfy you, then Bluetooth A2DP is present to allow wireless stereo listening. To make best use of its HSDPA capabilities, the SX862 is pre-installed with Access Netfront browser that is capable of rendering full HTML sites as they are on your computer. Bookmarks and tabbed-browsing are also supported. But what really surprised us was that the full version of Youtube can be viewed. We aren't talking about the watered-down mobile version with a pitiful selection of content, but every single video available on YouTube, watchable fullscreen.
As you would imagine, the FWVGA screen gives a more detailed picture than the usual QVGA screens on the market. Pages can be zoomed in and out of with the help of shortcut buttons assigned to the keypad, and a cursor can be turned on to aid browsing. If a section of text is too small, you can enlarge the area to aid readability. There seems to be sufficient computing power in the SX862, as panning around the page and switching between tabs is reasonably fast. Despite the claim of full HTML support and various page rendering technology, not all pages can be loaded perfectly, especially when the page contains multiple frames and dHTML script. Most animated banners can be shown, thanks to FLASH script support. In a nutshell, the Netfront browser is more than good enough for emergency browsing.
In terms of PIM applications, the SX862 contains pretty much everything you need. You'll find the usual items such as calendar, schedule, to-do list, text memo, expense memo, calculator, stop watch, countdown timer, and voice recorder. Within the world clock, you can set the time of a second city to show in an extra line on the standby screen, and even on the external display. The included flashlight function makes use of the camera LED, simply hold the shutter key when the phone is closed and it'll light up.
A Picsel document viewer is built-in so that you can read Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Adobe PDF files on the device. The maximum file size supported is a whopping 10MB - quite impressive for a non-smartphone. The SX862 also comes with an interesting feature called the 'Remote Monitor'. Basically it sets your phone to answer video calls automatically, so, for example, you could monitor what's happening in your house with the external camera. Of course, you would need good lighting and 3G coverage, but nonetheless it's a cool feature.
SmarTone-Vodafone has started to sell a number of JAVA games that make use of the high resolution landscape screen, and they look really good. The built-in 50MB of memory should be enough for these, but you can still expand the memory with microSD cards up to 2GB. Unfortunately microSDHC is not supported. If you only want to use the non-phone functions on a plane, an offline mode is available. In terms of multimedia the SX862 is a winner, with a great browser and various other applications that make good use of the high resolution screen and extra computing power. However, the color algorithm in the camera isn't great, so we really hope this will be addressed by future firmware updates.
