Sharp has announced the Aquos R7, the company’s premier smartphone for 2022, which features a massive 1-inch camera that’s as technically impressive as it is eye-catching. The massive back camera is a 47.2-megapixel Leica Summicron lens that has an f/1.9 aperture. Its focal length of 19mm allows it to absorb 1.8x more light than Sharp’s previous 1-inch camera featured on the Aquos R6, making it one of the best mobile cameras on the market.
If you’re not familiar with Sharp as a company or any of its products, you’re not alone. Sharp is a rather niche smartphone producer that usually launches its devices exclusively in Japan and the Aquos R7 doesn’t appear to be an exception.
Although a launch outside of Sharp’s home region isn’t likely, the R7 is still a sight to behold. The 1-inch camera on its backside has a lot of power behind it, allowing owners to be able to snap pictures in 8K resolution.
Unfortunately for those in Japan looking to pick it up, the Aquos R7 only offers 256GB of internal storage according to GSM Arena‘s specs breakdown of the phone. This means that the R7 won’t be able to hold a whole lot of ultra-high-res images before filling up, so owners will need to get an external hard drive or two for storage purposes.
While not entirely practical due to the storage constraints, the R7 is still an interesting piece of tech because it showcases where mobile phones’ cameras might be headed in the coming years as they continue to innovate. Sharp certainly isn’t the first phone manufacturer to feature devices that record 8K footage with the Samsung S20 series beating it to the punch, but it does show that there’s a market for phones that feature extremely high-quality cameras.
Obviously, these features don’t necessarily matter to phone owners who don’t make the most out of their cameras, but if Sharp were to release the R7 worldwide, it could open the door for even more affordable high-quality cameras to get in the hands of photographers. That said, camera lovers shouldn’t hold their breath as Sharp rarely launches its phones outside of Asia.