Display technology is evolving more than anything else in the smartphone space. We have been seeing edge to edge display and almost bezel-less displays for quite some time. But only cutting-off the bezels doesn’t seem to be the goal here. The recently launched Aquos R Compact sports a bezel-less display which also has the refresh rate of 120Hz.
Sharp is one of the first manufacturers to debut the concept of an edgeless display with the launch of Sharp Aquos Crystal back in 2014. And they also have been making phones with a 120Hz display for quite some time. Being limited in Japan only, sharp phones haven’t captured much attention of the international markets. The recent Aquos R Compact, however, resembles the trending phones right now like the Essential Phone and iPhone X with its notch for the camera. This notch seems to be the next big thing next to the edgeless panel.
The phone sounds cool with the edgeless panel but looks wise it’s not that welcoming. The side bezels seem huge compared to other phones and the bottom chin is just too big. Put this device in front of Mi Mix 2 or the Essential phone and it instantly looks clumsy. The notch holds an 8MP camera. On the back, it has 16.4MP Camera. The phone is powered by 14nm Snapdragon 660 processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It is equipped with 3GB of RAM and comes with 32GB of Internal Storage. The Sharp Aquos R Compact is running on Android 8.0 Oreo and is backed up by 2500mAh battery which is very low by today’s standard. On the bright side, it comes with Quick Charge 3.0.
What’s up with the 120Hz Refresh Rate?
The Sharp Aquos R Compact comes with a 4.9inch display. It doesn’t boast the new 18:9 standard, however. Most of our phones display is locked at 60Hz or lower and most of the apps also run within the same frame rate. Most of the processors today readily support higher refresh rate but for battery reasons and they are kept low. The higher refresh rate will ensure more smoothness while scrolling and zooming. But moreover, it will come in handy when you are viewing VR contents or AR contents which need faster refreshes to appear more real. Plus these are adaptive refresh rates, meaning, the phone will push higher refresh rate only when it’s needed. The same mechanism is also adopted by the newly launched iPad Pro. So, using higher refresh rate on smartphone displays right now is just an adoption of half-baked technology that is getting ready for the future.
