Aquas Zeta boasts world’s first IGZO smartphone display

It’s all Sharp vs. Sony this month as competition in Japan seems to be heating up in the waterproof mobile category. Today at a NTT DoCoMo event in Japan, the new Aquas Phone Zeta SH-06E was announced. Apart from the fact that it’s waterproof like the Xperia ZR, it also flaunts a 1080p IGZO screen of 4.8-inches. This is the first portable 4.8-inch device featuring Sharp’s IGZO display technology.

Inside, the new Android 4.2 Aquas carries a 1.6 GHz CPU which is a similar model found in most Samsung Galaxy S4s. Engadget reports the rear camera being  13.1-megapixels — that’s a whopping 0.1-megapixels more than Sony’s Xperia ZR. The SH-06E also includes a 2.1MP front-facing camera. Features like WiFi, NFC a TV tuner and a 2600mAh battery round out this impressive package. This makes it worthy competition for Sony’s new Xperia ZR announced a few days ago.

The Japanese made hardware, Sharp’s IGZO display, is a highly sought after tech feature. This is the first 4.6-inch portable device carrying the IGZO display material. The indium gallium zinc oxide material enables smaller transistors which means you can fit in more pixels on a smaller screen. Another impressive feature is the fact that it consumes far less power. As reported by Apple Insider, it was expected that after the announcement of the powerful IGZO displays came at the beginning of this year, that Apple will be the “prime candidate” for adopting this technology. Though mass production was too slow for Apple’s ambitious Retina Display.

The Aquas Phone Zeta SH-06E will offer impressive internet speeds. Japan-based mobile telecom NTT DoCoMo says that the Aqua can “pull down 100Mbps and upload at 37.5Mbps.” The people of Japan will be able to get their hands on this impressive tech 24 May while international release dates or pricing are still unknown.

The NTT DoCoMo event also graced us with the announcement of the 7-inch Aquos Pad SH-08E featuring IGZO display.