Sharp 910sh (mini-look?)
I got a new mobile phone this week :) After having been using Sharp 903sh for a year (and here's my first look at it), I have decided it's time for something new :) And it happened to be Softbank's new Sharp 910sh (the silvery one on the photos below, and the black one is my old Sharp 903sh)
The new model features absolutely fantastic true-color full VGA screen (resolution 480×640 pixels), color sub-display (at last!), whopping 5Megapixels main camera (3x optical zoom, max resolution 1944×2592 pixels, videos at 640×480 pixels/30fps) and secondary camera for video calls, Bluetooth 2.0 (no full-featured version though..), PC site browser (not Opera though - just some other browser), document viewer (allows to view .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf files up to 1Mb in size) and lots of other smaller features like 3D surround sound, Java/Flash lite support, mobile light (noticably brighter comparing to 903sh), IR-port and skinnability. The phone even can update itself over the wireless network (data-transfer fee is free in this case, which is cool :)!
There's even a feature which allows you to use the mobile as a electronic wallet in some shops (mostly convenient stores) here in Japan. It works like this: when you have to pay for your stuff you just float your phone over a special sensor at the register and you're done :) In case you lost your phone you can deactivate the electronic wallet by calling to your phone from another designated phone, or sending an email to your phone's address. So.. well.. I'd say it's pretty safe (to a degree :)
Now, may be one of the strongest selling points for the model is it's VGA screen. Here's how it looks like:
The point is this - background picture on the phone and the picture on the screen are the same pictures, shown in original pixels (480×640) on both devices (no resampling/resizing), so you can see how much higher the pixel density is on the phone comparing to 72dpi which my Mac has. Pretty hi-tech huh!
I've been talking about document viewer above - you can view Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files on your phone (though the size is limited to 1Mb which sucks hard IMO, but better than nothing, anyway). Thanks to the VGA resolution, text is crystal-clear and looks absolutely stunning. I don't know if the pictures that follow shows it, but believe me - the display quality is top-notch (here's a PDF document - notice some small display differences between computer's full PDF implementation and the phone's partial one).
Oh and there's of course a 5Megapixel camera built-in! Well I wouldn't say it is up to par with my normal camera-camera (heh..) - the problem is that there's plenty of noise come out when it's a bit dark in the place you're taking a shot, which is not such a big problem for ordinary digital cameras - but the quality is very-very nice. I won't put a full-size image here, but rather some 1024×768 images which were resampled from original 1500-something pixels photos (yes, that's not full 5Mpixels, I know. If somebody wants to have a look at full-sized stuff let me know).
And the camera's settings menu is a geek's wettest dream :)
with dozens suboptions inside!
Now, there's one thing about Bluetooth not being fully implemented I wrote in the very beginning. The thing is that as all the bloody Sharp mobiles before this one, it is not Bluetooth-sync compatible with Mac's iSync utility. There's one noticable improvement over Sharp 903sh though. And it is that the phone finally supports the OBEX File Transfer protocol (which allows Bluetooth file browsing). Bluetooth panels' screnshots are below (910sh to the left, 903sh to the right)
But everything is not that bad in the synchronization area. 910sh actually comes with USB cable, which is cool because I had to buy a cable for my 903sh separately (though both cables - bundled with 910sh and bought separately from Reudo - are compatibly with both 910 and 903 models).
Having this cable and Reudo's Keitai Sync software I can synchronize my Mac and Sharp 910sh phone by using iSync (Keitai Sync package comes with iSync conduit for most Japanese mobile phones).
Now, the ugly :)
The mobile is locked to Softbank (of course!), and is only 3G CDMA (yes, no GSM) so can not be used in most places outside Japan. And currently there seem to be no SIM-lock cracks available - not that I need one. But what I need is ability to use my own ringtones (AAC, 3GP) as well as ability to play Java games I have. None of this seems to be possible right now (not without crack). So somebody please make a firmware hack or something because I definitely not paying Softbank's crazy price for ringtones (not that they have any I would like to have on my phone).
Overall, I am very pleased with the phone, even with the fascistic approach to DRM (well we'll see whos laugh will be the last one, Softbank, huh!). The price for locked version with a new contract here in Japan is around $800 US dollars, but it getting lower with various discounts and agreement to be enslaved by Softbank for 2 years :) I have heard Sharp has no plans to sell this particular model in any markets outside of Japan (no GSM is a good proof), but who know.. if hacks are out there might be some people in 3G-networked non-Japan countries who will want to put their hands on this device. In this case, I wonder what will be the black market price :)
March 4th, 2007 at 2:43 am
Ohh man… Sometimes I look at UK phones and think "Yeah, we're getting there." Then the next day I see a phone like this. The resolution of both the display and the camera blow all the UK phones out of the water. I've Got to move to Japan :D
March 4th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Yeah.. Japanese mobile market is absolutely crazy. Something new almost every month. But 904sh was even cooler than this one though! It had a GPS navi and a motion sensor, as well as VGA display (but no 5Mpixel camera though). But it is not on sale anymore, unfortunately :( "It's a pretty old model" as I was told at Softbank's shop :) Bloody bastards :)
March 5th, 2007 at 7:50 am
But, MSK mobile market looks like a bunch of trash devices, really. Bricks with poor functionality. I spend two hours today try to choose not-so-bad-looking phone as gift. Buy Symbian E50 Nokia at last, at least (I hope) this is an old brand, metal-parts and goog OS onboard.
I'm personally wil be happy to replace my 2 year old Winmobile device, but no other choices on the market, really - just another bricks…
p.s. Screenshot with iSerial Reader on Desktop looks nice :)
March 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
can you tell me how to isync this phone? does it work perfect with address book and ical? thanks! if you could email me directions that'd be great. I can't read japanese. thanks.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
kobe,
in order to be able to sync the phone using iSync, you have to install Reudo's Keitai Sync software. Along with some pretty useless Japanese-language only utilities, it also installs iSync conduit (which is in English btw). As far as I know, the software is not sold outside of Japan though. And if you are in Japan, you can purchase it in plenty of big electronic shops like Bic Camera, Top Camera etc.
Until now, I didn't not have any problems with the software (on both Sharp 903sh and 910sh) - except for that sometimes iSync shows some errors occured while synchronizing some of all-day events (but these events eventually make it to the phone anyway, so I'm not sure what's the problem :)
hope this helps.
mike.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
ah.. and you need a USB cable in order to iSync. It doesn't work over Bluetooth..
March 14th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Just so that you know, you can put your own ringtones on it if you first convert a file to wav and then to like 22 seconds of mp4 or acc or whatever it was, don't remember the program but there are guides for the 903 and 904 anyway. Also what i know of the phone only costs like 25000yen–>250$ on the black market, ie yahoo.co.jp and also is usually bought for that price with a one year contract, which you now can't cancel like before =(
Nice little review you got there anyway want to get one over my not usable 904sh, even though there is basically no improvement since the camera isn't that good for 5MP. But from 903 to 910 or 903 to 904 is quite a big upgrade, have fun with the best phone there is! ;)
March 14th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Yttrasil,
thanks for the comment.
It would be very helpful if you recall the program name. On my old 903sh basically nothing I could find digging the Net worked.. Same stuff with 910sh unfortunately. For 903sh there was at least a service when you could upload your own song to a server and then download the DRM'ed file to your mobile. I haven't actually tried it with my 903sh, but I have tried it with 910 and the mobile don't even understand the .dm file extension which is used for the DRM'ed ringtone file. Japanese firmware is really fascistic. I mean.. I can't even playback normal JAR files, and some HUF format is required. Trying to find out if there's a possibility to convert from JAR to HUF, but no success at all till now.
Agree with the camera not being that good for 5MP. But well.. it's not that bad :) Nice to have one, anyway..
I was thinking about getting myself 904sh actually, but they were all sold-out so I went with 910. What's wrong with 904 btw? Motion sensor and GPS stuff sounded really cool when I was evaluating options.
March 14th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
It's very simple, i cannot use the 904sh where i live, same with the 910sh but maybe i'll get one just for the fun of it, looks just awesome! The Felica must be quite nice though the 904 actually seems more impressive in a way ^^ Still want a 910sh since i cannot use gps and the motion sensor is just fun not much usage ;)
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=720608&highlight=ringtone+mp3
There and then AL9999s post, so first convert your music to wave with something and then open with WSD and cut out about 20 seconds of the part you want and then you can use the thing for ringtone, a bit complicated but it works.
March 15th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Thanks for the link! The resulting file is .mmf, and is OK, but definitely not great as I would like my ringtones to be. Guess MMF is allowed on the phone exactly because of this - people won't be very happy about the quality and buy stuff from the operator :( Anyways, thanks for the link!
Felica is pretty cool! I don't have much use for it here in Nagoya, but I know that in Tokyo you can use your mobile to pay for the subway. Pretty cool and I want to try it this month when I finally get to the megapolis :)
I guess buying 910sh just for the camera is not the best choice.. :) But you're definitely right about the looks - the phone looks very nice in reality and feels very solid. Still can't get enough of it even after the time that passed since I bought it. And the VGA display is an absolutely stunning… But you have it on 904 as well :)
March 15th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Hope you will do a review of the latest 800 series Sharps which can be used abroad on roaming (and maybe by miracle unlocked in future).
March 15th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Wow, $800US? When I moved to Tokyo two months ago, I bought my (also White) 910SH for about $280US on a new contract >
March 15th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Ah. Indeed, I guess I made a mistake about the pricing with a new contract. $800US price is applied when you replace your old mobile with a new one and you got yourself the old mobile less than 3 month ago.
New contracts are pretty cheap indeed :) But as Yttrasil said above, it gets even cheaper if you buy a new 910sh on a yahoo auction. Wish I knew it earlier…
March 15th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Hmm try first to convert the wave file to um not stereo or something or the mmf file, i'm not sure what experiment the quality wasn't that good for me in the beginning but try getting the best quality of the smallest file you can or so. I'm not sure but i'd say it's almost on par with normal stored music! So don't give up hope…
March 15th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Aww Mike, that's unfortunate. I found out about that too later on, but I didn't pay much more than the Yahoo Japan ones anyway.
I also had a black 903SH before this, and a blue 904SH as well ;)
Have you seen Toshiba's 911T? Mmm, 3 inches of VGA goodness.
March 15th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Oh.. the 911T.. I have seen it only in Softbank catalogs. Sure looks very hot, and it has the GPS thing as far as I remember, which is a nice thing to have (heh, not that there's really use for it in normal everyday life when I can get from home to the office with my eyes closed, but still.. :) guess I just love hi-tech gadgets). Also, I'm not sure how it is nowadays, but only Sharps seem to have the Aquos displays, which definitely blows anything else out of water. But again.. I'm not exactly on very edge of the progress when it comes to mobiles, I guess..
I remember considering Toshiba's mobile the time I was purchasing 903sh, but somehow Toshiba's interface didn't make much sense for me and didn't look much better or easier to use than Sharp's GUI (I use Sharps since the beginning of my life in Japan). So I went with Sharp again, and again this time with 910. Guess Toshiba will have to wait another 2 years until my slave contract with Softbank expires again. Oh well :)
March 15th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Yttrasil,
i'll try to play with the parameters. Guess the resulting quality actually depends on a particular song. The song needs to be resampled from 44.1 to 22KHz in order to be converted into .mmf, and then during encoding it gets some noise in addition to "softness" which you get as a result of downsampling. Will try some songs and approaches anyway.. Jeez somebody just hack the bloody DRM :) None of ringtone providers offers songs I would like to have as a ringtone for my mobile
April 10th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Mike, do you use iChat? I have the 903SH and will be getting the USB cable, but can barely read Kanji yet. I only know a few. I was also wondering if you'd be able to get hold of a phone strap similar to the one your 910SH (wow) is sporting?
Many thanks.
The 910SH looks amazing - you're a lucky pup!
April 14th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Hey Martin,
903sh is a pretty nice model too! And can be hacked in order to be able to use self-made ringtones I heard :) And the strap - I got it in Tokyo Disneyland :)) You can not see it on the photos, but there's a micky mouse face on the end of the strap ;) Looks cool though :)
Oh, you can contact me as macd1gger on iChat if you wish!
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:53 am
hi mike,
i just bought the 910SH, and i'm interested in buying Reudo's Keitai Sync software you mentioned. when i got to their online shop, do i just buy the license (KSM-DL-30) for 3,150yen to use with the USB cable with comes with the phone, or do i need to buy the cable set for softbank 3G phones (KSM-FOMA-30) for 5,480yen?
i feel a bit duped, having signed onto the $800 2-year contract just to keep my number… i had no contract left with AU, so i should've started as a new contract! i might go back to yodobashi camera to complain….
shireen
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
hi shireen,
if your 910sh, like mine, came with USB cable, all you need is to just buy a license from Reudo, since the software works just fine with the included cable.
you're in Japan right? for $800 you must have been bought the 910sh at full price? these prices are definitely crazy. But.. I guess the phone worth it :) Though at this price.. "may be it worth it" :)
May 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 pm
thanks mike! i'll just download the license then.
i paid ¥0 but signed onto a 2-year contract…
October 24th, 2007 at 3:56 am
hi there,
i'm really interested in Sharp phones but i can't get any in the netherlands :( but they got one though the 770sh mclaren (don't like that one :) so, uhmm don't know if i can say this but i'll ask anyway :) is it possible to order this 910sh and to be shipped to europe???
October 24th, 2007 at 9:58 am
@War God
i guess you can find an offer for 910sh on auctions.yahoo.co.jp for example. Many don't ship abroad, but some do, I believe.
The problems is that as far as I know, 910sh is not yet hacked to work on any network other than Japanese ones. Am I behind the news?
October 24th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
if there is going tobe a hacked version could you keep me posted :p
October 27th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
does anyone know where to get a Sharp 904? (its not on the western market so T.T)
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:38 am
i got another question if i buy the V903sh is that a money well spend or not?
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:46 am
@War God
well of course it all depends on a person.
I liked my 903sh (good screen, good functionality), also, 903sh models are unlockable afaik.
Not that I would trade it for my 910sh (VGA display is a really nice addition, and camera is not bad, also). Basically, 903sh is several years old model. If you like the looks, and the price is cheap, you can just go for it :)
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:31 am
@ mike
but the problem for me is the European market you can't get anything :(.
than there is ebay but thats only used phones and i don't like that. so do you know any good international phone stores?? (no jap sites can't read it :p)
November 4th, 2007 at 8:57 am
@War God
hm.. I don't know any international stores which can ship you a 903sh. Live in Japan and can read japanese so I haven't searched for anything like that.
I'm not sure you can even find a new 903sh now, no matter where you search..
November 4th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
@ mike
no chance that you could buy me one eh :D
November 13th, 2007 at 5:14 am
oh dear! Thank god I've not asked my stewardess gf to help me purchase 910sh from Japan yet, as I'm staying in Singapore that means its "locked" coz of the GSM so I can't use it though :(
My 1st choice was to get 903sh, but its quite an old model already, hence I decided to go for 910sh, but now that I can't .. I would have to search for other models then :(
Anyway, thanks for information abt this 2 phone! :)
December 17th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
hey i was just wondering wat model was the black vodafone in the picture next to the 910sh?
December 18th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
hey brandon,
the black one is my old Vodafone 903sh model.
December 29th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
thanks, and also is the Sharp 910sh usable in canada? specifically british columbia?
December 29th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Brandon - the 910SH will not be usable in Canada. Firstly, it can't be unlocked. Even if you roam with it, the phone disables itself once outside a Japanese network. It's not meant for roaming in any way shape or form.
I am gutted, because I love this phone.
December 29th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
@ martin
that is so true dude love the 910sh.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Hey Mike, just been trying to figure out some bloody way, like you, to convert some music into something ring tone compatible for my 910sh. Thought it couldn't be done, but having magically stumbled across your page and this forum, I hear it can!? Only problem is, I couldn't quite follow your discussion above - I'm not quite as techy as I'd like to be! Do I need to convert it to MMF or SMAF, and if so, what program can I use to do that? Also, how then do I transfer it over to my phone - using the Handset Music Manager that came on the disc?
Any advice would be much appreciated. I've got the perfect Fall song ready to go as a ring tone!
January 30th, 2008 at 7:10 am
Hi Tom; よろしく
You need to use quicktime to convert it to wav (make it under 300KB first).
Then download the SMAF creator tool from here:
http://smaf-yamaha.com/tools/downloads.html
I would then either send with bluetooth or to the memory card and transfer it to the phone memory.
I am so jealous you have the 910SH! What colour is it? I just got my 904SH unlocked today though!!! wooo!
Thanks for everything Mike ;)
February 10th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
hey Tom im using sharp 910SH you want to convert those 3gp or mp4 ring tones and mp3 ?im using utra 3GP converter and for video i'm using media coder.. thats it..
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
using itunes to convert to aac and use as ringtone
1.open itunes
2.drag an mp3 into itunes
3.right click (in your case ctrl+click) the selected mp3 and click convert to aac4.
4.when you’re done converting, a same titled song will appear, in the form of aac music file
5.‘right click’ the aac music file, show in finder
6.place the aac music file into the ‘sound&ringtone’ file in your mini sd / tf card.
7.VOILA, you should be able to listen to the song on your phone and use it as your ringtone
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:28 pm
ooh and what do you mean by bluetooth isn't fully implemented?
as in you can't use file transfer on your macbook?
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:11 pm
hi samantha,
thanks for the comments.
Unfortunately, your approach doesn't work. I've tried it before, and tried again today, just in case. No dice. File format is not supported, eventually because it is non-protected AAC file.
Not sure which model you have, but it doesn't work with 910sh I have purchased from Softbank a year ago.
Regarding Bluetooth implementation, I was talking about services which are supported on the device. And it lacks service which allows to sync stuff over bluetooth (I tried to search for the exact name, but couldn't find it). I remember I had such a service on my ancient SonyEricsson I had hm.. 7-8 year ago?.. Not present on 910sh though.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:10 am
hey, so sorry it didn't work!! ahh i see.. it's only been proved to work for 903sh/ 703sh/ 904sh/ 705sh/ 920sh
i just found out that the docomo p905i that i wanted, the bluetooth function is limited to earphone ><
i absolutely hate the whole jap phone deal..
March 4th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Well, I love Japanese phones Samantha!
March 5th, 2008 at 12:22 am
i love them, i just hate their policies… it's SELFISH!! keeping the nicest cameras and screens to themselves ><
it's a love-hate thing.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hmm… I guess you could see it as selfish, but things like mobile SUICA (for public transport), paying for items in shops with the phone, QR codes (should be in rest of world) etc etc, but it's the Japanese market that allows such innovations. Check out my website (hope you don't mind me advertising mike!):
http://web.mac.com/martinirwin/mobilereview/Home.html
March 5th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
samantha,
i have just purchased the new 920sh handset, and unfortunately your approach for using AAC files are ringtones doesn't work. I can 'preview' the sound file, but when trying to set it as a ringtone, I'm getting 'unsupported file format' error.
Just spent a few mins trying to setup the device though.. Weird. Where does your info come from?
March 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Samantha, I am sorry to say, AAC files on Softbank handsets will not work. Not on 903SH, not on 910SH, not on 920SH. MMF files converted from WAV are the only way. What've you heard?
March 6th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
so too the ppl above me (except Mike ^^) how did you people buy a sharp phone?? did you go to japan and bought a phone or what??
March 6th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
to war god:
Either: ebay (I am selling a SH905i there at the moment), Yahoo Japan Auctions (use a 3rd party service or a friend to buy it for you), or go to Japan yourself.
Which phone are you after? Visit my website, drop me a mail and I can see what I can do.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:59 am
to martin
what is your website?
March 7th, 2008 at 7:27 am
If you click my name - you can see it… it's http://web.mac.com/martinirwin/mobilereview/Home.html
March 24th, 2008 at 9:19 am
hi sorry for my bad english
I have a problem
I have a sharp 910 sh but not active( lock menu, cam, menu)
I would like to know how to reach attainment menu because I want to use it as a digital camera does not work because as cellular is imposible
help plz T_T
March 24th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
@ Voldito
You can access the camera if you GO TO JAPAN and connect to the SOFTBANK network. This is the ONLY way! :)
You cannot use it as a digital camera. I would recommend buying a digital camera! The phone can only be used in Japan - if you are outside of Japan, the camera shuts down.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Hi all,
I had the 904SH, I just used it during 1 month only, and now the camera very dark as when I shoot, It was BLACK only, the guy said that the mainboard had a problem. Anyone could help me ? Thank you for your help.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 am
This blog brings back fond memories :)