Sharp Releases Sharp IS01 Mobile Internet Device, Short On Details, Yet Carrying a High Price Tag

Sharp has just released their new Sharp IS01 tablet, or mobile internet device to be more precise. The IS01 seems to have a boatload of features, but a few of them are fairly out-dated. The IS01 is a clamshell device with a 5 inch 960x480 capacitive touchscreen display and a full QWERTYkeyboard when you open it up, and a 5.2 megapixel camera on the back of the device. There is also a front facing camera on the inside of the device, which is lower resolution at just 0.43 megapixels. Apart from these external features there are also a few hardware surprises. The Sharp IS01 features a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 4 GB of built in memory, plus a microSD card slot for expansion, a 4 GB card is also included. As for connectivity, the IS01 features WiFi 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, a 3G radio, GPS, infrared, and some sources also suggest that it has a TV tuner of some sort. As for the battery, the IS01 includes a 1400 mAh battery, but it is unknown how much use that will actually give you. The Sharp IS01 also has a built in microphone and speaker, and a microphone and speaker jack. For data transfer you get a microUSB port. One of the most important details about the Sharp IS01 is that it runs Android 1.6, which is very outdated, especially now that Android 2.3 Gingerbread has been released, and it is also unknown if it will be upgradeable or not. The IS01 measures 149 x 83 x 17.9mm and weighs 227 grams, which isn’t exactly small. Importer Conics is selling the device in the United States for $300 in black or in sky blue for about $20 more, which is a little overpriced for the features, plus the fact that they aren’t very certain. Details on the Sharp IS01 are a little short, and with the ones that we have it seems that it has some great features like the QWERTY keyboard and 1 GHz processor, but many are outdated and insufficient. Overall, the Sharp IS01 probably won’t overtake devices like the Apple iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, or even some mid-range devices like the Archos line of tablets. I wouldn’t really recommend the IS01 for most, as it doesn’t exactly give you a great value.