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SHARP Aquos S2 Mobile Phone - Blue 64/4GB, 5.5", Android 7.1.1, NFC, B28, USD $159 (~AUD $211.90) Shipped (China) @ Joybuy

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SHARP Aquos S2 Mobile Phone - Blue 64/4GB, 5.5", Android 7.1.1, NFC, B28, USD $159 (~AUD $211.90) Shipped (China) @ Joybuy
Go to Deal
[Deactivated] on 09/04/2018 - 14:43 joybuy.com (6190 clicks)
Last edited 22/04/2018 - 22:59 by 4 other users

This is a mid range, dual SIM handset with better than midrange features such as 87.5% screen/body ratio (5.5 inch display in a body that would previously had a 5 inch display), power efficient Snapdragon SD630, NFC, Nice bright IGZO display, F1.75 camera and very good battery life. 140g and the small size make it easy to use one handed.

As a bonus you get Android Nougat 7.1.1 with Android 8.0 Oreo coming soon) microSD support, Band 5 and Band 28 LTE support!

Downsides are that it has "the notch", Smile UX is not the best launcher, the 630 models have a plastic back, it is shipped with Chinese firmware, you need to install Taiwan firmware for Google Services, which seems straightforward and is explained on the Joybuy page.

Other models available
Snapdragon 630 4/64GB White plastic/Silver alloy AUD ~$241
Snapdragon 630 4/64GB Black plastic/Black alloy AUD ~$266
Snapdragon 660 6/128GB Black glass/Black alloy AUD ~$340

Review
https://www.mistertechs.com/2018/02/sharp-aquos-s2-review-en…

Detailed review video (in Russian, in youtube, turn on auto caption, then click on the settings gear and select auto-translate to English)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LApguNp_WYU
There is a review of the camera from 25:07

Whirlpool thread
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2664378
xda developers thread
https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/sharp-aquos…
For additional info (and if you speak Russian and/or have translate working in Chrome), you can check out the (huge) 4pda forum thread where the Aquos S2 4/64 appears to be very popular.
https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=838807
Great close up images showing detail of the 6/128 glass and 4/64 plastic backs, as well as the anodised (for non-white models) alluminium frame
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeekmag/with/36539406016/

Mobile Mobile Phone Sharp Android

Related Stores

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closed Comments

  • prolo on 26/04/2018 - 21:17
    +1

    Ordered black yesterday.

    • prolo on 11/05/2018 - 20:00

      Arrived today. Just trying to set up now.

      • treeman on 11/05/2018 - 21:13

        Good luck it's actually not that scary.

        • prolo on 11/05/2018 - 22:14

          Not entirely painless. I am not very experienced with playing around with Android system updates / firmware etc. Hopefully I got it working now. I think I fell into the ****zip.zip naming trap mentioned by someone else. If anyone else is struggling, make sure you check your device storage on the Sharp phone, and check that your file is *.zip not *zip.zip. Not sure how the extra zip was introduced, but that was preventing my phone from updating.

        • treeman on 12/05/2018 - 10:32
          +1

          @prolo:

          Yep I had the same issue.

  • manja on 27/04/2018 - 17:18
    +1

    Thanks OP. Received it yesterday and updated to TW firmware without much issue.

  • huzefa-oz on 27/04/2018 - 17:18
    +3

    Amazing phone for this price.

  • nismohks on 30/04/2018 - 13:21

    Update on my phone:

    Phone received was damaged and makes a rattling noise inside the phone:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duoQOhSnqbE

    Sent the seller a message about this and they have offered me a $2 COUPON for my troubles and really don't seem interested in helping.
    I said to them that phones just shouldn't have a rattling noise like mine as something is clearly loose.

    Now they want me to send it to a local repair centre to get a official report with estimated repair costs for it.
    I don't see how they can do this since it would mean opening up the phone and voiding warranty immediately anyway?

    What should i do?

    • treeman on 01/05/2018 - 15:00
      +1

      Paypal dispute?
      They don't like that.

      Then it would either be a matter of sending it back and getting your money back.
      Or negotiating money off to compensate.

    • c1480us on 04/05/2018 - 19:49

      mine also rattles too, just dispute to paypal let see how it work

  • treeman on 02/05/2018 - 12:15

    Mine finally arriving today.
    How is everyone finding theirs?

    • rensman on 03/05/2018 - 09:36

      loving mine, was a bit difficult to work out switching to english but eventually got there. found this on one of the listed links:

      1 – go here http://www.sharpmobile.com.tw/%E6%9C%8D%E5%8B%99%E6%94%AF%E6…
      2 – click on translate
      3 – Click software download
      4 – download the first file to your pc called "AQUOS S2 card brush complete upgrade package
      00WW_1_35F" NOT the file called higher version!!!!
      5 – After downloaded, change the name of the file to 'SS2-136F-0-00CN-B01-update.zip'
      6 – Copy this to phone.
      7 – on phone dialer dial ##874## and click update at bottom
      8 – Sit back and enjoy

      the key is step 7 - other posts here didn't have the correct code so it didn't work for me till i found this

      • lomie on 03/05/2018 - 13:01

        Correct dialling code for step 7
        *# *# 874 # *# *

        Source link https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2664378#r56230332

        • rensman on 03/05/2018 - 13:25

          for some reason when cutting and pasting ozbargain eliminates the ** symbols, my apologies for wrong info here,
          Lomie thanks for fixing this

      • ilikeit on 03/05/2018 - 16:52

        I had to delete '.zip' from the file ending or it wouldn't work.

        After updating, I had to delete the zip file from the phone or it would continuously try to update.

      • taoz on 06/05/2018 - 00:47

        How bigs the file you need download?
        Cheers

        • treeman on 06/05/2018 - 08:48

          I think it was 1.5gb

        • ilikeit on 08/05/2018 - 19:16
          +1

          1,534,756KB

          Server is fast though.

        • taoz on 08/05/2018 - 21:58

          @ilikeit:
          how do you find the phone so far?
          hos is camera?

        • ilikeit on 08/05/2018 - 22:02
          +1

          @taoz: Haven't really had a chance to use it much. I am happy with it so far though. I would have a look at the photos in the links provided and on youtube reviews

        • treeman on 09/05/2018 - 12:42
          +3

          @ilikeit:

          Okay here are my thoughts so far:

          Phone runs smoothly, haven't had it lag at all, been using for 5 days now.
          Make sure you use stock SMS app, I used a 3rd party one and messages weren't coming through, seems to be fine now.
          Downloaded many apps but no games, I don't plan on using it for games so not sure how that would go but I'd imagine for simple ones it would be fine.
          Phone is light, and screen is visually superb.
          Camera seems fairly good, but I don't really use it.
          Bluetooth seems to work well with Car stereo
          NFC works like a charm
          Haven't had any issues with reception
          For $210 I believe it is the best Android phone you could buy with all the bells and whistles for that price.

        • ilikeit on 10/05/2018 - 18:58

          @treeman: I agree.

  • ilikeit on 03/05/2018 - 16:55
    +1

    I ordered mine on the morning of the 20th April. It was delivered today 3rd May, which is a pretty good timeframe compared to GB, LITB etc. There was no signature, just put under the gate out of reach.

    • OnTheMark on 03/05/2018 - 17:02

      I ordered one on the 20th of April as well - first tracking showed up on the 28th of April and then nothing since the 29th which is a bit of a worry:

      2018-04-29 09:15 Shenzhen, leave Shenzhen to Shenzhen Postal Courier Company (Hong Kong) Business Department
      2018-04-29 09:15 Shenzhen, leave Shenzhen and send to Sydney
      2018-04-28 00:04 Shenzhen city, Shenzhen Postal Courier logistics Company International Business Branch has received (name: Zhou Yaiying, contact Tel:)

      If you don't mind me asking, when was yours shipped and how long between tracking showing that it had left China until it showed as in Australia?

      • treeman on 03/05/2018 - 17:35
        +1

        I ordered on the 10th and got it yesterday. Sometimes it takes a while to get somewhere. Have you checked Australia Post tracking?
        For some reason it updated for me on there but not joy buy website.

        • OnTheMark on 03/05/2018 - 17:40
          +1

          Thanks - I've been using 17Track which I'd expect to pick up tracking from Australia Post - I just tried Australia Post directly and it's not showing any details yet.

          Thanks for that anyway - leaves plenty of hope that it'll still get here - I hadn't heard of anyone taking more than about 14 days previously!

        • ilikeit on 03/05/2018 - 20:35
          +1

          @OnTheMark: at least it's more than double the speed of LITB who takes about 2 weeks to even ship.

        • ilikeit on 03/05/2018 - 20:35

          @OnTheMark: at least it's more than double the speed of LITB who takes about 2 weeks to even ship.

      • ilikeit on 03/05/2018 - 20:34
        +1

        My tracking started on the 22/4. But this morning it updated to Sydney on 30/4 and then Chullora 1/5. So I pretty much knew it'd arrive today.

        The tracking on the website was several days behind in the end, so chill and you'll get yours next week by the looks.

        • OnTheMark on 03/05/2018 - 21:44

          No worries - thanks.

          I'm just getting a bit anxious because my LG G3 is playing up…

        • OnTheMark on 10/05/2018 - 20:54
          +1

          @OnTheMark:

          Mine turned up today - a total of 20 days from ordering - not too bad in the end really.

          Took a bit of time to sort out unlocking the bootloader, installing a treble Oreo image and then restoring a few apps and their data with Titanium backup. I'm happy with the end result though!

  • taoz on 08/05/2018 - 08:22

    To anyone who has this phone, how is performing?
    How is the camera?

    • treeman on 09/05/2018 - 12:43
      +1

      Have replied above.

  • jackychen on 10/05/2018 - 10:51
    +2

    Just received mine today, extremely happy with it!! :)

  • treeman on 11/05/2018 - 11:38
    +1

    Interesting tidbit but my phone has been mistaken as an Iphone X twice already after a week. Nice fashion statement. I laugh and say no, I'm not paying for that.

    I'm a teacher btw.

  • navegante88 on 11/05/2018 - 12:09

    My initial reviews of the phone after using it for 3 weeks

    I really like it, coming from a G5 Plus I am quite impressed. It looks a lot better than it does in pictures and I believe I have got great value from the price I've paid.

    Pros:
    - Beautiful screen
    - Camera is very fast and responsive
    - Very small and compact
    - Quite fast
    - Definitely value for money

    Cons:
    - Phone is very slippery with case supplied and is pretty ugly
    - Screen not as sensitive touchwise as other phones
    - Not a huge fan of some features of smile ux (no easy way to turn on / off sim card, fingerprint scanner options and so on)

    • treeman on 11/05/2018 - 12:30

      What's the deal with the smile ux, I have not even bothered with it, haven't signed up, do I need to?
      What advantages are there if I do?

      Thanks.

      • navegante88 on 13/05/2018 - 21:35

        Hi I may have used wrong terminology but I was referring to the default OS provided by sharp. Coming from A g5 plus I feel that motorola did a better job with its software relative to sharp.

        eg Motorola's finger print sensor and functions were so useful (able to swipe left sensor to go back and swipe right to switch programs). sharp only lets you use it as a back button.

        Motorola also has the shake phone to activate camera and torch. And has an easier way to turn off sim by sliding down.

        But apart from that I absolutelty lovethis phone

        • treeman on 14/05/2018 - 09:53

          I'm with you. But it asks me to sign up and log in, but I haven't done this, do I need to? What benefits are there to do so?

        • navegante88 on 14/05/2018 - 13:20
          +1

          @treeman: I haven't tried but i'm assuming it'll make it easier to backup your phone with another sharp account and you will be able to access a few other things. I usually never sign up those things when I get a new phone

        • treeman on 14/05/2018 - 14:09

          @ivanson86:

          Cheers for the info, that makes sense.

        • shiznit on 17/05/2018 - 09:46

          If you go to settings, then soft key settings, you'll see that you can tap the fingerprint sensor for back, long press it for home and swipe it for recents.

          Also, some more useful shortcut gestures in settings, special settings, somatosensory motion.

  • jjsnacks on 13/05/2018 - 09:45

    Hrmm keen to try one of these

    • ilikeit on 13/05/2018 - 10:15

      No regrets here.

      • treeman on 13/05/2018 - 11:38

        No regrets either.

  • MishyMoo on 13/05/2018 - 12:34

    Is this phone any good if it's not rooted and flashed?

    • ilikeit on 13/05/2018 - 12:36
      +1

      I don't plan to do either to mine. Android is able to be pretty customised out of the box. Depends if you want custom roms. It will eventually get Oreo and Treble.

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