Smart, sleek and very Sharp

A NEW 4G smartphone with good performance thanks to a deca-core processor and impressive camera quality, the Sharp Z2 is bound to draw admiring glances for its premium design.
Boasting a tough uni-metal body yet staying slim at just 8.4mm thick, the Z2 has a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 1920x1080 pixel resolution. It’s available in both silver and gold and the gold one tested for this review looked elegant with its two white strips at the top and bottom of the display.
What makes Z2 outstanding is its ten-core processor. The Z2 uses deca-core Helio X20 mobile processor from MediaTek, which is well known for making alternative low-cost mobile processors and thus allowing affordable mobile phones to hit the market. With the MediaTek deca-core processors Sharp manages to keep Z2’s price below the Bt10,000 mark while retaining good performance.

MediaTek designed the X2 to save energy thanks to its Tri-Cluster CPU structure. The CPU’s ten cores are divided into three clusters – four A53 cores running at 1.4GHz, four other A53 cores running at 2.0 GHz and two A72 cores running at 2.3 GHz.
The Z2 is designed to delegate simple tasks to one cluster of cores, while directing more complex and therefore more power-hungry tasks to the other clusters. If the smartphone is doing only simple tasks – such as sending text messages or running the calculator – on one cluster, the other clusters can power down, which helps extend battery life. And speaking of batteries, the one is the Z2 supports a fast-charging function, allowing 50 per cent of capacity to be recharged in just half an hour.
During the test, I found the Z2 had good performance. Its touch screen and menus were very responsive. And while it wasn’t super fast like flagship smartphones powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon flagship CPUs, it was more than speedy enough. HD video clips played smoothly as did High-Resolution Audio files.
I used AnTuTu Benchmark Version 6.2.6 app to test the Z2 and it achieved a score of 91,729. That didn’t land it in the top 10 on AnTuTu’s list of Performance Android Smartphones website for November, which saw LeEco Pro 3 come top with 160,858 points and Numbia Z11 tenth with 137,685 points.
The AnTuTu app nonetheless gave the Z2 a thumbs up for its high-end CPU performance and support of large apps with excellent multitasking. For 3D game performance, AnTuTu app suggested that Sharp Z2 would be better for playing 3D games in low-quality mode.
The Z2 also has plenty of working memory or 4 gigabytes of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. The 4GB of RAM support its multitasking performance.

For me, the fact that Z2 can play Hi-Res Audio files is a bonus as it can double as a high-quality music player. I tested this function with Sony’s MDR-1ABT Hi-Res Audio headphones and I was impressed by the music quality. I played Hi-Res Audio files in FLAC 24bit/192kHz format and found that the music had good clarity, excellent details of instruments, loud and clear vocals and a powerful and deep bass.
Sharp Z2 also has a fast LTE 4G connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and I found that apps were downloaded fast and my snapshots were backed up to my Google Photos cloud storage in no time at all. I used the Ookla Speedtest app to measure the connection speed and the Z2 scored high, achieving a download speed of 82.12 Mbps and upload speed of 31.66 Mbps.
The Z2 has a fingerprint sensor on its back below the camera’s lens and flash. The sensor worked effectively, allowing me to unlock and wake up the smartphone in a snap.
Sharp Z2 features a 16-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash and Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF). The PDAF is a technique that divides incoming light into two pairs of images and then compares them to determine if an object is in front focus or rear focus. I found that the rear camera took superb shots especially in a well-lit environment.
Its front camera has 8 megapixel with f/1.8 aperture lens that has wide 82-degree view angle, good for group selfie shots.
Sharp Z2 has a suggested retail price of Bt9,990. If buyers take a new number with TrueMove H or switch from other provider to TrueMove H and subscribe for a monthly package for 4G+ Super Samart 499, they will get a Bt3,000 discount.

Key Specs
- Operating System: Android 6.0 Marshmallow
- Processor: MT6797 Deca-Core (Dual-A72 2.3GHz + Quad-A53 2.0GHz + Quad-A53 1.4GHz)
- Memory: 4GB RAM
- Storage: 32GB ROM (Supports up to Micro-SD 128GB memory card)
- Display: 5.5” FHD LTPS display
- Camera: 16 MP AF PDAF main camera, 8 MP F1.8 82 degrees wide-view-angle front camera
- Connectivity: BT4.1, 802.11a b/g/n, GPS/AGPS + GLONASS
- Sensors: AL/Proximity sensor, E-compass, Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Magnetic sensor
- Battery: 3000mAh
- SIM Card: Dual nano SIM, one sharing microSD card slot
- Dimension: 153(L) x 76(B) x 8.4(W) mm
- Weight: 160g