The latest smartphone form Sharp called the Aquos Phone Zeta SH–02E is to be the world first that will feature IGZO tech in its screen display. Sharp announced the phone for the winter line-up of Japan’s biggest phone network, NTT DoCoMo, and that it is to be released by the end of the year. IGZO stands for indium gallium zinc oxide, that being the semi-conductor technology used for the manufacturer of the TFT screens which is 4.9 inchs in size and has a resolution of 720×1280 (300 ppi). The biggest advantage of this new tech is that it can achieve higher screen pixel density by using smaller pixels, more accurate touch sensitivity and offer lower power consumption by reducing refresh rate when not using fast changing images on screen. The smaller pixels also result in the need for less power for back lighting. Some of the apps to benefit from better touch sensitivity are ones where text is input using finger-handwriting and finger-painting / sketching apps.

The Sharp Aquos Zeta SH-02E will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chipset featuring a quad-core Krait CPU running at 1.5GHz and Adreno 320 for graphics processing. Other tech include a rear camera that is 16MP  with LED flash and a 1.2MP front-facing camera, Wi-Fi and LTE 100Mbps connectivity, NFC and a large 2,320 mAh battery, that in conjuction with IGZO tech should keep the phone running for longer periods before recharging; Sharp’s claims is about 2 days, including email and app use.

It is not yet known if the Aquos Zeta SH-02E will be available outside of Japan or when. As Sharp is a major supplier of display technology to Apple, there have been rumors that they would like to use IGZO in some future devices, such as, maybe the fabled ‘mini-iPad’.