Japan : J-PHONE Co., Ltd. announced it will launch the J-SH53 by Sharp, which comes with a built-in CCD mobile camera capable of photographing 1 million effective pixels for high-quality pictures. Scheduled to go on sale after late May 2003, the J-SH53 is also Movie Sha-mail (video messaging) compatible.

With its state-of-the-art 1 million effective pixel “Megapixel CCD Mobile Camera”, the J-SH53 can take pictures in resolutions of up to 1144 x 858 dots for high quality prints. The handset also comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA*1 “System LCD” display for unsurpassed screen quality and resolution.

The J-SH53 features expanded “Super Mail” capabilities, making it possible to send MPEG-4*2 compatible video messages (Movie Sha-mail) of up to 10 seconds in length and pictures (Sha-mail) taken in wallpaper mode (QVGA size). Gaming enthusiasts will also appreciate the J-SH53’s expanded Java™ application storage capacity, the industry’s largest at 256 kilobytes, for true 3D mobile gaming.

Like previous models in the series, the J-SH53 is SD Memory Card compatible to enable the convenient use of music player and voice recorder applications. Marking an industry first, the J-SH53 comes with an e-book viewer function to be used with SD Cards, allowing users to view electronic dictionary and e-book contents.

To make use of the global brand appeal of the Vodafone Group, the world’s largest mobile community of which J-PHONE is a member, the J-SH53 comes emblazoned with the Vodafone logo. To further increase the Vodafone brand presence in Japan, future handsets will also be Vodafone-branded in a similar fashion.

With the addition of the J-SH53 to the J-PHONE lineup, there are now a total of eight* Movie Sha-mail handsets, thereby bringing the pleasures of video messaging to an even greater number of people.

Main Features of the J-SH53 (Manufactured by Sharp)

• State-of-the-art “Megapixel CCD Mobile Camera”
The J-SH53 comes with a built-in 1 million effective pixel “Megapixel CCD Mobile CCD Camera” that can take pictures in resolutions of up to 1144 x 858 dots. Pictures taken in megapixel mode can be saved to SD Memory Cards and printed out on PC printers or DPE shops for high quality prints. The handset also comes with a wide variety of functions including 7x (20 step) digital zoom, motor drive, close up, thumbnail display and resizing.

• High-quality and high-resolution 2.4-inch QVGA “System LCD”
Using Sharp’s proprietary CG Silicon technology, the J-SH53 features a “System LCD” display for unsurpassed high-quality resolution. With its top-of-class, large-size 2.4 inch screen with QVGA (240 x 320) resolution and 260,000 colors, the J-SH53 can vividly display pictures taken with its megapixel CCD camera. Furthermore, the handset comes with a 65,536 color, 1.2-inch GF color liquid crystal sub-display.

• Expanded functions for “Super Mail” and Java™ applications
In addition to the Nancy file format used in previous Movie Sha-mail models, the J-SH53 is compatible with the widely used MPEG-4 format. The “Super Mail” maximum file size has also been increased, making it possible to send video messages (Movie Sha-mail) twice the size of those possible on previous models for a total of 10 seconds in length (when attaching an MPEG-4 or a JPEG file, one message can contain a maximum of 30 kilobytes). Pictures taken in Wallpaper Mode (QVGA size) can be sent or received as a Sha-mail.

Storage capacity for Java™ applications has been expanded to an industry best of 256 kilobytes, making it possible for users to enjoy true 3D polygon games, e-mail applications with voice recognition.

• Wide range of functions for use with SD Memory Card
The J-SH53 is the first mobile handset to include an e-book viewer function so electronic dictionary and e-book content (in XMDF* data format) saved to SD Memory Cards can be viewed. Users can now download e-books from websites or kiosks in convenience stores for mobile reading enjoyment. The J-SH53 also comes replete with a wide array of functions that make use of SD Memory cards, including the previously offered music player, voice recorder, digital camera mode and extended-time camcorder functions.

*XMDF: Abbreviation for “Mobile Document Format”. Developed by Sharp as an e-book format for mobile viewing of text and pictures. Currently an approximate 4000 titles from 40 publishers are available.

J-SH53 Main Specifications
Width x Height x Thickness Approx. 50 x 98 x 24mm (when folded, excluding antenna protrusion)
Weight Approx. 115g
Continuous talk time/Continuous standby time Approx. 120 min./430 hrs. (when folded)
Maximum no. of displayable characters (full size) 156 characters (12 characters by 13 lines) / 400 characters (20 characters by 20 lines) / 72 characters (12 characters by 6 lines)
Mail storage capacity Up to 2800 mails
Ring tone voices 40
Java™ application storage capacity (maximum no.) 3MB, shared (up to 100 applications)
Bilingual interface Available
Handset colors Slick silver (see photo), dark black, shiny beige

Suggested retail price (standard set): open price
The standard set consists of the mobile handset, a battery pack, rapid charger, desktop cradle, SD Memory Card (8MB), stereo headphones, optical digital conversion plug and an analog conversion cable.

Availability
After late May 2003