Question: Any IP enabled Sharps past 903?

[vincentr]

Hi, I apologize if this is answered anywhere else ... I desperately need a new phone but want both the ability to browse HTML in multibyte and WAP, besides the camera, SMS, voice, etc. From what I can tell, all the Sharps from the past 2 years have no IP interface available in the U.S. Will someone please tell me what the last real IP enabled Sharp was? Thanks experts and happy holidays.

[stevetam]

No JDM ones but you can use the HK,TW, China versions of some phones.

There is the sx862 (HK), wx-t92 (TW) and some other Sharps that have 3G
The chinese versiosn don't have 3G, only 2G say SH9020C or Sh9010C. There are a couple of lowerend models but the ones I listed are the higher end ones and they should all be able to use internet straight out of the box.

[vincentr]

Ok, I see. You've confirmed my worst fears - no Japanese fonts.

Thanks for your help! I'll consider another vendor...

[AL9999]

Yeah unfortunately the 903SH (and its Euro version) were the last Sharp phones to have a proper Japanese font embedded, support Japanese encodings like ShiftJIS/EUC and be able to access the internet.

I've seen several screenshots that show the Chinese mainland versions of Sharp phones displaying Japanese characters in certain screens, but in other ones displaying squares where they should have been, so I think they don't support Japanese encoding formats. I don't have those phones to play with unfortunately so I can't say for sure.

[yangj08]

Yeah unfortunately the 903SH (and its Euro version) were the last Sharp phones to have a proper Japanese font embedded, support Japanese encodings like ShiftJIS/EUC and be able to access the internet.

I've seen several screenshots that show the Chinese mainland versions of Sharp phones displaying Japanese characters in certain screens, but in other ones displaying squares where they should have been, so I think they don't support Japanese encoding formats. I don't have those phones to play with unfortunately so I can't say for sure.

At least the production version of the SH9020C is capable of Japanese display and inputwith assistance. (I also remember the one where the SH9020C showed squares in place of kana, but that was pre-production, wasn't it?)

[AL9999]

Yang... why couldn't you post that link up sooner!?

The app on that linked page works perfectly in my 903... I can type Japanese now! YAY! Now my 903 is (near) perfect

Now back on topic...

Ok, good to know that the Chinese-market phones have their own Japanese font embedded, but those screens don't solve a question I'm still wondering - do they support Japanese encoding? If they don't, then emails coming in from Japanese phones will garble on arrival (outgoing ones probably use Unicode so that's no problem). That's something I'd still need to test first.

But, this is looking very good. I think at this rate the mainland China phones are the ones I'm going to go for, but that's once 2100 3G is integrated into them. Otherwise, they're the most feature-packed version of Sharp's overseas phones, and they're not branded either.

[yangj08]

Yang... why couldn't you post that link up sooner!?

The app on that linked page works perfectly in my 903... I can type Japanese now! YAY! Now my 903 is (near) perfect

Now back on topic...

Ok, good to know that the Chinese-market phones have their own Japanese font embedded, but those screens don't solve a question I'm still wondering - do they support Japanese encoding? If they don't, then emails coming in from Japanese phones will garble on arrival (outgoing ones probably use Unicode so that's no problem). That's something I'd still need to test first.

But, this is looking very good. I think at this rate the mainland China phones are the ones I'm going to go for, but that's once 2100 3G is integrated into them. Otherwise, they're the most feature-packed version of Sharp's overseas phones, and they're not branded either.

I think the phone supports Unicode only- the PiClip website is Unicode so it would show up fine on most phones. I think the phone can't handle Shift-JIS. Thus, anyone sending e-mail to a SH9020C would need to send mail directly from PiClip (which sends in Unicode).

[AL9999]

Sigh, that's a deal killer for me then if that's the case. No Japanese encoding means vritually every Japanese keitai site you can access outside Japan (there aren't many) is off limits, while receiving emails will be impossible too (they always get sent in ISO-2022-JP (JIS) encoding).

You could use PiClip and then use the same creator's mailer application I think, but that becomes a bit of a nightmare in the end really...

Still, glad I got a JP input application for my 903 at last.