Sharp, the Japanese electronics manufacturer, announced the release of Sharp AQUOS 822SH, its latest mobile phone with TV capabilities. The clamshell handset is available from December 15 in 5 different colors: black, white, gold, silver and pink (for girls... or boys who care for pink devices).

The phone looks almost exactly like the SH-920 (or 920SH) model from Sharp and if it weren't for the text under the keypad saying "B22SH", I could have sworn it's the same device. But it is not, since the SH-920 was announced almost two months ago and has different features.

Sharp AQUOS 822SH is packed in an aluminum case, measures 110.6 x 50 x 18 millimeters and weighs only 120 grams. As the SH-920 model, the new handset features a flipping screen and 1-Seg support for mobile TV. Moreover, it provides WCDMA and HSDPA connectivity, a decent 2 Megapixel camera, microSD card support for boosting the internal memory, infrared support and other cool features.

What's confusing about Sharp AQUOS 822SH is that its 3 inch screen is QVGA, and for those who don't know, a QVGA display is a 320 × 240 pixel one. I can't say that 320 × 240 is not a good resolution, but since the SH-920 phone has a WVGA display (meaning 854 × 480 pixels) I would have expected the new phone to have a similar one. Or maybe this new model is actually an older one that only now got the chance to be released, which would explain the lower features when compared to Sharp SH-920.

Sharp AQUOS 822SH is currently available only in Japan, where Mobile TV is a technology that attracts many users. There are no details for the moment about the handset's price, nor about a possible availability on other markets.