After the 923SH clamshell, which will be released tomorrow in Japan via SoftBank, Sharp has unveiled yet another new and advanced handset with an Aquos display: the SH706i. Unlike the 923SH, Sharp SH706i will not see the light of the Japanese market thanks to SoftBank, as it's scheduled for a release via NTT DoCoMo, the largest mobile operator in Japan.

Sharp SH706i is a slider that weighs 117 grams and, when closed, measures 109 x 50 x 15.9 millimeters. The handset looks really nice, slid or not, and has three color versions: black, pink and aqua green. These only differ when the phone's alphanumeric keypad is unveiled, as that's the only part that gets to change its color, the rest of the device remaining all-black.

The Aquos LCD packed in Sharp SH706i is a wide 3.0 inch touchscreen one with 480 x 848 pixels and 16.7 million colors. Together with the handset's 1Seg feature, this display should offer users a nice mobile TV experience.

The other features of SH706i include: a "Touch Cruiser" navigation key, built-in GPS, 3G connectivity, Dolby technology for a high-quality audio experience, Media player with lots of formats supported, Bluetooth, bar-code reader, full HTML browser, support for Flash Lite 3.0, email, a 2 Megapixel camera with VGA video recording, multitasking capabilities and support for microSD and microSDHC cards (up to 8GB).

The price of Sharp's new good-looking handset is not yet known, but the phone will be available for purchase starting July 11, under the name of FOMA SH706i. This date coincides with the release of iPhone 3G, not only globally, but also in Japan, where it will be sold by the aforementioned SoftBank. I wonder whether Japanese users will care more about new iPhone than the Sharp slider... Either way, they surely have nice options to choose from.