Vodafone have announced the Vodafone Sharp 904SH 3G, a mobile phone with extreme features that have never been seen before outside the lab. The Vodafone Sharp 904SH is the first mobile phone to come with true VGA resolution LCD display (that's four times the resolution of current top-end QVGA screens), as well as a 3.2 megapixel camera (with 2x optical zoom, naturally), FeliCa e-ticketing capability, face recognition and the world's smallest six-axis full 3D motion sensor. Why? To view the Universe on your mobile, of course!

Say what?!

Read all about the Universe and other amazing features on the new Vodafone Sharp 904SH after the jump.

[Source: The Register, Vodafone]

The Vodafone Sharp 904SH and Face recognition

As well as the Universe, the Vodafone Sharp 904SH also comes with face recognition. A great way to render your mobile phone useless if stolen by muggers, the phone will only work if it recognizes your face. The face recognition feature is engaged as soon as you open its clamshell, so you never even know it's there - until it's stolen, of course, when the phone shuts up and sulks until it's handed back to its rightful owner. (Note: the user doesn't see the picture above, it's just a demonstration of how the mobile phone recognizes your face).

Vodafone, the Universe and everything

The Vodafone Sharp 904SH's best feature must be the world's smallest six-axis motion-sensor. This lets the mobile phone measure posture in all directions in 3D. Why? Er, to scan the sky for constellations to give "a completely new and unprecedented mobile experience", of course!

As one of the demonstrations of this motion control sensor, Vodafone have included a trial version of "Seiza o Sagaso" ("Let’s look for constellations"), provided by Vodafone K.K.), an application that displays constellations in real time depending on which way a mobile handset is pointed towards the sky. "Seiza o Sagaso" lets customers transform their handset into a planisphere to scan the night sky for constellation, creating a completely new and unprecedented mobile experience.

Unprecedented, certainly, but it still doesn't explain why you'd put a six-axis motion sensor in a mobile phone in the first place. Oh, who cares, if my Tissot T-Touch compass watch impresses people (well, me anyway!) when its dials turn to point to North, just imagine how impressed your mates will be when you show them the Universe moving about on your mobile phone as you twist and turn it! And imagine how you'd laugh when an envious mugger tries to get it to work, but can't, because the phone identifies him as a Chav, and therefore unworthy of seeing the beauty contained within!

Unfortunately, the Vodafone Sharp 904SH is a Japanese mobile phone, which sucks, as Vodafone and Sharp are both global brands. Why can't the rest of us have one? Out April 2006, if you're lucky enough to live in Japan.