Sharp cuts palmtop from Android cloth

Netbook-cum-smartphone out next week

Anyone awaiting the arrival of netbooks running Google's Android OS so impatiently that they'll go anywhere to get one should take a trip to Tokyo next week.

On 23 July, Sharp will release Lynx, a 5in clamshell smartphone that combines a Qwerty keyboard and a touch-sensitive 960 x 480 screen, though there's also a trackball if you don't want to put your grubby mitts on the display.

Connectivity is provided by NTT DoCoMo's HSDPA 3G cellular network and the Lynx - model number SH-10B - also has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on board. It has a GPS pick-up too.

There's a 5.3Mp camera on the base of the Lynx that's been designed for snaps and scanning barcodes. A front-facing 0.4Mp camera can be used for video calls.

The whole thing's designed to be a highly pocketable browsing, entertainment - you can copy across recordings made by Sharp's DVRs and Blu-ray players - and communications - it has email and Twitter widgets - device. The Lynx comes with 2GB of Micro SD card storage and 4GB on-board capacity.

The compact gadget measures 148 x 83 x 18mm and weighs a palm-friendly 230g. ®