The Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo revealed its winter line-up of smartphones, which includes Sharp's Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, the first smartphone shipping with Indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) panel.

The IGZO technology uses a new thin-film transistor which provides two unique features on the smartphones: an improved touch response and efficient battery consumption in the handset.

"Using our fingers to write on the SH-02E's screen (typically a signal-to-noise minefield), we didn't notice a huge reduction in missed strokes, although a more rigorous head-to-head comparison with a conventional touchscreen is probably warranted. The most impressive part of the demo was an installation emphasizing the IGZO-based display's power efficiency - it used only a quarter of the power of its competitor when idle, and about 25 percent less during active use," reported The Verge.

The Aquos Phone Zeta sports a 4.9-inch LCD display with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution and 300 pixels per inch (ppi). A powerful Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz powers the device. The smartphone packs a whopping 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.2-megapixel front-facing snapper.

The device will include Wi-Fi, NFC, and LTE capabilities. As the display of the smartphone is more translucent than a typical LCD, the device requires less backlighting, which reduces power consumption. The device is also expected to pack in a minimum of 2000mAh battery. The device will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). Smartphones users would have expected the handset to run on the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

"The world's first phone with an IGZO-based display is a bit of a letdown. But on the plus side, the high-density IGZO displays that Sharp has been teasing us with are now that much closer to market - something that we can all look forward to," stated The Verge.

The Aquos Phone Zeta will be available either from November or December this year and will be limited to the Japanese market only. However, the new IGZO technology is something other smartphone makers will be looking to introduce in their future smartphones.

With competition in the smartphone market growing rapidly, handset manufacturers are coming up with new technologies to stay ahead in the race. Time will tell if these innovations cut ice with smartphone users and can make a lasting impact.