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Yesterday we learned of the Sharp Aquos Crystal, the latest smartphone by the Japanese company. It’s an edge-to-edge smartphone with a border so thin it almost doesn’t look real. But it is real, and it’s headed to Sprint here in the United States. In case you missed the specs rodeo yesterday here’s a quick recap:
- 5-inch edge-to-edge HD display
- Android 4.4.2 KitKat
- Sprint Spark LTE
- 8MP rear-facing and 1.2MP front-facing cameras
- HD Voice
- Embedded 2,040mAh battery
- 1.2GHz quad-core processor
- 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage
- Harman’s Clari-Fi audio technology
Nothing terribly exciting going on there, but for the $239 Sprint is looking to sell it for (that’s $10 per month with $0 down on Sprint’s Easy Pay upgrade program) you can’t ask for a whole ton. Sharp may not be the most solid name in the phone industry, but the company has established itself as a pretty good electronics OEM over the years and it’s nice to see them finally breaking into the United States wireless market.
Now let’s just hope the bigger, more powerful sibling Sharp Aquos Crystal X will follow right behind it. No release date details for the Aquos Crystal just yet, but you can bet we’ll be passing that info along as soon as we get it. We’re in New York City to test the thing out for ourselves so stay tuned to Phandroid if you’re looking for some hands-on coverage.
Am I trippin, or Is the ear hole on the bottom
Now that you mention it, I hope there’s a speaker on the top of the phone? My guess is that’s a notification LED and microphone at the bottom.
More than likely its the front facing camera. With that e2e display, there woulndt be any room for it at the top.
Oh, duh. I’m not that smart :-)
It’s on the top. I’d LOVE this phone if the bottom bezel was about half of what it currently is.
You just randomly throw that out there …. It’s on the top.. like where the very top, if so, how do u place it on your ear… Something is definitely not right about the image of this phone
Speaker? You actually use these to make phone calls or something?
LoL dude what speaker, you mean the one That’s placed at the bottom to talk through, where is the speaker for the ear
It might use an inductive earpiece. There’s no tear downs online yet and not locally available for myself to look into.
LOL. It’s actually on top. You can check out the video on sprint. They call it some kind of direct wave receiver. So I think the speaker is under the glass.
Here’s the link:
http://www.sprint.com/landings/sharp_aquoscrystal/index.html?ECID=vanity:sharp
Maybe you have to talk with the phone upside down?
Hahahaha honestly I was thinking the same thing
I love the no borders in the top… but I incredibly hate the extra border in the bottom.
it looks ugly.
Looks like those Softbank connection is coming in…about time America got some more Japanese phones…. Maybe Panasonic will be next.
Asian market has best phones hands down…if only Sprint’s network wasn’t so
fu¢ken whack I would jump ship..I want that Harman Kardon M8!!!!!
Just flash the HK stuff to a regular m8 you can find it over on xda
Maybe if the border would have been on top instead of the bottom, this phone would have looked a lot nicer! That way the camera, earpiece and led light would have been on top. It’s a good start for Sharp
And it would of made one-hand use easier…new iPhone 6 made bottom bezel smaller for one hand use.
I couldn’t handle no bottom bezel… It stretches my hand to reach all the way to the bottom of my phones bottom bezel with one hand. I think they should have divided the bezel in half so it would be balanced :o
This phone tickles my OCD the wrong way.
No GSM/Sim card? – no, thanks
Fake. That pic shows an “LTE” icon at the top and we all know Sprint has a non-existent LTE network.
Yayy upside down phone xD
I am a sucker for great design but Sprint is like the dark side. Tempting, but nothing good will come of it.
Only good news here is the price point.
Am I missing something, or do you have to flip the phone upside down to talk on it??
I’m wondering the same thing.
The screen is the speaker (seriously).
This is an awesome device…..If it were the year 2011
For $239? I doubt you can get anything with half of specs for $239 in 2011.
Late 2012, then. The device might feel a bit sluggish regardless.
This is an interesting device.
SD support? Might make a decent media player/first phone for the kids.
This phone would be awesome if it were turned upside down. We need less bezel on the bottom to reach everywhere with our thumb — not on top.
So, how does the proximity sensor detect your face during a call if its at the bottom of the phone? Wierd.