Sprint hosted a “Take the Edge” off event in New York City the other day. There wasn’t too much mystery, especially when one got there and saw the Sharp logo all over the place. As predicted by almost every website, the new Sharp/Sprint device was a no-bezel device dubbed the Sharp Aquos Crystal.
You might think the lack of a bezel would make you put your fingers on the screen quite a lot. Sharp was smart enough to design a slight rise to the screen, so you can actually feel the edge. It’s quite nice and feels good in the hand. The minimal edge makes the five-inch screen seem smaller, a welcome thing in the post Samsung Note world.
Easy to hold – hard to put down.
It would be easy to balk at this phone only having a 720p screen (and how awesome is it that we live in an era where 720p on a phone is an “only”), but in our time using it, we found that the Aquos Crystal’s screen was easy on the eyes, sharp, and crisp. One minor issue we saw was the screen was a bit too reflective for our tastes. Although, that could have been the venue lighting. We didn’t get to try it outside.
Sprint and Sharp have apparently paid attention to the people who don’t care for skinned Android devices. While there are certainly some tweaks, there’s nothing as heavy as Sense or NatureUX here. It may even be a lighter skin than the one Motorola has been using. Considering there’s only a 1.2 GHz chip inside, that bodes well for the phone’s performance. While the Aquos Crystal isn’t going to shatter the sound barrier, it should get a good 80 to 90 percent of users through the day. We found it responsive and swift.
One interesting quirk due to the screen: the front-facing camera is on the bottom of the phone, not the top (as seen above). It’s not nearly as awkward of a layout as it sounds. In fact, it’s barely noticeable.
Sprint and Sharp have also put the same Harman Kardon chip in here as HTC did in the HTC One M8 Harman Kardon Edition (a.k.a. the HTC Mouthfull). Things were a bit too loud when we tried the phone out, but the bass was strong enough that we could actually feel it through the phone speakers when we held it. That’s more than a little impressive.
The most impressive thing about the Aquos Crystal may be availability and cost. While we don’t yet have an exact date, Sprint will launch the screen-centric handset not just on the traditional Sprint network, but on Boost and Virgin as well. The cost for those pay-per-month networks will be $150, while it will be $10 a month on Sprint with EZpay or $240 up front. That Virgin price will be cheaper than a lot of phones that don’t have LTE, let alone SPARK. I’m not sure what exactly is going to keep someone from buying the $150 version and using it on Sprint (last I checked, they activate Boost/Virgin phones too), but even if you can’t that’s a great price for what looks to be a strong device.
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