It’s been quite a while since we’ve heard noise from Sharp in the mobile arena, but if their latest press release is any indication they could be the manufacturer behind Sprint’s latest smartphone. The Japanese company has announced the Sharp Aquos Crystal, a 5-inch smartphone with a “frame-less structure and crystal display.” They also have “crystal sound,” and other cheeky cliches you can expect them to exploit in their marketing campaign for the thing.
The press release mentions that the model is a joint development between Sprint and Sharp, and that we can expect to see it launch for the former’s parent carrier Softbank in Japan. A United States launch is also “expected” says Sharp, and we can’t imagine tomorrow’s Sprint event in New York City is bringing us anything other than the Aquos Crystal. Sprint’s original event invite urged us to “take the edge off,” likely alluding to the device’s edge-to-edge display, and was designed with some of the very same styling you see in the wallpaper of the Aquos Crystal above.
Here are the known specs of the thing so far:
- 5-inch 1280 x 720 edge-to-edge display
- 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor
- 1.5GB of RAM
- 8GB of internal storage
- Android 4.4.2 KitKat
- Harman-Kardon audio
- Battery life advertised for up to 3 days (2,040 mAh)
Not the most exciting spec sheet we’ve ever laid eyes on, but not the most terrible either. The press release mentions that pre-sales begin tomorrow and that the device will launch on August 29th, though it wasn’t clear whether those dates were for Softbank, Sprint or both.
Sharp also revealed the Aquos Crystal X, which is the smartphone I’m betting we all wish Sprint was getting instead of the entry-level offering mentioned above. This bad boy is a 5.5-inch device with 1080p resolution, a Snapragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage and more. It’s also adopting Sharp’s whole “crystal display and sound” qualifications, so it should turn out to be a nice option for folks who are looking for something different.
Unfortunately the Aquos Crystal X is only planned for a Japan launch at this time, though they didn’t immediately rule out availability in other regions. They also don’t expect the device to be available until after the year turns, so there’s a chance things could change by the time it’s ready to launch. We’ll just have to hope Sprint makes an effort to get this bigger, more powerful brother onto their network at some point next year.
