14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese company Sharp has just unveiled the sequel to its Aquos Crystal smartphone that made its debut on the market last year. The new device comes with slightly improved specs, but they might not be enough to justify an upgrade.
Anyway, the most attractive feature is related to design. Sharp Aquos Crystal 2 features an almost bezel-less display, which seems to be the norm in Japan in the last few years.
The first improvement over the previous model is the slightly larger 5.2-inch S-PureLED display included in Aquos Crystal 2, which supports the same HD (720p) resolution.
Unfortunately, even though the smartphone features an almost bezel-less display, which might appeal to many customers, Sharp Aquos Crystal 2 is not really a sleek device by today's standards.
The handset measures 136 x 71 x 11mm and weighs 154g (battery included). On the bright side, Sharp's mid-range smartphone is waterproof and features mobile wallet support.
It comes with LTE and HD Voice support
On the inside, the Aquos Crystal 2 packs the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chipset like the predecessor, but features more RAM (2GB) and internal memory (16GB). On top of that, users will be able to further expand storage up to 128GB via microSD card slot.
The 8-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording has been kept for this model as well.
However, the front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera has been upgraded to a 2.1-megapixel shutter, which is now placed at the bottom because of the almost bezel-less display that doesn't allow for anything to be put above it.
It's also worth mentioning that the Sharp Aquos Crystal 2 comes with a Grip Magic sensor, which is placed on the side to detect touches.
Sharp Aquos Crystal 2 will be launched in Japan at Softbank sometime in mid-July. It's unclear whether or not the smartphone will be released outside the country at any point during its existence.
