After being first announced by Sharp Japan yesterday, Sprint has formally confirmed a future release of the Sharp Aquos Crystal Android smartphone. The phone will be sold starting later this year for $239.99 on Sprint Easy Pay, while Boost and Virgin Mobile will be offering the device for $149.99.
As first detailed yesterday, the phone features a 5-inch 720p HD resolution display without top or side bezels. The phone also features software developed by Sharp such as Clip Now, which takes screenshots with a swipe and makes them easily sharable with their own links to use across social media, Speaktoit Assistant, a natural language personal assistant that can perform a number of tasks, such as answer questions, open apps, place calls, and send messages. The phone also includes Harman Kardon Clari-Fi and LiveStage audio technologies along with Direct Wave Receiver audio technology, which uses the display panel to create sound amplification for phone calls.
The device runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat and includes the usual suite of Google services, in addition to OfficeSuite for editing Microsoft Office formatted documents. Other hardware already confirmed include the 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The Aquos also supports microSD cards up to 128GB and the camera captures 8-megapixel still images and 1080p HD video capture with a 1.2-megapixel front facing camera.
