[Android General] benziii:
There is very little talk of this device on Xda, other than some mentions here and there on the regular Crystal forums.

Also, I have not yet seen any english speaking people giving a review of it on Youtube (or anywhere else for that matter). So far it has just been hands-on at Sharp stands and such.

I therefore thought it might be of interest to some, that I share my experiences.

Now I know this smartphone is not gonna be widely adopted outside of Japan.

Not having cdma or the 800mhz(?) gsm band used in the U.S, it seems silly for anyone to import this back to the the states. Taking into account that you have to add on the cost of getting it sim unlocked, makes it pretty pricey for a high end device (with previous gen "flagship" hardware).

At the time of writing this, I have only had this device in my possession for two days.

Keep that in mind. I will therefore have problems with assessing battery life and similar things that need a bit more time to be accurately evaluated.

I guess the natural place to start would be:

Appearance

Biggest selling point is of course the edgeless 5.5 inch display.

I previously came from the the M8, before that, Z1.

I love htc's screens (Atleast since the HOX).

We all know the viewing angles of the Z1 (coming from the Z before that, I was stumped that they managed to fail twice on that front), but straight on it has the most natural looking colors of any smartphone I have ever had.

Let's say that the Z1 is at one end of the scale, M8 in the middle, and typical Samsung amoled screens at the other end. The Crystal X would imo fall between the Z1 and the M8, not so far off the htc. It looks the best of the three, and I'm sure that is just because there's more screen to look at:p

Under

Settings > wallpaper & display > Quality mode

you can choose color modes (Standard quality, Dynamic, Natural, Relax).

I have not had time to scrutinize the differences on a ton of photos and graphics just yet.

I have tried out Dynamic (which is default) and Natural a little. Relax looks absolutely crazy, and makes white and light colors get a sort beige tint.

@ 157 grams, the phone is right in my comfort zone.

Even though there is no metal body, it does not feel plasticky or anything like that.

The power button and the volume rocker are not wobbly, but stiff, and give off nice satisfying clicks.

Being edgeless makes it a bit thicker than the competition these days, but thanks to being rounded at the back, it doesn't feel fat at all (I have turned a little out of shape the last couple of years, maybe I'm projecting my insecurities:laugh:)

I am going to even out the pattern on the back piece and spray paint it.

Tactile wise I don't feel it being bad or good, but I am doing it for two reasons:

-I like a sleek finish more then patterns

-the camera actually protrudes just a tiny tiny bit. This will hopefully neutralize that "threat", and avoid it being a resting point for the phone.

Innards

I could toss up the numbers here, but that is one google away, so just do that.

Key things to note here would be non-removable battery, and micro sd slot.

The "direct wave receiver... thingy (hell let's just call it a tiny buttkicker) works very well.

I was a tad worried when I read the instructions.

It says something along the lines of "make sure your entire ear covers the glass, to block out surrounding noise and to achieve the best audio experience"

The reality is, you don't even have to be near the screen. I have to actually turn the volume down quite a bit so it don't act as a speakerphone. Not to say it's so loud it's bothersome, or that people will unintentionally eavesdrop 10 feet away though.

If you are out and about in the city, the background noise would even that out easily.

My point is here that my skepticism was merely unfounded.

On to the:

Interaction

I have been running lollipop on my M8 and Nexus 9 for a while now, and liking it I might add. So naturally I would like it to land on the Crystal X as well.

Root is however more important to me right now (this phone badly deserves it)

So we are left with 4.4.4.

It is pretty close to stock. The notification panel looks a bit different.

Weirdly enough, you can't get to the brightness slider unless you go into settings. The brightness tile in the dropdown only gives you four choices (min, med, max and auto).

Rom is snappy, but certain apps introduces micro lags when scrolling.

There are other small features, like swiping from one side to the other on the status bar to take a screenshot or open image viewer.

Many (me included) hate those times when you are looking at media in portrait, and things are askew. So you tilt it just enough to see aaand blammo! auto rotation kicks in.

Grip sensors avoid this from happening.

It's been a while since I've been dependent on the power button for turning the screen on/off (and never going back). The grip sensors are therefore something I think everyone would greet with open arms (or with a firm grip I should say).

Just pick it up, and you're off to the races.

The speaker on the back is fairly loud. Nothing extreme, but well within my expectations.

Camera is something I have yet to fully explore. Looks a little sony-ish (not bad).

Not the fastest shooter, but seems like it takes good pics. I will pit it against my other relevant devices tomorrow.

Will be interesting to see how it fares against the M8 in low light.

In pitch black where you really rely on your flash, I think the Aquos might struggle more, because quite frankly, the flash on this thing is lackluster. Which means it's not a great flashlight either.

The final act:

Conclusion

When you add all that up in a blender, I will gulp it down and ask for seconds.

There is the question of: Will this device ever receive root?

Looking at the Crystal forums, it doesn't reassure me all that much.

One can just hope. I might also consider anteing up a phone and/or cash as a root bounty at some point.

All in all, no big letdowns. My worries were quickly put to rest.

If I had the chance to go back, I would buy it one more time:)

I hope there are already other owners (or future ones) out there, who stumbles over this thread and can chime in. Maybe we can group together and create a wave.

I will try to take som better photo's of the phone outside in the daytime a little later tomorrow. Also as mentioned, a camera shootout.

So what have we learned today kids?

Don't put Sharp-ie in pooper!