Sharp has introduced the Aquos Crystal smartphone through Sprint. This is clearly designed for the fashion-conscious, with not only a beautiful user interface, but a screen which extends (almost) all the way out to the edges of the phone (except the bottom). They extended it so far to the edge that they had to omit the speaker.
Two of the greatest benefits associated with switching to this Aquos technology are the fact that it enables the manufacturer to increase screen size a bit without increasing the size of the smartphone, and of course, its impressive beauty. It’s good to see (almost) edgeless phone technology like the Aquos Crystal finally make it to the commercialization stage.
Video Credit: Sprint.
Technology that people wear and use frequently will sometimes turn into fashion accessories, for example: watches. Despite the fact that cheap digital watches with more features (and better technology overall) than analog ones have been around for decades, many people are still spending more money on basic analog watches made from nicer materials, and with a more fashion-conscious design because they are attractive. People treat watches almost like jewellery.
I’m not saying that smartphones will become nothing more than jewellery with few features, but people are drawn to the most attractive phones. Who knows, they may just become plated with exotic materials like watches in the future. I also predict that more smartphones will be designed like the Aquos Crystal in the future.
Apart from that, the specifications for the Aquos Crystal are ordinary, according to Mashable:
The specs are, for the most part, last generation, from the just-HD screen LCD (not OLED, AMOLED or Super AMOLED) to the 8-megapixel main camera (you can see a photo it took below) and 1.2MP front-facing “selfie” camera, it simply doesn’t have a lot of gee-whiz features.
The OS is more or less stock Android 4.2.2 (KitKat), and under its curved, hard-plastic back is a SIM slot and another slot to upgrade the storage space with a micro-SD. Also, the battery is not removable — a rare thing in the Android world.
Irreplaceable batteries are no longer rare. However, the writer (Lance Ulanoff) was right to point out that you can’t replace the Aquos Crystal battery, as this has become increasingly common in the smartphone and tablet industries. This trend is forcing people to replace their devices more frequently because they have to replace their entire devices every time their batteries malfunction (that could be as little as two years between replacements!). This is not environmentally sound, nor is it economical.
I should note that people also have a strong urge to upgrade to new technology, so they often upgrade before their batteries malfunction, or if their batteries die, they replace their entire devices because they were getting old anyway.
Source: Mashable.
For more technology-related news, please visit the technology category, or visit the technology section for reference articles.
