I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this device ever since it was announced months ago. This is the Sharp Aquos Crystal smartphone, my first Sharp smartphone I’ve ever used. And this thing has something very unique about it. It has essentially a bezel-less display, which you’ll see plenty of once I open up this box.

In order to get this box open, we need to rip off the paper tab that keeps this box together just like so. We’ll first find the Sharp Aquos Crystal upfront still resting below some plastic. The Setup Guide is actually the first thing that fell off the box. It’s just a simple Sprint Get Started Guide and nothing too special. The next item in the box, starting from the top to the bottom is the micro USB charging cable you use to charge the device. Then we have a little piece of paper that shows us how to take off the back cover to get access to the SIM card and microSD card slot for expandable storage, which is pretty awesome. Below that, is the US wall wart with a USB port so that you can plug in the micro USB cable and actually charge the Crystal. And there’s also an included bag so that you can recycle your old phone and save the planet.

But if you flip this plastic shell over, we’ll see the Sharp Aquos Crystal sitting right on top. And as you can see, this phone has no bezels. The entire top portion of the display is bezel-free and it’s something that I’ve never really seen before. It looks awesome and it feels pretty darn good in the hands. It definitely does look even better with the plastic coating taken off, that’s for sure.

Before we get too excited and jump right into the software, let’s take a look around the device. On the left hand side, we’ll find nothing but the volume up and down controls with nothing on the right hand side. On the top of the phone lies the 3.5mm headphone jack and power/sleep on/off button with the micro USB charging port down below at the bottom.

The front of the Crystal features the near bezel-less display, which means the camera and ambient light sensors are actually down below the bottom. It’s kind of unusual but they are there. And on the back, we’ll find the 8MP camera sensor and flash with a sort of textured plastic black cover with dimples. It doesn’t really make much of a difference in the hands since this device still is pretty sleek but it does add some detail to make it look a little bit better. But the back cover is removable, like I mentioned earlier, so you can add some expandable storage via microSD card and there is of course a slot for the SIM card.

Now is the time we can finally take a look at the display because this device is sexy like none other. Just by taking a look around, we can see that as soon as the display ends, you can see essentially what’s directly behind the phone. It feels kind of weird sliding down the notification tray since your hand touches the edge and side of the phone. But I wouldn’t say it’s a bad kind of weird. It’s just different.

The overall device seems to function pretty well and the display looks great for being 5 inches at a 720p resolution. It’s very saturated. I’d say as equally saturated as Samsung panels, if not more saturated. But based off first impressions, the whites don’t have as much yellowing to them as they usually do with overly saturated displays. So overall, it looks really nice. And that’s really the story with this device. Just by first glance, the hardware is very unique and I really enjoy it. It’s a fresh new design and I think it’s one of those sleeker smartphones out there, especially since this phone costs just $150 off-contract for Sprint. I haven’t mentioned that but it does. And it’s awesome.

I’m going to continue to test this device. Marco also received this device so I’m sure you’ll find out what he thinks of the device pretty soon.