Many consumers may remember the Sharp Aquos Crystal that made its international debut in 2014 and kicked off a new line for Sharp in their smartphone ventures. Even at the low price point the Aquos Crystal had from release, the nearly bezel-free design wasn’t enough to offset the low specs and strange handling experience in some markets, leading to mediocre sales and the eventual introduction of more variants for different markets, some more powerful than others, such as the Aquos Zeta. Softbank announced on Monday that the Sharp Aquos Crystal line is getting a new low-end member, called the Aquos Crystal Y2.
The newest member of the Aquos family, only set to see Japanese release for now, will sport a 5.2 inch 1280 x 720 display of the S-CG Silicon LCD persuasion, with dimensions of 71 — 136 — 11mm and a weight of 153 grams. A power-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor is on board, the same type featured in the 1st generation Moto G and the ZTE Grand X Max+, known as the ZTE Zmax in some markets. Android 5.0 Lollipop will be on board, with a non-removable 2,030 mAh battery keeping the show running. The phone has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, expandable via a MicroSD card. NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 are on board, as well as a 21 megapixel back camera and an 8 megapixel selfie snapper, with the back camera featuring a powerful CMOS sensor. Support for a TV tuner is also on board, allowing users to watch cable TV on their smartphone. The device features rather powerful Cat-4 FDD-LTE, allowing for top speeds of about 112 megabits per second download and 37.5 megabits per second upload on Softbank’s network. The device also boasts an IPX5/IPX7 against water. It takes a single nano-SIM and is capable of Voice-over LTE.
Communication software called “Emopa”, involving speech recognition, will be on board as well. Battery life is touted as being up to three days. Those looking to import the device should be aware it supports the following bands; 2100mhz, 1800mhz and 900mhz for FDD-LTE, 2500mhz for TD-LTE, 2100mhz and 900mhz for WCDMA and finally, 1900mhz for GSM. The new phone is set for release on Softbank’s service on February 5 in black, white, pink and turquoise, though no word was given on price.