Sharp AQUOS Crystal versus HTC One M8: first look

First
impressions leave a lasting mark. That’s certainly true with
smartphones, seeing that we’re naturally attracted to well-made,
meticulously designed phones. Arguably one of the best in that
department, the HTC One M8 is still one of the more prominent Android
smartphones that is known most for its impeccable design – one that’s
modern, while continuing to be premium in every way imaginable. Although
it’s new to the scene, the Sharp AQUOS Crystal might be classified as a
mid-ranger, but don’t let that notion fool you into thinking it’s going
to be sub-par with its design.

Design

Honestly,
we can totally agree that these two Android-powered smartphones are
memorable for their respective designs. Even though they’re different,
they each bear their own unique set of qualities to make them a cut
above the competition. The more we look at the two, the more it’s tough
for us to concretely select a winner when it comes to design.

Naturally,
the HTC One M8’s all-metal construction exudes a premium finish, more
so than the matte plastic construction of the Sharp AQUOS Crystal –
while giving it that sturdier feel in the hand. However, Sharp’s new
phone amazes us for its unique quality of offering a very different
looking edgeless display. HTC’s design for the One M8 is no doubt
iconic, but we can say that the AQUOS Crystal has a distinct look of its
own to stand out over other plastic-constructed smartphones.

Display

Reading
into their specs, we get more detail from the HTC One M8’s 5-inch 1080 x
1920 Super LCD-3 display. Well, it’s not to say that the 5-inch 720 x
1280 LCD screen of the Sharp AQUOS Crystal is bad, but it doesn’t have
the same crisp details as we closely look at the HTC One M8’s screen.
Nonetheless, from a normal viewing distance, it’s hard to tell which of
them is superior.

Being a new player in the US smartphone market,
we’re pleasantly surprised to notice the Crystal’s display flaunts
several great qualities that rivals the panel used by the HTC One M8. In
particular, they both have neutral color productions, wide-viewing
angles, and strong brightness outputs – making them easy to view in all
sorts of conditions. Obviously, the edgeless nature of the AQUOS
Crystal’s display minimizes the amount of added real-estate to the
phone, which makes it more compact in size – a truly remarkable quality
to tell you the truth.

Interface

HTC pays more attention with its
Sense 6.0 experience, since we feel it to be one of the more
design-conscious custom interfaces for Android. Sporting a polished
finish with everything, from its HTC BlinkFeed integration to the slick
looking HTC widgets, there’s no arguing we prefer its presentation more
than the stock Android 4.4.2 KitKat experience of the Sharp AQUOS
Crystal.

Features-wise, there’s also no comparison between the
two, as the HTC One M8 drives it home by providing several enhancement
that deepen the overall experience. For example, its set of Motion
Launch gestures are pretty useful in providing us quick access to some
basic functions – like being able to quickly check the time, unlock the
phone to the last thing we were doing, or voice dialing.

Processor and Memory

With
its high-end, flagship status, the HTC One M8 benefits by having a more
profound set of hardware – a speedier quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 801 SoC with 2GB of RAM. Meanwhile, it doesn’t surprise us to
find the AQUOS Crystal outfitted with a mid-ranger esque quad-core
1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.5GB of RAM. On the
surface, the two offer nearly the same amount of responsiveness with
basic tasks – like opening up apps, navigating through the homescreen,
or surfing the web. However, we presume that the Sharp AQUOS Crystal
might strain with more processor intensive stuff.

Unfortunately,
one drawback for multimedia aficionados is that the AQUOS Crystal only
comes with 8GB of internal storage – a stark contrast to the spacious
32GB offered by the HTC One M8, which can be supplemented thanks to its
microSD card slot.

Camera

Now
this is an interesting first look comparison, seeing that the Sharp
AQUOS Crystal features a larger sized 8-megapixel camera – while the HTC
One M8 has a 4-megapixel “Ultrapixel” camera. As much as we’d like to
say that the higher count will attribute to more detail, it’s really
tough to say until we actually snap similar photos and compare their
qualities. However, we do feel as though that there’s more “” to be had
with the HTC One M8’s camera, mainly because of its duo camera and the
set of cool shooting modes/effects it has to offer shutterbugs.

Expectations

As
it currently stands, the HTC One M8 has already proven itself to be a
viable contender in the competitive smartphone market. With its premium
construction and high-end goodness quality, it’s constantly a device
that’s always in the thick of things – even though it’s been available
for some time now. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Sharp AQUOS
Crystal is entering the space with no established brand recognition in
the US. However, Sharp might be able to dig itself a good foundation,
since the AQUOS Crystal is priced competitively – while also astounding
us for its unique edgeless display.

Sharp AQUOS Crystal versus HTC One M8 first look

| PhoneArena reviews