iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch: Here's everything Apple just announced

It happens but once a year: Apple debuts its newest phone in a grand, press- and-analyst-filled event. This year, as the iPhone gets bigger, it's joined by its long-awaited, smaller, wearable cousin. If you didn't feel like sitting through the two-hour erratic live stream or missed our live blog, here's the lowdown on what you missed.

iPhone

It wouldn't be a mobile launch without at least one new iPhone, and this year we've got two. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens, respectively, as well as new generation Retina Displays -- Retina HD. And the Plus' is full HD resolution.. They're thinner, have redesigned keyboards, faster graphics processing and a new motion coprocessor (for tracking motion and distance data), and bettery battery life than the iPhone 5S. they also promise faster Wi-Fi and LTE, plus there's support for VoLTE.

The camera's been updated with phase-detection autofocus, and optical image stabilization debuts in the 6 Plus, and the phone now supports 1080/60p and 30p, with slow-motion 120fps or 240fps, continuous autofocus and image stabilization. The FaceTime camera has a new sensor and f2.2 aperture, plus burst mode, better face detection, and single-shot HDR for still or video.

For US residents craving the iPhone 6, the 16GB version is just $199, while $299 gets you 64GB (instead of the 32GB that the 5S carried at that price), and $399 bumps you up to 128GB. If you're in the UK, it'll run you £539, £619, and £699, respectively, and in Australia the line of iPhone 6s will set you back AU$869, AU$999, and AU$1,129.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 16GB, $399 for 64GB, and $499 for 128GB in the US and £619, £699, and £789, respectively, in the UK. Australian pricing is AU$999 for 16GB, AU$1,129 for 64GB, and AU$1,249 for the top-of-the-line 128GB model. Available: September 19.

Apple Watch

With a return of its trademark "One More Thing," Apple finally makes its official jump into the wearables market with the Apple Watch -- sorry, no iWatch, folks. It uses a "Digital Crown" -- you know, that thing on the side of an analog watch you use to set the time -- for navigation, as well as addition to touchscreen swiping and Siri, and provides haptic feedback.

There's a second button on the watch for Digital Touch: it brings up a list of your favorite contacts, and supports tap-based shortcuts. A sensor on the watch activates the display when you raise your wrist, and it bears a completely different interface than iOS, optimized for a small screen. It sports a flexible Retina display with a sapphire screen, a variety of sensors for motion and health tracking, and it supports inductive charging. Apple demoed some interesting applications, like the ability to unlock a hotel-room door, as well as Fitness and Workout.

In addition to watch faces, there are six different straps, each of which uses a standard means to change them. There are three collections; Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport (most durable), and Apple Watch Edition (18K gold). It also requires an iPhone, though it will work with the 5 series as well as the iPhone 6 versions. How much? It starts at $349. Apple has not revealed pricing for the UK or Australia, but $349 converts to around £220 or AU$380. Regardless, you won't be able to get one until early 2015.

Apple Pay

Catching up with the rest of the pack, for its latest mobile devices Apple incorporates NFC (near-field communications) technology and an infrastructure called Apple Pay. It's limited to the new phones because it requires a new Secure element chip, and it sounds pretty ambitious. Credit card info is integrated through PassBook, and it uses the TouchID sensor to authenticate a payment; the retailer gets just a single-use number verified by the bank instead of your name and credit card number, whether brick-and-mortar or online. And Apple claims it doesn't monitor your purchases. It will launch with support from 83 percent of all banks and 220,000 US merchants. Apple Pay will launch in the US in October, with other countries to come in the future.

iOS 8

Announced in June and subsequently seeded to developers, this is when we finally get to see the final apps and their implementations, including new games that take advantage of the Metal gaming engine. Apple's apps have some built-in optimizations for single-handed use on the bigger screens. iOS 8 will be available to update your current devices September 17, at which point you'll get these apps on your old phone.

Google's Android Wear team: We'll update early and often

The tech titan has "several" updates to the Android Wear OS coming by year's end, with the first due this week. Here's a hint of what to expect.

David Singleton, Google's engineering director for Android Wear, the company's platform tailor-made for wearable devices, is sitting in Google's headquarters here playing air guitar.

As he strums his right hand in front of his Moto 360, the Motorola smartwatch set to hit the market this week, Singleton praises the third-party software developers using Wear. The company debuted the software in March, modified from Android, the most popular operating system in the world for smartphones and tablets.

"There are a lot of apps out there," he says after he stops strumming, during an interview here. As for the guitar-playing program: "We would have never thought of that."

He won't say exactly how many apps there are, but offers that "thousands" of the more than 1 million programs in the Google Play store where consumers download apps for their Android devices have been updated to support Wear.

Google showed off the platform at its I/O developer conference in June, with demos on using the software to order food or hail a ride from a smartwatch. But the company has until now been mostly quiet about what's next.

Google is readying "several" updates to Android Wear before the end of the year, with the first coming this week. Some features on the horizon include the ability to pair a smartwatch with a Bluetooth headset, Singleton says. Watches with hardware that supports GPS capabilities will also be able to use geolocation data to track their fitness sessions. So, if someone taking a run wanted to listen to music but leave her phone at home, she'd be able to store some songs on her watch, and listen to them through a set of Bluetooth headphones.

Android Wear will also let third-party developers design their own watch faces -- which is what a wearer sees first when glancing at the watch -- and let owners download them from the Play store. Customized watch faces -- like ones that display current scores for a favorite sports team, or ones that show a certain company's stock price -- can be easily swapped out.

"We've been thinking about how you deliver services on a device like this that has such a small screen, that you can't necessarily spend a lot of time interacting with."

Some developers have already figured out how to design smartwatch faces, Singleton said, but there's been no straightforward way to do it.

The wearables market -- specifically the smartwatch part of it -- is about to get a lot of attention. Three Android Wear devices have already been announced: The Moto 360, which has a round watch face and will reportedly sell for $250, LG's $230 G Watch, and Samsung's $200 Gear Live. Samsung also last week introduced the Gear S, the first smartwatch in its portfolio that will work independently from a smartphone (watches so far must typically be paired with another device, like a smartphone).

A handful of companies are expected to make wearables announcements at the IFA conference, Europe's biggest tech show, in Berlin later this week. And Apple, Google's archrival in smartphones, may also show off a wearable device of its own during a Sept. 9 press event where it's expected to introduce a new version of the iPhone.

The category is still in its infancy, though the market has grown in the past year. In 2013, 9.7 million wearables were shipped, according to CCS Insight, a research firm. By the end of 2014, that figure is projected to jump to 22 million.

Android Wear everywhere

Google has ambitious plans for Android as a whole. At Google's I/O conference in June, Android chief Sundar Pichai laid out plans to inject the platform into several facets of everyday life, powering everything from car dashboards to televisions to wearables.

Google's OS has more than 1 billion active users, Pichai said, and runs on almost 80 percent of the world's smartphones. In comparison, Apple's iOS, which drives the iPhone and iPad, has around 17 percent share of the market.

But because Google's software is an open platform -- meaning anyone can adapt and use it -- other brands, like Samsung, have modified the operating system to fit their needs. That's left users to navigate the multiple iterations of Android running on hardware from Google's many partners. And it's a point that rival Apple, with its closed system around iOS, likes to drive home, calling Android fragmented.

"The overriding theme of the I/O keynote was Google reasserting control over Android," Jan Dawson, founder of Jackdaw Research, said at the time. Because watches have limited space on their screens with simpler functions, Android Wear can be one realm where Google makes the software more uniform.

"We've been thinking about how you deliver services on a device like this that has such a small screen, that you can't necessarily spend a lot of time interacting with," says Singleton.

But another difference that could serve Google well is the way most smartwatches (aside from Samsung's newly announced Gear S watch) need to be paired with a phone to operate. So, Google will push out Android Wear updates without having to wait for carriers to test the software, like they generally do with phones and tablets. That should give Google more control over the software. The company says it is working closely with hardware partners to make sure the software works well with their devices.

Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of engineering for Android, says the goal is to be able to improve the software as fast as possible.

"It's a lot simpler on watches," says Lockheimer. With phones, lots of companies' schedules have to align to make updates available. "There are different things on that pipeline that just don't exist [with smartwatches]. And it makes it possible for us as an industry to push these updates out a lot quicker."

Google has a definite stake in making sure the Android experience is consistent across the board. "It becomes much more important with wearables," said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with the investment bank B. Riley and Co. "They are not individual devices; they need to talk to each other. It's an ecosystem Google wants to develop."

But wearables' designs continue to evolve, and they may not be so co-dependent on other devices for long. Time will tell if Samsung's Gear S watch is a harbinger or a rarity -- and whether more watches will come out that have their own separate cellular connections.

Matthew Goldman, CEO of the personal finance app Wallaby, thinks Samsung's new watch sets the trend. "It's clear that you're not going to need your phone," said Goldman, who is unveiling the Android Wear version of his app on Thursday. Wallaby also runs on Google's connected headset device Glass, the Pebble Smartwatch, and Samsung's Gear 2, which is powered by the company's homegrown operating system, Tizen.

Google, for its part, is waiting for more devices to take that route before building out support for cellular connections in Android Wear. "We'll see other mechanisms for connecting, other than Bluetooth," says Singleton. "We'll start to enable those as we see partners wanting to build devices using them."

Is it a tablet? Is it a clutch bag? It's the new Asus Memo Pad 7

It's a tricky business, designing a gadget that appeals as much for its sense of style as its technical chops. The latest Asus Memo Pad 7 is one of those gadgets, looking to give style mavens a device that co-ordinates with their outfit a little better than one of the many glossy black rectangles on the market.

An Android tablet with the option of 4G LTE, this new model, numbered ME572C/CL, is the latest in a line of tablets sharing the Memo Pad 7 name, including the Asus Memo Pad 7 and, er, the Asus Memo Pad HD 7. The new Memo Pad 7 goes on sale "in the next few weeks" in the UK, and will cost £179 for the 16GB model at department store John Lewis. Price and release details for other countries are yet to be confirmed, but that converts to $295 or AU$320.

Style council

The Memo Pad 7's black frame with rounded edges reminds me of a polycarbonate Nokia Lumia phone like the Lumia 1520 phablet, with a coloured back added. This back plate is offset slightly to the side, a subtle visual cue that made me instantly feel I wanted to open it, like a purse or wallet but it doesn't open. Rather, the design is simply inspired by the look of a clutch bag. Subtle it may be, but in a world of identikit shiny rectangles, it's surprisingly evocative.

The back plate comes draped in champagne gold, black, or burgundy, and each colour has a slightly different finish. At 8.3mm thick and weighing 269g, it should be able to find a home in all but the daintiest of clutches.

It's probably clear from this talk of clutches that the Memo Pad 7 is aimed at, shall we say, the female market. While it's a little patronising to suggest any electronic device is more suitable for women, this is one of the less heavy-handed attempts to woo the ladies: avoiding the "shrink it and pink it" trap, the Memo Pad's colours and metallic finishes are relatively understated and classic.

Specs and Features

The 7-inch screen has a full HD resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels. That gives you 323 pixels per inch, which is pretty decent for a tablet this size -- that's identical to the iPad Mini and the Google Nexus 7, give or take a pixel.

The tablet boasts a speaker at each end for stereo sound when watching a movie or playing a game sans headphones.

Under the elegantly folded frame is a 1.83GHz Intel Atom Z3560 quad-core processor, backed up by a respectable 2GB of RAM. You can choose from models with 16GB or 32GB of storage for your selfies, videos and music, with a microSD card slot giving you extra space if required.

The software is Android 4.4 KitKat, which is the latest version of Google's software for smartphones and tablets. Android is based around a series of home screens that you can fill with shortcuts to apps downloaded from the Google Play app store, and widgets that show you snippets of information such as the weather or latest news without having to open the app. Android is great for customising your phone or tablet, by downloading the apps of your choice and by adjusting details like changing the way the keyboard works to suit you. Android is more open to tinkering than Apple's iPhone and iPad, for example, and has an equally varied range of apps available.

On top of the Android software familiar to many from a range of phones and tablets, Asus adds its own whistles and bells with the ZenUI interface.

Xiaomi sells 40,000 Redmi 1S phones in 4 seconds in India

The Chinese company appears to be unable to keep up with demand for its phones in India - leading to complains on Facebook about the "limited" quantity of its stocks.

By any other measure, Xiaomi's latest flash sale in India would have been a roaring success. The up and coming Chinese smartphone maker just announced that it sold out all 40,000 units of its new Redmi 1S Android phone. But the sale was over in just seconds, and that appears to have left some of its Indian fans upset.

Some fans have taken to the company's Facebook page to complain about the limited stock, having been unable to get their hands on the 5,999 Indian Rupee ($99, £60, AU$106) smartphone.

The company itself claimed the phone sold out in 4.2 seconds. Registrations for its next flash sale will open at 6pm India time today.

Unlike other smartphone makers, Xiaomi relies on a flash-sale model to get its products out to its customers, and holds these sales on a regular basis for the countries where it operates, building buzz on social media.

While the company recently got in trouble with Taiwanese authorities over the accuracy of its sales numbers, the situation in India is a different matter altogether.

In India, Xiaomi has partnered with e-commerce retail site Flipkart to sell its devices. The site uses registrations of interest to provide a virtual queue for users to make purchases and so far, the demand for the Redmi 1S far exceeds supply with over 250,000 users wanting to buy the new phone.

The Redmi 1S is the follow up to the Redmi, an Android phone that offered exceptional value for its low price. The Redmi 1S just as tempting -- it comes with a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor clocked at 1.6GHz and twice the storage space at 8GB. The smartphone still has an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 4.7-inch display with an HD resolution of 1,280x720 pixels.

Besides India, the Redmi 1S is currently sold in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and will be launching in the Philippines and Indonesia on September 4.

HTC Butterfly 2 review - Gives even the One M8 a run for its money

Good - The HTC Butterfly 2 has almost everything from HTC's One M8, but boots the camera to 13 megapixels. The skin is waterproof, it delivers excellent audio, and it runs on a powerful quad-core processor.

Bad - The glossy rear face is a fingerprint magnet. The auto brightness doesn't always correctly adjust to surrounding light, resulting in a too-dim display at times.

Bottom Line - It can't compete with the One M8's premium metal skin, but the HTC Butterfly 2's powerful camera and processor make it one of the company's best flagship phones.

As it's sold only in Asia, the HTC Butterfly series is not as well known as the company's flagship One M8 or midrange Desire family. The Butterfly S did hit US shores as the Verizon Droid DNA, but it was the sole exception.

And that's a shame. While it still sports a very similar design to the previous Butterfly variants, the Butterfly 2 comes with specs as good as the flagship One M8, but bumps up the main camera to 13-megapixels and still featuring the dual-camera system.

The handset is expected to launch in some Asian countries at the end of August. HTC has yet to confirm whether it will make its debut in western markets, but given that it supports most LTE bands around the world, perhaps the Butterfly 2 will flutter its way to the UK or the US very soon. If it stays in Asia, though, the Butterfly 2 could break many hearts elsewhere. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.

Design, display and specs

The HTC Butterfly 2 draws inspiration from both the older Butterfly S and the newer M8. In fact, the Butterfly 2 resembles the M8 in both size and design, while retaining the shiny colors and polycarbonate plastic of the Butterfly S.

Like the M8, the Butterfly S comes with front-facing BoomSound speakers, though HTC has has designed things differently here. Because the Butterfly 2's face is mostly glass, the designers have cut out small ports on both ends to make way for the speakers. However, they blend in nicely, as the speaker grilles are flush against the glass.

The 5-inch screen packs in Full HD resolution (1,920x1,080 pixels) and is sharp and bright. Depending on where the device is sold, the Butterfly 2 may also come with a bundled pair of JBL headphones.

The review unit Butterfly 2 came in a glossy, lustrous red. It's also available in blue version and matte white, with a comfy textured surface. But the bright, vibrant red really chimes with the Butterfly branding (it was used in both previous models) and makes the phone stand out.

Internally, the phone comes packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, and has 2GB of RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. The J Butterfly (for Japan only) comes with 32GB storage as standard. There's also a microSD card slot, and for both this and the nano-SIM card slot, you only need a finger to pry the trays out. This is a pretty nice touch, since you don't need to search for a paperclip or ejector tool.

The Butterfly 2 comes packing 4G support for both TD and FDD LTE bands. This means you can use it almost anywhere in the world, including in China and in India, making it a perfect device for world travellers. It also has the standard array of NFC, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 options.

Software and other features

The Butterfly 2 runs HTC's Sense 6 UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat and comes with the usual BlinkFeed and Motion Launch features found on the M8. This means you can double-tap to turn on the phone, swipe downward to activate voice dialing, or hold the phone sideways and press the volume button to quickly turn on the camera.

Instead of rehashing the specifics of Sense 6 UI again here, however, feel free to hop over to our review of the One M8 if you're unfamiliar with the HTC Android skin. There Brian Bennett goes into detail on the cool features of Sense 6 UI. The Butterfly 2 uses the same skin, so you'll get exactly the same software experience of the One M8 (and One E8) on the Butterfly 2.

The one cool thing about the phone that isn't obvious from its appearance, and something that other HTC phones lack, is the IP57-rated water and dust resistance. This means it will survive underwater to a depth of 1 meter (3.3 feet).

Advancing on other splash-happy phones, the Butterfly 2 doesn't need a protective flaps covering its ports. HTC calls this "Natural Underwater," and the phone has short-circuit protection built-in as well. Obviously, you shouldn't charge the phone underwater, but the Butterfly 2 will easily survive a quick wash in the sink to get rid of unwanted dirt.

Camera

Like the One M8, the Butterfly 2 has two cameras on the back. The Butterfly 2's main camera has a 13-megapixel sensor, however, which is much more than the 4-megapixel "Ultrapixel" shooter of the M8. This means, in theory, that you'll get more detail in your pictures, with the tradeoff being that low-light performance won't be as hot.

The dual-camera system lets you do all the things you can do in the M8 -- namely the UFocus refocusing app, which, a little like a Lytro camera, lets you change the focus point in the picture after shooting. This is because the second camera acts as a depth sensor, recording the distance from the lens of everything in shot. It allows to you to do other tricks too, such as copying and pasting a whole person to another picture without having to manually crop them out yourself.

Quality-wise, having 13 megapixels means a lot more detail, and while I'm currently not in possession of a One M8 for a full comparison, I can honestly say I appreciate having a larger megapixel count, especially for shots where I have bright lighting.

Zooming into a picture lets me admire intricate details I wouldn't normally be able to see using a lower-resolution "Ultrapixel" camera -- there's more detail when the image is cropped, too.

Performance

Given that the Butterfly 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, I expected the phone to do well in our benchmark tests. On Quadrant, the Butterfly 2 scored 25,838, one of the highest scores I've seen so far from a phone. On the LinPack multithread test, a score of 814.815 MFLOPs over 0.21 seconds was obtained.

Everyday use reflected these scores, apps ran fine, the UI was smooth as butter, and the camera started and snapped pictures super fast.

Call quality

Voice calls were crisp and clear, and no hisses or pops were heard. Speaker volume was loud, as you might expect from HTC's front-facing BoomSound speakers.

Battery life

The Butterfly 2 packs a 3,200mAh battery, and it's good enough to easily last for a day and a half of moderate use. We're putting the phone through our CNET Video Labs test, so check back later for the final result.

Conclusion

Make no mistake, while it lacks the premium metal feel of the M8, the Butterfly 2 is as much of a flagship phone as you'll find, and the phone's appearance in the second half of the year makes it HTC's highest-end device right now.

It comes with all the right ingredients, including a 13-megapixel shooter paired with a depth sensor for higher resolution pictures that still lets you select the focal point. This, in my opinion, makes it even better than the M8, especially if you don't mind the plastic skin or spend a lot of time taking low-light shots.

How to improve battery life on any mobile device

Poor battery life is a problem that affects all mobile users. This guide could help you better understand what is draining your battery.

We have written numerous articles with tips and tricks for improving battery life on iOS and Android, some of which you can find here, here, and here, but not everyone owns an iPhone or Android device. Despite which kind of mobile device you prefer, battery life tends to be an issue that we all face. Understanding what is draining your smartphone or tablet will help you squeeze the best possible battery life out of your device.
Display brightness

The screens on our mobile devices seem to be getting bigger and more vibrant with each passing year. We now have smartphones, like the LG G3 for example, with incredible 2,560 x 1,440-pixel resolution displays. While these screens are pretty to look at, they are killing our batteries. Unfortunately battery technology hasn't progressed nearly as fast as other sectors of the mobile industry.

Reducing the brightness of your display will help to improve battery life. You should also avoid using automatic brightness settings. This mode utilizes the phone's sensors, which, because they're in use all the time, actually drains your battery more rapidly than adjusting your brightness manually. Auto mode will also sometimes leave your display at a level that is far too bright for your environment.
No service

For cellular-connect devices, having no service can be a real pain. Unless a Wi-Fi network is available, your device becomes fairly useless if it doesn't have the ability to connect to the Internet. You may have also noticed that your battery drains more rapidly when you have an inconsistent signal. This happens because the device is continuously searching for a signal and attempting to communicate with a cell tower.

To conserve your battery, I recommend enabling Airplane mode or connecting to a Wi-Fi network (if available) if you will be in area with no service for an extended period of time.
Streaming video and playing games

As mentioned above, the display draws an incredibly large amount of power. Even more power is required when you are playing a game or streaming a movie. A few minutes of Angry Birds won't kill your device, but streaming an HD movie or playing a high-end video game can cut your battery life (and increase your data usage unless you are connected to a Wi-Fi network) by more than 50 percent.

If you will be away from your charger for a long time and don't have a portable juice pack, understand that battling your friends in the latest Clash of Clans war will see your battery life quickly reach zero.
GPS and location services

Have you ever noticed that your phone always seems to be on the verge of dying when you are lost? This is because of the GPS and navigation app you are using to try and get back home . Location services, which allow location-based apps and websites like Foursquare, Google Maps, and the camera to determine your location, can quickly drain your battery.

Using GPS and geotagging features, such as recording the location of your photos, sparingly will help keep your mobile device alive for longer. You can also disable location features for select apps and services in the settings menu of your device.

On an iPhone or iPad, head to Settings, select Privacy, and click on Location Services. Then, scroll down and choose System Services.
On a stock Android device, enter the settings menu, and click on Location.
For Windows Phone, click the Start button, select Settings, and tap Location
BlackBerry 10 users will find the option by entering Settings and selecting Location Services.

In addition to the GPS, having Bluetooth, NFC (if applicable), and Wi-Fi enabled will also cause some battery drain. If you don't use a pair of Bluetooth headphones or if your car doesn't have it, I recommend disabling it. The same goes for NFC, which many people don't actively use to begin with. As for Wi-Fi, I would toggle it on only when it's needed.
Background data

To ensure you never miss an email, headline, or an appointment, the apps on your mobile device are constantly pinging a server, satellite, or cell tower. This can sometimes lead to battery drain and even data overages. I recommend setting certain apps to only update and refresh over Wi-Fi, or not at all.

To disable background data on iOS, go into Settings, select General, followed by Background App Refresh. From here you can select certain apps you wish to prevent from running in the background or disable all of them.

On stock Android, enter Settings, select Data usage, click on an app, scroll to the bottom, and check the box that reads "Restrict background data." If you would like to restrict all background data, click the three-dot icon at the top-right corner of the Data usage menu and check the "Restrict background data" box.

Windows Phone 8.1 owners will find options to restrict background app data in the Data Sense app. As for BlackBerry 10 users, enter Settings, select Security and Privacy, followed by Application Permission, and change the Permissions bar to Run in Background. Once here, simply select an app from list that you would like to prevent from running in the background.

Sharp's new smartphone has a bezel that's barely there

The company's new Aquos Crystal line is rumored to be making its way to US shores, bringing a dazzling edge-to-edge design along with it.

If you believe the latest iPhone 6 rumors, the next Apple handset will have considerably less bezel surrounding the screen than its predecessors.

But nothing quite like this.

According to photos and news discovered today by PhoneArena, Sprint will unveil the new Sharp Aquos Crystal smartphone line at a press event Tuesday, August 19. And if the event's name, Take the Edge Off, is any indication, that line will feature at least one model with an almost frameless design.

Indeed, when you look at the Crystal head-on, you see only the tiniest border surrounding three sides of the screen. There's definitely a chunk of bezel at the bottom, one that appears to contain a camera lens and possibly a microphone and speaker. But, overall, there's never been anything quite like this, at least not in the US.

As detailed in press materials from SoftBank, the Japanese company that owns Sprint, the Aquos Crystal (which is rumored to be unveiled at Tuesday's event) is a 5-inch phone that measures 0.39 inch thick -- not far off from the LG G3, a recent model known for its minimal bezel.

Its specs include a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 720p display, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of (hopefully expandable) storage, and a 2,040mAh battery -- definitely on the smaller side for a phone of this size. The Crystal will reportedly run Android 4.4.2.

Of note, according to PhoneArena, the phone is "equipped with a Harman Kardon sound effects engine with support for 'Clari-Fi' (restoring of information lost when compressing music), 'LiveStage' streaming, and native compatibility with the Harman Kardon ONYX Studio Bluetooth speaker."

Sharp also unveiled a 5.5-inch version of the phone, the Crystal X, featuring a faster processor, 1080p screen, lots more storage (32GB), and a larger battery (2,610mAh). But this model is not expected to launch in the US., at least not immediately.

Pricing has yet to be revealed, so we'll have to see what Sprint's event reveals (CNET will be reporting from it). In the meantime, what are your thoughts on the Aquos Crystal? Does it realize the dream of the (mostly) bezelless smartphone?