Believe it or not, Sharp is one of the more interesting smartphone OEMs out there right now. The company doesn't do much business in America, but it is one of the top suppliers of LCDs to companies like Apple. And in Japan, the company has been using its display expertise to churn out unique-looking devices with ultra-thin bezels.

Sharp recently released a phone in America for the first time in four years when it brought the Aquos Crystal to Sprint. We reviewed it and found the design to be a breath of fresh air, but we were a little bummed about the mid-range spec sheet—it only had a 720p screen and a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 SoC. Late in December, Sharp said it heard the calls for a high-end version, and the company announced the Aquos Crystal X.

The Aquos Crystal X takes the beautiful design of the Aquos Crystal and applies it to a high-end phone. The Crystal X is bigger—packing a 5.5-inch, 1080p LCD (The Crystal only had a 5-inch display)—and it's faster too. It has a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 2610mAh battery, and 13MP rear and 2.1MP front cameras.

It's the thin bezels and size that are the real selling point here. The Crystal X packs all that into a 139 × 73 × 11mm frame, making it the most compact 5.5-inch smartphone out there. Compare those measurements to other 5.5-inch devices like the iPhone 6 Plus at 158.1 × 77.8 × 7.1 mm or the LG G3 at 146.3 × 74.6 × 8.9 mm.

At CES, we had a chance to take a look at a prototype of the Crystal X. Our review unit had a few minor paint blemishes, but we were warned that this one would be a lot rougher. Fit and finish will be improved in the consumer version.

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

Ron Amadeo

If you've played with a regular Aquos Crystal, there isn't much to say—the Crystal X is bigger and faster. The back is now covered in diagonal lines, which looks like a woven pattern, and it's a little more rubbery than the mid-range Crystal. Overall, it's a nice improvement.

All the buttons are about where they were on the Crystal, including the top-mounted power button. It wasn't a big deal on the Crystal, but on the bigger device it's harder to hit. Interestingly, the whole bottom of the phone is mirrored from the Crystal. The front-facing camera and the microphone are now on the right, and the sensor cluster is on the left. It still has the wild all-screen earpiece, but we didn't get to try it.

The Crystal X is still startlingly compact. It doesn't feel like a 5.5-inch phone, just like the Crystal doesn't feel like a 5-inch phone. It is a little thick at 11mm, but that's still not too thick. (Note to manufacturers: nobody cares about thin phones. Give us more battery!)

The software loadout of this Japanese prototype was pretty weird. It was sporting four on-screen buttons, including the ancient menu button. Sharp also skinned things like the Recent Apps menu and the notification panel. One of the best parts of the Aquos Crystal was the software: it just ran stock Android (but with lots of Sprint crapware), so we're sad to see the higher-end version get some funky software skin. We'd like to see Sharp step up its update game, too. This still only runs KitKat.

Other than the software, it's the high-end version of the Crystal that we wanted the second we played with the mid-range version. Sadly, as much as we would love to give this device a shot, Sharp says there are currently no plans to bring it to the US. Maybe if we all ask really nicely?