USA’s Sprint unveils dual touchscreen phone Echo
09 Feb 2011
US telecom operator Sprint Nextel Corp on Monday unveiled its Android-powered smartphone Echo, featuring two touchscreen displays.
Manufactured by Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera, Echo is based on a hinged design, which opens up to reveal two 3.5-inch WVGA screens that can be used independently or combined for a large-viewing tablet format.
For example, one can read mails and open text messages or check Facebook updates and view photos simultaneously on the two displays. Seven core apps including messaging, e-mail, web browsing, phone, gallery, contacts and VueQue can run concurrently on the device.
The dual displays can also be combined and used as a 4.7-inch tablet though with a hinge in between. Echo when closed acts as a regular single-touchscreen phone.
Kyocera Echo runs on Android 2.2 Froyo and comes with a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video capture. It can support five separate devices with its Wi-Fi hotspot capability.
The company packs in a separate 1,370 mAh battery and a ''low-profile'' charging cradle that can also act as an external battery pack with the Echo, which suggests that maybe the single battery might not last for long.
