Sprint Echo Dual-Screen Smartphone Revealed

We’re live at Sprint’s New York special event today and we’ve just been treated to one gigantic telephone up on stage. This phone is a Kyocera dual-screen smartphone by the name of Echo. This is an Android phone and I quote, “It’s almost like a tiny tablet, but you can put it into almost any pocket.” This phone will be available at Sprint for $189. Combined, these two screens create a 4.7-inch viewing space. Kyocera’s CEO stands on stage, very proud of himself, telling everyone that he wishes he were taller.

For approximately one full minute, Kyocera and Sprint shake hands, and they turn to leave, introducing Sprint’s product chiefs Fared Adib and David Owens. Adib and Owens demo the Echo, showing the coolness of the double screen. They speak of how computing has changed from multitasking to switching between apps. Instead of calling this multitasking, they are calling this “simultasking.”

The Echo will be running Android 2.3 Froyo, and the featured display mode is a tilted “laptop” mode. This phone has six pending patents on this hinge, and they are very very proud of it. Expanding on the rationale behind the double screen, they describe how they wanted to start at the roots of a phone, making it small enough to carry around with you, and continue by making sure it’s not caught in the middle ground between smartphone and desktop.