Without playing with it for myself I can only speculate. Being the first of it’s kind, I think it’s a novel concept, however it being a Kyocera and knowing the track record as well as the fact it has the same hardware phones have been coming out with for the last year now, aside from the screens, it’s not as exciting. At least not to me, but the beautiful thing about Android is, users always get to provide input and usually that input is somewhat listened to and shows up later in the devices as well as the software.
Starting at $199.99 with a 2 year contract and a $100 mail-in rebate the pricing seems kinda edgy. With Sprint offering every customer a backup battery charger to offset the nasty battery drain, and it being such a complicated design Im not sure I’d pay that much for it. Would you?
I actually do like the design, I just don’t seeing it catching on like most other devices do. It’s nice to see new things being tried, however I’m wondering:
- How does this device appeal to the Android Community?
- Will there even be any developers ready to tackle this thing?
- If so will there being any viable source code readily available for developers to even tackle?
- Will the complicated dual-touchscreen setup be too much of a pain?
Guess we’ll see.
07 February 2011Kyocera Echoâ„¢ fact sheetDual-Touchscreens with Endless PossibilitiesExclusively from Sprint, Kyocera Echoâ„¢ revolutionizes the mobile experience as the first dual-touchscreen smartphone. Kyocera Echo’s patent-pending “pivot hinge†design enables a compact pocket-friendly single-screen position when closed, and exposes two adjacent 3.5- inch high-resolution touchscreens when opened. Kyocera Echo offers customized apps that are optimized for the dual-screen experience, including VueQueâ„¢, an app pre-loaded by Kyocera, which lets users watch a video in one display, while browsing, queuing and buffering additional videos in the other. The easy-to-use device offers four modes of interaction:
- Single-Screen Mode with all the functionality of a single-display touchscreen smartphone
- Simul-Taskâ„¢ Mode with two of the phone’s seven core apps running concurrently but independently on the device’s dual displays
- Optimized Mode with both displays supporting a single, optimized app with complementary functionality and enhanced usability
- Tablet Mode with one application spread across both screens for a full 4.7-inch viewing area
PRODUCTIVITY
- Dual 3.5-inch LCD WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) capacitive touchscreens (4.7 inches diagonally and 800 x 960 pixels when opened)
- Android 2.2 with access to more than 100,000 apps
- Wi-Fi hotspot capability (supports up to 5 devices)*
- VueQueâ„¢, a pre-loaded app that lets users watch a YouTubeâ„¢ video in one display, while browsing, queuing and buffering additional YouTube videos on the other
- GoogleTM mobile services including Google SearchTM, Google MapsTM, Google TalkTM instant message, GmailTM, YouTubeTM, and synchronization with Google CalendarTM
- Full HTML Web browser with Google search, optimized for dual-screen experience
- Sprint Zoneâ„¢ one-stop wireless account access, phone tips, news and more
- Access to Telenav GPS Navigator and Sprint TV & Movies®
- Corporate (MS Exchange ActiveSync) and personal (POP & IMAP) email access
- Messaging – personal and business email, Google TalkTM instant message and text messaging
- Network – 3G data speeds (EVDO Rev A) – peak download speeds of 3.1 Mbps; peak upload speeds of 1.8 Mbps; average download speeds 600 kbps – 1.4 Mbps
- Wi-Fi: (802.11 b/g)
ENTERTAINMENT
- 5MP camera with flash, autofocus and 2x digital zoom and 720p HD camcorder
- High-quality video streaming and downloads at 3G speeds
- Media player with 3.5mm stereo headset jack
- Stereo Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR
- Digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, GPS
- Expandable memory: 8GB microSD card included; supports cards up to 32GB
SPECIFICATIONS
- 1GHz Snapdragon processor (QSD 8650 Android)
- Dimensions: 115.0 x 56.5 x 17.2mm, Weight: 193g (6.8 oz.)
- Main display: Dual 3.5-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreens (800 x 480 pixels or
- 800 x 960 pixels when opened)
- Removable 1370mAh battery; includes spare battery (1370 mAh) with portable charger that can also tether to the phone as an external power supply
- Memory: 1GB/512MB; 8GB microSDâ„¢ included
- * Additional fee applies
Source: Sprint
