Kyocera announces Echo. A dual screen Android smartphone

Kyocera today announced the Kyocera Echo dual screen Android 2.2 device with two 3.5 inch displays. The Kyocera Echo offers four modes of interaction

1. Single-Screen Mode with all the functionality of a single-display touchscreen smartphone
2. Simul-Task Mode with two of the phone's seven core apps running concurrently but independently on the device's dual displays
3. Optimized Mode with both displays supporting a single, optimized app with complementary functionality and enhanced usability
4. Tablet Mode with one application spread across both screens for a full 4.7-inch viewing area

What can be accomplished with a dual screen smartphone? Multitasking of course. Send an email on one screen while writing SMS on the other. Two browser windows open at the same time. 193 gram is quite heavy but it is only 2 gram more than the Dell Venue Pro QWERTY slider model.

Single-Screen Mode is when the phone is closed and only one display is visible. In this mode, it works like a normal touch screen phone. Simul-Task mode is when both displays are visible and two of the phone's seven core apps (messaging, e-mail, browsing, phone, gallery, contacts and VueQue) are running concurrently but independently. Optimized Mode are when both screens are running the same app. E.g composing an email on with a touchscreen keyboard on the other display or viewing images on one screen and browsing image thumnails on the other. Tablet Mode is when one application spread across both displays for a full 4.7 inch viewing area.

Kyocera Echo Technical details

• Size: 115 x 56.5 x 17.2 mm
• 193 gram
• Battery: 1370 mAh. Includes spare battery 1370 mAh with portable charger that can also tether to the phone as an external power supply 
• Dual 3.5 inch LCD WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) capacitive touch screens (4.7 inches diagonally and 800 x 960 pixels when opened)
• Android 2.2
• WiFi hotspot capability
• VueQue, a pre-loaded app that lets users watch a YouTube video in one display, while browsing, queuing and buffering additional YouTube videos on the other.
• The usual Google apps: Google Search, Maps, Talk, Gmail, YouTube and sync with Google Calendar.
• Full HTML web browser optimized for dual-screen experience
• Networks: 3G data speeds (EVDO Rev A) - peak download speed of 3.1 Mbps
• 5 megapixel camera, flash, autofocus and 720p HD video recorder
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, GPS
• Memory: 1 GB / 512 MB. Expandable up to 32 GB. 8 GB card included
• CPU: 1 GHz Snapdragon QSD 8650)