Sprint + Kyocera= The Echo

The Kyocera Echo is unlike any other device I have ever seen. It is really creative. The specifications are as follows:

• 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 — Froyo
• 1GHz Snapdragon QSD 8650
• 5 megapixel camera with flash
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Wi-Fi
• EVDO Rev. A
• 115.0 x 56.5 x 17.2mm
• 193 grams (6.8 oz.)

The device is thick and square but hello?; it has two screens people. Together you have a 4.7″ surface area when the phone is fully opened. Kyocera is said to have 6 patents at work on the hinge. You can flip the top display up a little bit to sit on an angle like you would a Nintendo DS.

The ability to run full apps in simultaneous mode will changes the way you use multitask. Having the web browser open on the top display while you’re watching a video or browsing photos on the lower display is such a natural action.  In apps like email for instance, you can use one display to navigate and select a specific email message and the other display to read it.

Sprint said that there will be a third-party API that developers can use to support both displays on the Echo.  Android can do great things and being an “open” platform helps products like this come to market.  It should be available this Spring for $199.