PhoneTalk

At an event in New York today, Sprint announced a a cell phone that offers a bit more than expected: two touch screens. The Kyocera Echo Android 2.2 smartphone is definitely a design breakthrough. While two displays in one phone is interesting, how those two displays interact is what's most innovative. Here's how you can use the cell phone in four unique ways:

Single-Screen Mode - Use the Echo in the same way you'd currently use a touchscreen-only cell phone.

Simul-Task Mode - Run two apps (messaging, e-mail, Web browsing, phone, gallery, contacts and VueQue™ -view YouTube videos on one screen and queue up more videos on the second screen) simultaneously on separate screens.

Optimized Mode - Access one application but use both displays as one larger screen with more features. For example, when using the e-mail application one screen could be the message view and the other screen would be a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

Tablet Mode - Combine the two 3.5-inch WVGA displays to make one large 4.7-inch viewing area for viewing maps, videos, websites, and more.

Besides the multi-functional dual touch screen displays, you'll also find a 1GHz processor, 5-megapixel camera that will also record 720p HD video, Bluetooth, 3G connectivity (sorry, no 4G on this cell phone), WiFi with HotSpot feature (share the data connection via WiFi with up to 5 other WiFi-enabled devices), and 1GB of internal memory. The Kyocera Echo will come with an 8GB microSD card and will support up to a 32GB microSD card. We should also mention that although in pictures the Echo looks a bit hefty and not so pocket-friendly, the cell phone is actually a hair thicker than the HTC EVO 4G with a 0.68-inch profile.

The cell phone is expected to be available before summer. Get a closer look at the innovative Echo in the video below:

Topics: In The Know Sprint Camera Smart phones WiFi Video Android Google Apps News