Kyocera Echo dual-screen smartphone hits Sprint April 17

The dual-screen Kyocera Echo smartphone will be available on Sprint starting April 17 for $199.99 with a two-year contract, the carrier announced Monday.

Sprint will allow customers to start reserving the Echo on March 26 via sprint.com/echo, for pickup on April 17. On that day, the smartphone will also be available in Sprint stores and online.

The Kyocera Echo was announced in February. It features two, 3.5-inch 800-by-480 LCD touch-screen displays that can operate side-by-side, independently, or together via a 4.7-inch integrated display.

Click to continue reading Kyocera Echo dual-screen smartphone hits Sprint April 17

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Hands-on with Sprint’s dual-screen Kyocera Echo

 

The dual-screen Kyocera Echo smartphone for Sprint lets you do two things at once, or look at the world through a 4.7-inch window. But it's only the vanguard of a legion of dual-screen devices that may be coming to American shelves, Sprint and Kyocera said today.

First, the phone itself: the Echo is a crazy device, but it thinks the way a lot of us do. It multitasks. The Echo starts out as a standard touch-screen Android 2.2 phone, and it works fine like that. But then you slide the 3.5-inch, 800-by-480 LCD screen, it does a strange hingey thing, and pow: the screen almost merges with another screen hidden under it. (Look at the slideshow below to understand.)

The Echo's unique hinge is made out of "liquid metal," Sprint's vice president for device operations Fared Adib said. It felt like plastic to me, but he said it was metal - and when tested, it was stiff and strong. The phone can survive a seven-foot drop test, he said.

Click to continue reading Hands-on with Sprint’s dual-screen Kyocera Echo

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