NEC rolls out Dual-screen smartphone in Japan

PanARMENIAN.Net - NEC has unveiled a new smartphone/tablet hybrid device in Japan that features two HD screens connected together that can be unfolded into a larger display, Digital Spy said.

Announced today (January 22) for release on NTT Docomo in Japan, NEC's Medias W N-05E marks another attempt to make a dual-screen folding Android device.

Sony has played around with dual-screen devices in the past, including the Tablet P in 2011, but never really found the right formula.

NEC has taken a different tack by creating a phone with two 4.3-inch LCD HD screens (each 540 x 960 in resolution) bolted together that can be unfolded to create a square 5.6-inch tablet device.

The Medias W runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and the two-screen design means users can either double the display size or use the second screen for a different task, such as a photo gallery or web browser, or for running a different app.

This effectively makes the NEC phone a dual-use handset, enabling people to use an app on one screen while browsing the web on another, for example.

The Verge reports that some apps have been designed to run on both displays at once, such as Google Maps, but most still only run on a single screen at a time.

After going hands-on with the device, the tech site also said that the phone's 1.5Ghz processor suffers from a bit of lag when switching between the different screen configurations.

The Medias W is chunky at 12.2mm thick, but that is to be expected with such an unusual design. The processor is backed with 1GB of RAM, and the handset comes with an 8-megapixel shooter, 16GB of on-board storage and a microSDHC slot.

NEC has said that the Medias W will launch in Japan in April with an unspecified price tag. There is no word as yet on a possible international launch.