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Fujitsu may have given us a glimpse into the future, with a Jetsons-looking smart phone concept that flips out to reveal two touchscreens.
The latest expensive smart phones are all pretty much the same in terms of form factor, unless there’s a Qwerty keyboard invlolved. The HTC Desire HD, Nokia N8, iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy S are all Internet-focused phones that are essentially one large touchscreen and a few buttons.
But Fujitsu’s latest concept is something new entirely. The company has demonstrated a mobile in Japan with a crazy-sounding dual touchscreen design. When closed, the Fujitsu concept looks like an ordinary clamshell phone. It’s only when you open it that you start seeing double. Check out this hands-on video from Engadget:
The phone has two capacitive touchscreen displays with 960×480-pixel resolution. It’s particularly good for looking at pictures, as you can see the gallery on one screen and the images on the other. There’s also a nifty way you can flick images from the gallery one one screen to folders on the other. You can do the same with your address book, flicking contacts around at will.
Information scrolls across both displays, which means you can, for example, see more entries on a Twitter feed or more messages in your email. Obviously it has a virtual keyboard, and we expect there would be extra space for people with sausages for fingers.
The dual-screen swings open using a versatile hinge, which means you can look at the two screens in portrait and landscape side by side. This did look very cool, but we’re not sure how easy it would be to replicate on a device ready for manufacture, especially if you wanted to keep the phone sturdy and solid.
It reminds us of the Nintendo DS, which uses both screens for gaming, although only the bottom one is touch sensitive. If you think one touchscreen is good enough for games, you can imagine the possibilities with two.
It looks incredibly cool and, even better, relatively workable in the real world. Problem is, it’s made by a Japanese firm, so it will take forever to get here, if it ever does. Let’s hope an established brand in the UK can take inspiration and pump something useable out quick-smart.
Image credit: Engadget
