A prominent Bangalore-based online retailer will launch India’s first back-and-front dual-screen phone next week, according to an industry source.
The manufacturer of the phone is not known, but the price will be around Rs 35,000.
The phone will have a Snapdragon processor and the display will be slightly smaller than 4.5 inch.
The key selling point of the phone will be that one of the two displays will be based on the electronic ink technology that consumes as little as 99% less power compared to the traditional LCD display.
The e-ink display will have a lower resolution suitable for notifications and basic black-and-white reading, while the main display will have 720p resolution, according to the source.
E-ink displays are also found on Kindle devices from Amazon. A lot of people prefer them to traditional LCD displays for their eye-friendly nature.
E-ink displays do not emit any light of their own and work like paper. They require energy only when the displayed item, such as the page of a book, has to be refreshed.
In other words, they can be kept ‘always on’ with zero battery drain.
The idea behind the phone, which may be launched either by Flipkart or Amazon (both are Bangalore-based) is to enable users constantly check their Facebook and Twitter notifications, news updates and other live data without having to unlock or ‘wake up’ the phone.
This is supposed to help users get around the pain of picking up their phone every five minutes, waking it and unlocking it just to check the latest updates.
It is not clear whether the concept will work in India, given the small size of the displays, and the really steep price tag. Since none of the big brands such as Samsung have such a model, it can be assumed that the phone is made by a relatively unknown company.
Will Indians spend Rs 35,000 on a phone made by someone other than Samsung, Sony or LG? We’ll have to wait and see.
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