SAN FRANCISCO — From e-mailing to Web surfing to taking photos, a smartphone can be a multitasker’s best friend — unless all the tasks are making the screen feel too small. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a second screen? The Kyocera Echo, a new Android smartphone sold by Sprint, brings that neat idea to life. Simply slide over the touch screen to reveal a second, identical one.
You can use the two screens independently, for example, to respond to an e-mail on the top screen by typing on the virtual keyboard that fills the bottom display.
Or lock the two screens together for a display that is twice as large when watching videos or playing games.
The concept is a great one, but Kyocera Corp.’s execution is flawed.
The most obvious problem is the black frame surrounding each 3.5-inch screen. This results in a distracting black bar bisecting the two screens when they’re side by side. It’s nearly impossible to watch videos or view photos across the displays without staring at the dark line running down the middle.
And if you turn the phone so the screen is split horizontally, you’ll only be watching a video on the top screen.
The rest of the phone’s design also could use some work. It’s nearly as thick as two iPhones stacked on top of each other, and it’s much heavier than an i Phone. This girth, combined with its rectangular shape, makes the Echo look dated.
Then there’s the hinge. To reveal the second screen, you must slide the first screen to the right and push it down. You can then tilt it upward or, if you want to have one big screen, slide it slightly back to the left to lock it into place. The whole process felt too clunky, and I kept worrying I would break the hinge.
And expect to use your Echo as, well, a phone — not just because calls sound decent but because it drains battery quickly when used for Web surfing and other data-heavy tasks.
The phone, which costs $200 after a rebate with a two-year service contract, would benefit from a software update too. It comes with version 2.2 of Google’s Android software, which is available on plenty of other handsets but isn’t the latest version for smartphones.
And on top of a regular monthly charge of at least $70 for voice and data services, you’ll also pay the $10 a month data fee that Sprint imposed on new smartphones earlier this year. (It already applied this charge to its 4G smartphones.)
The Echo has an intriguing premise, but right now, it simply doesn’t hold up as a multitasking companion.
