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Kyocera Echo

The Kyocera Echo's design offers some unique advantages, but its appeal is hampered by usability quirks and a lackluster feature set.

Kent German
Kent was a senior managing editor at CNET News. A veteran of CNET since 2003, he reviewed the first iPhone and worked in both the London and San Francisco offices. When not working, he's planning his next vacation, walking his dog or watching planes land at the airport (yes, really).
Kent German
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You're not seeing double. The Kyocera Echo has two touch screens that can join together to form one large display. Needless to day, it's fairly unusual.
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In its closed position, however, the Echo looks like your average Android smartphone.
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You also can open the Echo's displays at an angle. Here you can see how the home screen stretches out across both displays.
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In "optimized" mode, one display shows an application and the other shows user controls. Though the mode works across most features, it's a particularly comfortable arrangement for typing. Notice how the virtual keyboard takes up the entire bottom screen.
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In "simultasking" mode you can open two apps at the same time. Here we're running both the phone dialer and the messaging app.
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In tablet mode one app runs on both screens. This was very useful for maps and the Web browser.
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The dual-screen design gives the Echo a thick profile. Most of the user controls and peripheral ports are located on the left spine.
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The camera lens, self-portrait mirror, and flash sit on the Echo's rear side.

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