Dual-screened devices can sometimes prove to be a good thing, or a bad thing. In terms of gaming, the Nintendo DS proved to be very successful with the dual-screen design. The smartphone, Kyocera Echo, which was a rather unique offering during its time, sort of fell flat, although Sony’s yet-to-be-released S2 tablet has us wanting more, probably due to all the hype that they have managed to create. As it turns out, Microsoft has a patent filed away for a dual-screen phone, with a secondary screen that is able to be detached.
Judging by the patent’s drawings, it looks like the secondary screen can be detached and used as a secondary device, for example as a remote control. It could even double as a QWERTY keyboard when you need it to be, for example while typing out documents or emails, or you could even detach it and use it to send text messages or play games while talking on the phone.
We’re not sure if we’ll see the patent ever made a reality, and if Microsoft is anything like Apple, those patents are more about intellectual property rather than actual devices/technology that we will see, although if such a device did come out with the features we mentioned above, we would definitely be more than curious and would welcome the possibilities that such a device could bring.
Filed in . Read more about Kyocera Echo, Microsoft, Patent and Smartphones.