Poor concept or poor delivery?

[jeffreytz]

Never mind, just watched the HP Think Beyond webOS replay and I've already totally lost interest in the Echo; my "newness" obsession is now focused on weighing what I love about webOS and what HP's muscle has done for Palm against everything I love about Android, the apps that are avaialbe, and the possibility of merging my Evo experience with something like the Xoom. The iPad I'm typing this on in my hotel room suddenly feels very clunky against what I've seen on the TouchPad and Xoom. Looks like I'm going to own a bunch of devices for an overlapping period this summer.

 

[dorelse]

I also plan on churning through some devices this year. I'm going to get this to use my Premier rebate before it expires, then move the family over to the HP line when everything's out. The new HP stuff looks awesome.

 

[MikeBinOK]

I respect Kyocera for trying something outside the box, rather than another "me too" Android phone. I actually hope they are a success with this, so that perhaps a second generation phone will be something really useful and amazing.

Having said that, I don't find the concept of two smaller screens (my EVO has me thinking of 3.5 inch screens as "small" now) nearly as useful as one larger screen, though I can imagine that some people might find uses for the various "two at once" apps that have been demonstrated.

One thing that does disappoint me about this is that Sprint presented this in a way that caused everyone to read into it what they were wishing for, or at least HOPE that would be what was announced. Of course almost nobody was wishing for this phone! And Sprint's rather clumsy publicity has created a bunch of annoyed customers. I doubt many people will "leave Sprint" over it as some were claiming in the heated hours after the announcement, but it is going to make it much harder for Sprint to create buzz in the hard-core phone techie community in the future. And without us on board creating hype for new tech, Sprint is going to have trouble getting general buzz for new phones unless the phones are Apple products (I'm not anti-Apple, but I'm continually amazed at how the popular press swoons over anything Apple announces).

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

I don't like it. The concept makes little sense to me.

 

[monkeyzero]

I'm surprised by all the negative comments, I actually find this concept pretty intriguing, especially that you can flip it around so its a "normal" 480 X 800 display phone (if you had to open it to use it I wouldn't be interested). At least its something beyond the "black slab" which is all we seem to get now.

The lack of a 4G radio is probably an attempt to keep the device as thin as possible, but it could also be a leading indicator of Kyrocera's engineering skills (they probably haven't worked at all with WiMAX chips), and if that's the case I'm concerned about the speed of software updates, the hooks into Android to make those dual screens work being buggy and various compatibility issues.

I'm an EVO 4G owner and I love my phone, but honestly the "4G" part of it is becoming a joke to me. I live and work in downtown Chicago and rarely can get a usable 4G signal (the coverage map means absolutely nothing, I've decided). Its gotten to the point that my 4G radio is permanently off and I only use it in a couple of spots I know it works and at airports when I tether my iPad. As a Sprint fan 4G has been a huge disappointment for me and has me seriously thinking about Verizon's LTE alternative. So the lack of 4G on this phone isn't a deal-breaker for me to check it out.

I back this all the way. I also live in chicago and my 4g only gets turned on in rare instances. If you look at the map though, it's yellow for a thousand square miles. (obvious sarcasm)
I put my preorder in today as a premier member on sprint. I have an EVO, and I love it too, but this looks interesting.
Underpowered for some maybe, but I don't do much processor intensive multitasking. I figure i'll preorder (its free) and decide on the 17th.

 

[dorelse]

I preordered today as well. There are some pretty decent hands on from CTIA, and I'm definitely interested.

Its a unique concept and like you, I'll decide on the 17th.

 

[jeffreytz]

I'm planning on going down to the store and playing with this when it comes out but my pre-order love is now all about the Evo 3D

 

[firelightguitarist]

i love this design. i had actually drawn up some designs for a similar device about 2 months ago, but it was a bit bigger and less... bezel-y. i've already reserved my echo and i can't wait to get it! so, answer to OP's question: "Poor concept or poor delivery?" i'm going with poor delivery. i think having a phone/tablet hybrid is the next step for smartphones. forget a slide-out keyboard, make it a second screen!