To put it short this is a smartphone with no external speaker. Instead it uses imperceptible vibrations transmitted by the Kyocera phone and you must know that these vibrations are received by the user’s ear and understood as sound signals. The technology works through clothes, hats and even other headphones. KDDI will be the first to sell handsets with this feature in Japan and this certainly fits the local market, since Japanese people are known for their etiquette and how civilized they are.

I’m curious what the downside to this tech is and I have a feeling that if this catches on, the scientists from rival companies will find a way to discover that this technology causes cancer on some level or another. Let’s see this patented and getting popular first…

We’re dealing with an affordable model for CDMA networks, that should come to MetroPCS, if we judge by the frequencies it supports. This phone comes with 3G Connectivity via the carrier’s EvDO rev. A network and in case you’re wondering, yes it does support web browsing, although with limited features.

The teardown of the phone reveals a low end Qualcomm QSC6055 chipset and a Hynix chip for data storage nearby. Bluetooth, a basic camera (no flash) and a 920 mAh battery complete the specs list.

The hinge is particularly sturdy, since it’s made of a super copper alloy, while the touchscreens are made with Corning Gorilla Glass, for extra toughness. These displays will survive scratches, drops and bumps , while the hinge is supposed to be nearly indestructible, with 6 patents pending.

The tests of the handset involved opening and closing it 100,000 times, that’s 25,000 times more than usual. Well, now maybe you’ll find the dual 3.5 inch touchscreen handset appealing. However, it’s too bad that it only runs Android 2.2 Froyo right now, but hopefully it will get Android 2.3 optimized for this experience.

Sprint is the carrier selling this phone, that’s certainly no looker, when it comes to size, but it’s quite light. The hinge is a patent-pending piece of technology and that’s practically the mechanism that makes and breaks the phone, although it’s pretty easy to use. You just need a simple thumb push from left to right to slide the top panel back and next thing you know, you’ll have the two screens lined up and ready to be used.

The hinge has these settings: lock/unlock, lie-flat and single tilt. Kyocera Echo runs Android 2.2 and it’s very possible that Gingerbread will come this summer, or at the worst case, this fall, according to Engadget. If you wonder about the specs, we’re talking 1GHz here, plus 1GB of ROM, 512MB of RAM and all the connectivity you need.

Kyocera also has an original Simul-Task app ready for this device, meaning that you’ll enjoy its features on two screens. This one allows you to do one thing one of the screens, like view a video on YouTube and check your email on the other, if you want to. There’s also the option of using the full estate of the two displays as one big screen, but more on that in video below and Engadget’s full review here.

Kyocera claims that it has received strong support from member of the Android developer community and that the Echo’s unique design is a new opportunity to enhance functionality of apps. Screen space is no longer an issue, as devs will now have available almost as much space as the one on a mid level tablet.

When the Kyocera Echo is closed, it will operate in single screen mode, like a normal smartphone, while the Simul-Task mode will involve both displays and the 7 core apps of the phone: messaging, email, web browsing, phone, gallery, contacts and VueQue. In the Optimized Mode, you’ll use both displays as a single one, thanks to an optimized app with complementary functionality.

Now, we must mention that the handset only supports Bluetooth and WiFi, with no trace of Sprint 4G on its specs list. You can pre-order your Echo unit starting March 26th, if you’re interested. The handset also comes with two 3.5 inch LCD displays, a microSD card slot (32GB) and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and 720p video capture.

This innovative dual screen handset is not all that impressive, or so claim the people who had a chance to play with it. It seems that its interface is buggy and the battery life is very poor. With Sprint present at the CTIA show and promising a 2 hour conference, it’s very likely we’ll see this model announced.

Pricing anyone?

The handset runs Android 2.2 Froyo and relies on dual capacitive touchscreens, but the rest of its features are pretty average. Also, you must know that the Kyocera Echo won’t take advantage of the 4G WiMAX infrastructure at Sprint, providing only 3G support. Its specs also include a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 1GB RAM, a 5MP camera with 720p capture and the ability to use both screen as one big, unified display.

Here’s the very first ad for the product:

Kyocera Echo has popped up before, at the FCC if we’re not mistaking and it should look like the Fujitsu concept handset pictured below. The device will run Android and support 3G connectivity, while lacking WiMAX compatibility, that would be great to take advantage on when using Sprint. This dual display handset will be able to support multitple tasks on the two screens and also dragging items from one screen to the other.

While this product can be a surprise to some, we’d like to be surprised by something else, if possible, since this is not promising at all.

Meanwhile, another interesting model is the Kyocera Echo, a retail name for a handset otherwise known as Sanyo Orange. The same brand has another interesting product with the trademarked name “Fliptab”, sounding more like a tablet than anything else. Also, a device called Samsung Mion 4G was spotted in the European trademark office system and now in the US one.

This model is possibly AT&T and T-Mobile material, with their “4G” aka 3.5G connectivity support. Last, Moto filed a trademark for the name Tabdock, possibly a dock for the Atrix 4G smartphone or another accessory for the device.