The Oukitel U6 is a smartphone with two displays. There’s a color screen on one side of the phone and a low-power, grayscale E Ink display on the other.
Oukitel unveiled the phone earlier this month, and now the company is sharing some more photos and a video that give us a better idea of what to expect.
The color screen is a 5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel display, while the E Ink side has a 4.7 inch, 960 x 540 pixel display. Both screens appear to be glossy, which makes the Oukitel U6 a little different from the most high-profile dual-screen phone on the market: The E Ink screen on the Yotaphone 2 has a matte finish.
So what’s the point of having a phone with two displays?
The E Ink screen uses substantially less power than the color display, which means you can preserve battery life by turning off the color display when you’re not using it. Then you can view notes, read eBooks, control media playback, or perform other actions using the digital paper display.
E Ink is also easier to view in direct sunlight than most color display technologies.
Oukitel’s video shows a few different apps that you can run while the color screen is off, including a note/calendar/weather app that can be used with a black or white background, a media player that lets you play, pause, or skip through your music collection, and an eBook reader.
Additional apps are under development, with news, messaging, and phone apps on the way.
The Oukitel U6 is expected to be powered by a MediaTek Helio X20 processor and the phone features a metal frame. It should launch in China later this fall. There’s no word on if or when it will be available in other markets.
A good idea, once usage of the second screen is fully integrated into the apps that would use it. Until then, I suspect it’ll be a little clunky to use if you have to keep switching screens.