It’s already stepping on the toes of Amazon’s dual-display patent, but at IFA e-ink is showing off a prototype handset featuring a traditional full colour LCD panel on the front, and a dull monochrome e-ink display on the back. Kind of like a reverse technological mullet with the party in the front and business in the back.
E-ink displays still have some distinct advantages over LCD and OLED technologies — namely their insanely great battery life and perfect readability in sunny conditions. So having a backup display that can still operate when a handset’s battery is nearly dead could be neat. But without touchscreen functionality of its own, which is tricky to implement on a dual-sided phone that’s always being touched, it’s almost useless. Still, E Ink claims there’s already manufacturers interested in making something like this, so for better or worse expect to see such devices popping up in the coming year.
This device looks great, and the touchscreen problem could be solved easily by the accelerometer determining which way is down, or even a camera detecting a face. The Galaxy S3 did it. I've been thinking that something like this would be perfect for a long time; I hope it reaches production.