Umi may be an unfamiliar name for most users in the West, but the Chinese company is quite the big player in its home country. Not being concerned at all with tackling the American or European markets has its perks, allowing makers like Umi and the “Chinese Apple” Xiaomi to develop wildly imaginative products that would find little takers in the west.
Like a smartphone with a dual display. Umi recently teased its upcoming Zero 2 mobile phone on its Facebook page, and it seems like the phone will come with screens both front and back. While the front features the traditional smartphone touchscreen interface, the rear sports what looks like an e-paper display.
Traditionally used in e-book readers, e-paper is famed for its energy efficiency and much longer battery life compared to LCD displays. Some even comes with image retention, which means you can leave something on the screen and it will stay there even when the phone is powered off.
If this concept of a smartphone with two screens sounds familiar, it is because it has been done before. Russian mobile phone maker Yota devices have the YotaPhone and YotaPhone 2, both of which runs Android and features a secondary e-paper screen at the back of the device. And yes, both devices are on sale in the States.
We still don’t know if Umi ripped Yota with their new product, of if they simply got inspired to use the technology in a new manner. It still boasts some pretty respectable specs on its own though: a 5.2 inch main display, a Mediatek MT6752 octa-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a 13Mp rear camera, and an 8MP front camera.
It also runs Android, while there have been rumours that Yota is testing out Jolla’s Sailfish operating system for its upcoming devices. So, if you have been meaning to get your hands on an Android-powered dual-display phone soon, the Zero 2 might turn out to be your only choice.
No words on whether it will support US networks, or when it will be launched though. Our best guess is that the “1/9″ in the image above could mean that the new phone will officially launch on September 1st.
Source: Umi via Facebook