The NEC Medias W dual screen Android smartphone was previously seen in Japan (where it will be released in April) and as a mock-up at last year’s MWC. At this year’s MWC in Barcelona attendees have managed to get their hands on the device for a bit of a test drive and it looks good and seems to work well. As a user would wish, the two screens can work together; as one big screen (with a big black line down the middle), or as two independent displays.
The NEC Medias W N-05E is equipped with two 4.3-inch qHD (540 x 960) displays. The smartphone folds in half with a screen on both the main surfaces and opens up to provide a combined screen diagonal of 5.6-inches. When opened up and with the Android home screen is on display you get to see two home screens at once, panning left and right shuffles them along smoothly.
The two screens can work as one large screen which may be useful for getting a bigger view of maps and certain websites. In another mode the NEC Medias W is capable of using the two screens independently - in an intelligent way. For instance the photo gallery app can show thumbnails on one screen and selected full screen images on the other.
Holding the device sideways and invoking a program in which you enter text presents you with the Android soft keyboard on the lower screen, nice and big... Another useful little trick is video mirroring where if the Medias is bent into an inverted V shape, then people sitting across from each other can watch the same video or other AV content.
The core specs of the NEC Medias are as follows; a dual-core Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz processor with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage with microSD expandability, an 8.1MP camera and a 2,100mAh battery. The OS is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Folded up it’s just over 12mm thick.
The NEC Medias W is only announced for availability in Japan (April). Would any HEXUS readers be interested in buying a device like this?
