Folding Plica concept phone makes our eyes widen

Mmm, touchscreens. Expansive, gorgeous touchscreens. That pretty much sums up our initial impressions after taking one hard look at James Piatt's Plica concept. As you can tell, this foldable cellie opens up to reveal a pair of touchscreens just begging to be used for web browsing, texting and photo viewing. There's also a mini-USB port and a headphone jack, though we'd certainly be interested to see how he plans on slipping a battery in there that lasts more than a hour or two. Can we get a major handset manufacturer to look in this direction -- pretty please?

[Via gadgetell]

[Bill Jobs @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:41AM]

Now this is an iPhone killer. If the battery lasts longer than an hour.

[avester @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:42AM]

Yeah, iPhone is known from the world-class battery.

[Ellianth @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:29AM]

Yeah... and it's stretch marks. lol

[switchbitch @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:42AM]

Pretty much all contemporary smartphones are iphone killers.

[Flashpoint @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:41AM]

I like it. But I'd assume typing on it must be even worse than typing on iphone.

[Johan S @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:28PM]

I have posted on engadget ideas for phones like this and similar to this .. but it always gets low ranked and insulted.

I guess the only way for people to be accepting of an idea is to show a concept.

One example:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/13/blackberry-touchscreen-phone-to-be-dubbed-thunder/

Yeah without the second screen being in-pressed i've posted but too lazy to find that.

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 3rd 2008 2:30PM]

Well, Johan S, I'll tell you why you got low ranked. It's because people would rather make smart insults and comebacks than listen to a truly unique idea.

That is brilliant! With an e-ink outer display, it will use very little power. The insides will be OLED or low-powered LCD. Maybe even later, solar panels could be put under the displays to catch ambient sunlight.

This Pica concept phone would be awesome, and is definitely the kind of thing you were talking about.

[Hamidxa @ Aug 3rd 2008 5:44PM]

What switch said:

"Pretty much all contemporary smartphones are iphone killers."

iPhone was outdated before it even hit the market, be it the 3G incarnation or the original one.

It lacks so many features that it's pointless trying to tout it as some sort of standard by which other phones are to be judged.

Hell, the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro already put it to utter shame.

[Hamidxa @ Aug 3rd 2008 5:46PM]

What switch said:

"Pretty much all contemporary smartphones are iphone killers."

iPhone was outdated before it even hit the market, be it the 3G incarnation or the original one.

It lacks so many features that it's pointless trying to tout it as some sort of standard by which other phones are to be judged.

Hell, the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro already put it to utter shame.

[ill trooper @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:48PM]

"Pretty much all contemporary smartphones are iphone killers."

Keep shouting into the void - no one cares.

[Ignatius @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:46PM]

Seems like you cared enough to reply.

[brad @ Aug 4th 2008 4:43AM]

Wow, how amazing! It's a Nintendo DS. But with a phone.

I hope this guy doesn't get any real "benefit" out of releasing a pretty stale, often-guessed-at concept. Who DIDN'T see this coming the first time they opened up a Nintendo Mario Brothers dual-screen game in 1988?

[avester @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:42AM]

Does the concept phone include concept jeans where you can put this without looking like you have a boner?

[Miker @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:53AM]

What shape are YOUR genitals?!

[nickels @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:57AM]

it looks to me like its about the size of an iphone when folded maybe a little thicker

[dreador @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:39AM]

Looks a bit too small for that ;o)

One thing about touch screen's that narcs me is strong sunlight, they never see to be usable. my compact III is rubbish when in direct sunlight.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 3rd 2008 12:43PM]

dreador,

Reflective screens like on the iPhone are very readable in direct sunlight, so that's not a worry.

[John DeVries New Life @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:14AM]

Looks like a winner to me. Maybe it could recharge from body electricity???? sounds like a cool idea.

[Samboini @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:26AM]

Impressive, Nokia please build onto this concept!

Give it a Micro SD slot, high quality plastic outer and a more discrete camera lens.

[martin @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:00AM]

so someone got a ds for their birthday and thought "hey i can rip this off and say its a phone concept"

[Craig @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:03AM]

Am I the only one who, when reading the headline, thought of Pica, the disease that makes you want to eat dirt, rocks, coins, and other objects?

I am? OK, well...

[Jon Nelson @ Aug 3rd 2008 12:11PM]

Actually, I thought of it, too..

Damn this extensive medical background!

[Johan S @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:21PM]

I thought of that too.

Hmm, I wonder what that phone tastes like.

[Tyler @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:47PM]

Extensive medical background? If your background was so extensive, then your first thought would have been of the plica circularis, which contains the title word, as opposed to pica which is completely different.

[Gaming Warrior @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:06AM]

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?from_url=true&sort_by=1&portfolio_id=1344546&individual_id=104354
Anyone else notice the browser running in the image in the bottom right hand corner..... Safari?

[Taylor @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:06AM]

People here:
Remember this is just a CONCEPT.
It's not even proven that a phone like this could be made, sold for under $500, and be more useful than a brick.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:40AM]

Looks more like a shingle!

=P

[Chris Macdonald @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:36AM]

but will it blend?????????1111

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:39AM]

We might need to rid of the ones that say "This needs to change for I do that"

Design one yourself then!

[Imran @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:40AM]

Interesting scale, the standalone photos seem like it's quite big, Eee PC size, which could be one model, and the then you see the photo of it in a hand which gives the real scale...

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:40AM]

The gap looks silly.

[UltimateTOR @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:42AM]

Thats what she said!

Low Rank FTW!

[Dave @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:44AM]

It'll become reality when you can produce this with a bendable display. I dont know if its just me or not, but I dont like displays that have a seam in them.

[CarrerCrytharis @ Aug 4th 2008 10:49AM]

Seams like it's just you...

[Louis @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:23AM]

i like it!! good to see some cool concepts are starting to come available the future looks bright.

[Colin Potter @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:24AM]

give me widescreen or give me death!

[joshky @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:33AM]

how bout 4 batteries on the margin of the screen?

[sepirioth @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:42AM]

To all of you "does it have (insert mindnumbing repetitive questions about software you apparently cant live without, like crisis?!) It has everything you want it to have and none of it at the same time,,, its a CONCEPT.

That said I wish I had not clicked the link to see it, it looks niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
I vont!

[PeteC @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:51AM]

We are seeing far to many of these "concept" devices that come from arts students or design houses that or basically just pretty "look what I can draw!" pictures. A proper concept car is more than just a 10 year old's drawing of something sleek with rocket boosters and machine guns on it - it has to be at least feasible and partially designed. Ideally it should drive. Why do concept electronics need no interior design at all?

Isn't is time the "concept" design from Earth: Final Confilict was featured? With the roll-out screen? Or the "concept" design from Star Trek, where it's just a badge with an voice/AI dialing mechanism? Or the "concept" transport design from Star Wars, a ground car that hovers half a metre or so above the ground? After all, these are just as real as the "concepts" being shown regularly from designers that somehow fail to include even simple internal layouts and never ever have a working prototype?

"Look what a pretty picture I can make in photoshop" is occasionally cool, but hardly a proper design.

[Decoy @ Aug 3rd 2008 8:47PM]

I fail to understand your comment - you don't want concept art, and would rarther look at design plans? You won't get them.

[PeteC @ Aug 3rd 2008 9:03PM]

Decoy:

I'll explain a little more then.

Engadget and many other sites keep showing us these enormously clever or pretty or cool pictures. Fine. However these designs are not real. They are not devices that tech companies are working on, or are considering working on, or are using as technology prototypes or demonstrators, or even research projects. They're simply pretty pictures from a graphics designer - no more real than the pretty and cool-looking props from a sci-fi series or movie are.

It's like Pininfarina showing us the picture of a stunningly beatiful auto-driving Ferrari that can fly. If Ferrari aren't actually working on it, and it never has reality outside of an artist's graphic model, then it's a "concept" design in the same way that a ten-year old's really cool car drawing is a "concept".

People keep asking "when will it be available" and saying "I want one" because sites like Engadget don't make it clear that this is a pretty picture of what one talented artist would like phones to be like. People are seeing this with the same attitude as a new Nokia N-series, iPhone or Blackbird laptop design. It's not the same - those are actual products being worked on by engineers. Most of these "concepts" never have a single engineer involved in their creation.

I'm not against their creation or against showing them - but they should be clearly differentiated from actually-being-worked-on devices.

[Brad @ Aug 4th 2008 5:04AM]

I agree completely. One of my biggest problems with "concept" art like this is precisely that: it isn't a "concept" - it's a pretty picture. This doesn't even show some form of novel interface (c'mon, what are you gonna type with if both hands are holding the phone? why is the keyboard laid out like that?).

No, this is an artist who got a brand new iPhone, and then some day went "OMG, what if I had two! and put them together!".

There's no consideration of battery, electronics, or user interaction beyond "headphone and USB jacks on the ends". As a design "concept" this takes very little into consideration - materials, available technology, budget, space / heat consideration. This is an artist playing at being an engineer. And as an engineer, it's a little insulting. It basically says "If artists were designing products, they'd look like this; see how fantastic we are?" It isn't that no one thought up a dual-screen phone that folds in the middle, its that the technology is not at a level where it's practical or even fesable to do right now. When it is, bet we'll see something along these lines, but instead of being crapped out and flung against the wall as "art" they'll be vetted by hundreds of hours of re-design and test, studies of interaction and a thousand rounds of cost reduction to make them affordable and effective.

If anyone can point out what value this picture provides (except to set off a few angry engineers like myself), what way in which it has contributed ANYTHING POSITIVE, I'd like to hear it. In the mean time, I'm going to wait 2 months until this resurfaces with some clumsily added Apple logo as a "leaked concept" published by some 12 year old.

[Alareth @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:52AM]

Nintendo DSphone Lite?

[Wolfticket @ Aug 3rd 2008 12:31PM]

Looks like a nice ebook concept, or maybe tablet portable computer thing. I don't see how the design is particularly phone-y.

[Ed Ostling @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:04PM]

not the praying type here... but Ill make an exception.

plzb:
Released to opensource with android.
kthx

[Leodan @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:27PM]

yeah...all you need is anything small like a penny between the screens when you close it before you'll have 2 broken screens.

[barry99705 @ Aug 3rd 2008 1:31PM]

I'd just be happy with devices with screen bezels that damn thin.

[Jon Doe. @ Aug 3rd 2008 2:46PM]

Look. This is what real innovation is. Not the iTrend.

[ill trooper @ Aug 3rd 2008 11:34PM]

Innovation beyond the 'iTrend'?

I just can't act like a fantasy render is more than exactly that, a fantasy render - aside from the obvious fold-over double screen, the 'iTrend' essentially does what we see here.

AND you've been able to buy it for over a year. (Well, I know you wouldn't, Jon Doe, of course!) But if you did you'd be able to practice your typing to get ready for the Plica - IF this render ever hits the market, when, I'm sure, you will be here on the web complaining about how it's too expensive, the battery sucks, and how its hinges felt cheap over at BestBuy.

[THJ @ Aug 3rd 2008 2:52PM]

It looks fantastic for data/apps, but how about for talking?

Looks like it can't be held open to talk into (without looking like you are talking into a large drink coaster).

Will it have .........

Ok, I just RTFA, check the read link for what it looks like closed. Very nice.