Gadgetory

so I've been hearing some stuff lately from people saying they're getting a little tired of unboxing videos and boxing videos aren't as fun as they used to be that kind of thing you know it's hard to know sometimes because you get I like to call it the vocal minority you know you get like a few people you know you do a video and it gets say 30,000 views and if you have like even a hundred commenters all saying that you know that's still just a small percentage of 30,000 so it's hard to know but I was thinking about I'm thinking you know maybe doesn't have to be an unboxing video every time you know maybe you know we kind of wait and you know just do sort of a hands-on video or a review but then then this happens to boxes what's going on everybody I'm nor from TechnoBuffalo calm I got the Kyocera echo from Sprint today it hits on April 17th for 199 99 on contract after rebate 1 9999 today's the 13th I read a few days ahead of time thanks to the folks at Sprint for sending it out and I opened up the FedEx package and there are two boxes and so it's like a sign that I'm supposed to do an unboxing kind of a dual unboxing video I don't know how this is gonna work but I'm gonna try it I think you know it's the whole dual thing the dual screen phone dual unboxing there at there's a website up on Sprint they don't microsite for pre-ordering the site and it says we chopped pre-ordering the phone it says we challenged you to a duel dua L and there's a little animated gunslinger like a duel anyway alright so here we go duel unboxing will unbox the big box first inside box number one you get the phone and what looks like probably a media guide on the flash drive here's the phone itself here is a lot of styrofoam here is nothing oh I see so this was supposed to be in here I bet this is probably just the media kit with the and this was supposed to be but this doesn't fit maybe somebody cut it wrong maybe when they ordered these custom foam inserts they were all cut wrong and the retail box wouldn't fit and that's why they sent it out here I was thinking there was some kind of high concept dual unboxing thing but maybe they just messed up when they cut it so did they send me two phones well let's look inside box number two it's a box now it's a triple unboxing and inside of this box oh it's empty so no I only got one phone I thought I was gonna have four screens across two films but inside here there's the USB cable there's the power adapter and there is the infamous second this is the second battery battery charger external battery because a dual screen phone means eating up a lot of battery power here's the phone itself the Chi 0 echo Kyocera echo and you know I'll tell you what I don't even know what to make of this thing I have to learn how to use the latch I have to it's an Android based phone Android 2.2 Froyo with two screens it's unique that's for sure you know Sprint has never and as long as I've been covering mobile tech which is a little over five years now Sprint has never been afraid to take chances and that try to be innovative with their their products and and that you know their services and everything so you know way back when it was the back flip phone when at the back look the up stage it was a music player on one side phone on the other it was like a mullet business in the front party in the back now it's the it's the echo it's a dual screen phone with this crazy hand of design and the deal is that it runs it runs some apps in full dual screen mode so it's almost like a little mini tablet you know you've got Android 2.2 and it's stretched across the whole thing and you can turn it to that an accelerometer yep you can turn the phone and stretch it across this way stretch it across the whole thing I'm so professional it stretched across both screens so you've got you know this combination dual screen setup and you know they just they redid Android 2.2 to fit the dual screens here and then there are certain apps that can be used in batteries dead already certain apps that can be used in in the full-on you know - screen mode and the certain apps that are customized to - how to take advantage of both screens at the same time so alright so I have to set up the Google account also see this is why I'm boxing or aren't as cool anymore because you have to get these things all set up and you can't just get that set up you know right out of the box it takes a few minutes let's get some some you know a little tour around the phone here so you know you've got basically the the dual capacitive touch screen is kind of mimicking each other with the three buttons on the bottom there the three capacitive touch buttons for home menu and back and then you can learn how to use this slip properly then you can close it up and just go into single screen mode when it's closed up you know it's a thick phone for sure thicker then smarter than your average bear here I'm gonna get a another phone here's the Thunderbolt which is also a giant phone you know single screen four inch screen definitely not a small foam but you can see the echo much much thicker than the Thunderbolt anyway on top here there's nothing there's the hinge on the left spine you've got a three millimeter headphone jack you've got a card slot you got your power button you've got a rocker switch you've got a USB port on the bottom nothing here just a little Qualcomm 3G CDMA it's a 3G phone not 4G on the other side again just you know just your all your controls are on the ones fine here because the rest is is taken over with the hinge and all that stuff and then on the back you've got your camera five megapixel with a flash autofocus 720p HD video capture and you know you can use your you can use your your dual screen kind of is a little mini laptop mode or in the mouth in the tablet mode to launch a second application touch both screens at the same time after tapping okay so I think what you can do let's go home and just locked in so you can touch both screens at the same time oh wait no I see let's get back to where we were and now touch both screens at the same time and now I can launch a second application so I could have the UQ so I going to my browser going down here and then separate of that I can have you Q which is the customized YouTube app going up there just all kinds of craziness going on with this device I will say you know sort of out of the box here that you know obviously would have to spend some time playing around see this was bad I got suckered into the unboxing app but if there's unboxing video but there's any phone that shouldn't have an unboxing video it's this thing because really I need to spend some time figuring out what is going on with the two screens and which apps work across both and you know all the different configurations here but basically touch this again and see what happens now we're back across to the now I'm back I've got just it that's it's all very interesting that's all I can really say right now is very interesting very interesting very interesting basically you know just out of the box a couple things I'll say about it the the snap on the hinge feels pretty solid and it definitely locks in and locks out you know very you know it's definitely you can tell when it's locked into tablet mode or when it's open and then you know it snaps nicely into this laptop style mode as well and I could see using this you don't have to try out the email app I can see using this with the typing down here and you know viewing your message paid up there you know just like that just like that but I have to configure my email account so I'll do that offline obviously it's a thick phone it's not going to be forever buddy there's a lot of bezel in between the two displays when you're in tablet mode and even just looking at this little you know tip button there there cursor arrow to display to provide you with more possibilities as a phone or a tablet and I wonder if that's the sort of thing that you'd get used to or if it would just always be annoying to see content you know this great like you know it's almost the resolution of some of the tablet devices out there in terms of pixels get the spec sheet here all right and so what you wind up with when the phone is open each screen is 3.5 inches so opening them up you get effectively a 4.7 inch roughly display and the combined resolution of both screens is 960 by 800 so you're you're on par almost with you know iPad is 1024 768 so 960 by 800 you know a little different proportions or whatnot but but you're almost at a full tablet size in terms of pixels but the problem is that that nice giant screen feeling is broken up right there and you know so you're you're sort of if we go back to the web browser here and you know load up let's not load up that yeah let's load up this frame so we load up a screen here and you know we want to zoom in and out is this a oh this is a mobile yeah trying to make a point here people oh all right and then so here you've got you know the the keyboard only spins doesn't span all the way across so let's go back and do let's tilt it and going to this mode true hoop has been my standby for a website that loads up in non mobile mode it's running on Sprint and you've got you know the Android notification barn all that stuff it's pretty standard Android 2.2 from what I've seen what I saw before I got the device and what I see now anyway so here's true hoop opening up and you know if we're if we're gonna so can we not not doing multi-touch gonna have to go old-school style Oh interesting I thought it was multi-touch but seems not to be well at any rate you know if you're looking at something especially if it's a visual you know we'll just use this ad just because it's there and you know it's broken up by that bezel and I just wonder if after using this phone day-in day-out you just get used to it and your brain just sort of learns to ignore the bezel or if it's just going to be annoying to have that all split up and started defeat the purpose at least as far as using the expanded screen now the dual mode you know apps that that you know using two apps at the same time or using an app or it takes advantage of both screens you know like this where you've got the keyboard down here and then the screen up above that could be kind of cool so an interesting concept I'm excited to play with it I'm dubious right now I was dubious when they launched it I'm dubious now it just sort of feels like one of those things that is either maybe ahead of its time or you know just never had a time but I'm withholding I shouldn't even said that because I want to withhold judgment until I use the device for a while but you know but as always kudos to sprint from trying to push the envelope with the Kyocera echo the amazing dual screen phone with two boxes that turn into 45 boxes and its own external battery extra battery external charger that it had to come within the package because two screens take up so much power so here you go you get this little little charger and it's got take them off of it and so you've got your charger and then USB powered oh man see I failed with batteries I fail with extra chargers too where's the extra battery extra batteries inside the box and well anyway so you can carry this around and snap the battery in and out because um because you need that much juice for a phone with this many screens one $99.99 on contract with a after rebate through sprint on April 17th which means I have a couple days to mess around with it and let you know what I think of it before it hits the stores much much more on the echo and you know the old fashioned one screen phones over on TechnoBuffalo calm and of course on Twitter you can follow us at TechnoBuffalo I'm at Noah Kravitz John is at John four Lakers Sean Emily welcome and Rihanna as Yana just signed up my old pal Adriana just joined out TechnoBuffalo this week very excited about that thumbs up at Joey Jack John John John with a lot of people named John you can follow us all on Twitter just go over the website hit the editors link and that'll tell you how to track us all down and stalk us on Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff till next time my name is Noah buh-bye