Hitachi W61H with customizable e-Ink covers
Written by admin on February 3rd, 2008 in Gadgets.
Hitachi have announced the new Hitachi W61H clamshell phone, the main claim to fame of which is a body that can display 95 different patterns on the back at the touch of a button. Similar in concept to Nokia’s old xPress On covers, where you could snap on a new cover to customize your phone, Hitachi’s new design, called “Silhouette Screen” is a little more sophisticated.
Rather than using physical bits of plastic that have to snapped on and snapped off, the W61H uses e-Ink technology, similar to that used in e-Book readers such Amazon’s Kindle. The whole back of the phone therefore acts as a separate display, but rather than displaying info, it simply displays a pattern.
More details after the jump.
This is an interesting use of e-Ink technology. Created for reading eBooks, e-Ink offers extremely high definition and draws virtually no power. As such, a pattern displayed on the back of a phone using this technology would look virtually indistinguishable from the same pattern that was painted on using traditional methods.
I can’t see this being much of a seller, and it certainly won’t change the mobile phone world overnight, but it’s an innovative use of e-Ink technology, and should do well in the younger sector of the market, where customization is a seen as A Good Thing.
The Hitachi W61H is destined for Japan only at the moment on the KDDI network, but if it’s successful, it shouldn’t be too long before similar technology is seen on other phones around the world.
[Source: UnwiredView]
Tags: robots, gear, electronic toys, pvp
