Customize your phone with these E Ink cases

E Ink iPhone case — Image via Engadget Image used with permission by copyright holder

Some smartphone owners want to appreciate their phone in all its natural beauty, but the rest of us throw on a case; if not primarily to protect the phone, to showcase our personality. Talk about taking smartphone customization to the next level. But for the most part, we’re limited to someone else’s design. Sure, you can shell out some cash to customize your own case, but it’s a one-time deal, and to change it, you’ll have to pay up again.

Taking customization one step further, an upstart company called Gajah has developed a case with an E Ink display on the back, according to Engadget. The case, which it calls InkCase, will initially be made available for the iPhone 5, and has a 3.5-inch, 360 x 600 pixel display and Bluetooth 4.0. A Samsung Galaxy Note 2 version will carry a 4.3-inch, 600 x 800 pixel display and Bluetooth 2.1.

While additional product specs aren’t available, we imagine the cases will have similar functionality to the Popslate E-Ink cases, which were announced six months ago, but still haven’t hit the market. If true, we can expect that Gajah’s cases will be able to display any image from your phone’s gallery, allowing you to change the look of your case in a matter of seconds.

On top of that, it’s possible these cases could also take advantage of the minute amount of power it takes to run an E Ink screen to display notifications, maps, and other basic functions without having to switch your main screen on, which is a bigger drain on the battery.

The cases will roll out in China and Malaysia first, with the Galaxy Note 2 model going for $130 and the iPhone 5 model for $100. If sales are successful enough, a Galaxy S 4 model may follow. Whether the cases will make their way to the U.S. is yet to be known, but we can imagine that, if they’re a hit, other companies will eventually follow suit.

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