YotaPhone isn’t the only player on the block with a dual-screened phone, it seems, as Oukitel looks to slap an e-ink display on the back of one of its own smartphones.
Dubbed the Oukitel U6, the smartphone’s main draw is the 4.7-inch 960 x 540 resolution e-ink screen that takes over the rear of the handset. Based on Oukitel’s hands-on video of the smartphone, you can mirror certain apps to the e-ink panel, such as the company’s music, book reading, and “E-Notes” apps, the last of which displays widgets for the time, calendar, and agenda for a more detailed look at your day’s events.
However, the main display on the front doesn’t seem to shut off when activating the mirroring feature, suggesting to us that there may be some software tweaks that prevent you from making any input on the front panel while using the e-ink display.
In addition, we’re unsure whether you can mirror anything that’s shown on the main display to the e-ink panel, as you can do with the YotaPhone 2. This is the first time we’ve seen the U6 in action, though, so such a feature may be awaiting implementation.
Around the front is a more standard 5-inch, 720p screen, though we’re unsure whether it’s an IPS or AMOLED display. Regardless, it’s reminiscent of the original YotaPhone’s 4.3-inch display with the same resolution, though the YotaPhone 2 improved on it with its 5-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution AMOLED display.
Aesthetically, the U6 shares some similarities with the iPhone 6, with the Micro USB port on the bottom flanked by speaker cutouts, while the metal side frames are rounded. Finally, we spotted an IR blaster on the top of the phone, and a 3.5mm headphone jack sits close to one of the plastic-coated strips that we presume help with antenna reception.
Unfortunately, there isn’t solid information as to what powers the U6, though rumors suggest the deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 will help the phone chug through what seems like a custom skin on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop. We also don’t know when the U6 will be released, though Oukitel promises to disclose more information on the handset as time goes by.
