Triple Treat: 3 Screens for Stretched Phone Functionality

The designer of the Flip Phone concept, Kristian Ulrich Larsen, asks in this video: “What is creativity?” Since the inception of the smartphone, many of the designs have looked very similar to one another – and most, if not all, have shared similar functions as well. This phone, should it ever reach the open market, would change that.

Rather than the standard rectangle-with-a-screen configuration, the Flip Phone features a full keyboard and three AMOLED screens connected by soft steel mesh hinges. The screens take on different configurations to perform different functions or even run multiple applications at the same time. A proprietary version of Android powers the whole setup.

The unique design is based on the premise that we no longer use our phones just for communicating. We use them in ways that used to be reserved for a whole house full of gadgets – so why stick with an outdated format that allows only limited screen real estate?

Three screens mean that users can do several things at the same time or even expand the content to fit more than one screen. Productivity and creativity can prosper easily with the right tools, and the Flip Phone seems to be the right kind of tool to help inspire other great ideas. Existing currently only as a student project (with one very smooth video), the Flip Phone it not currently available for sale – but we hope cell phone companies take the hint and build multi-screen functionality into future models.

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See more in Phones & Mobile or under Gadgets. February, 2011.