Siam 7X

[Jorge-Vieira]

Dual-Screen Siam 7X Smartphone Portends Competition For YotaPhone

http://media.bestofmicro.com/L/J/537319/gallery/siam_w_600.png (http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/siam,0101-537319-0-2-12-1-png-.html)CRBT Inc. is running a Kickstarter campaign to bring the first dual-screen smartphone to the U.S. market, and if it’s successful, the device should be shipping in time for Christmas this year. Like the YotaPhone (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/yotaphone-2-android-e-ink-smartphone,28419.html), the Siam 7X smartphone will feature a screen on both sides on the device. One side of the phone features a 5-inch Full HD color screen for consuming media, and the back side features a 4.7-inch E-ink display suitable for e-books, text messages, news feeds and other content that doesn’t require rich visuals. The phone runs Android Lollipop, and CRBT said that all Android apps are compatible.


<iframe width="550" height="310" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/meJYx8A33m0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Siam 7X



CRBT said the E-ink display is easier to see in sunlight and consumes less energy than the standard screen so you can keep things running and still cut down on battery drain. CRBT said having two screens will enable new ways to multitask using your smartphone; for example, you can have the calculator on one screen and a grocery list on the other while shopping, or you could have your music on one screen and GPS map on the other.
Not only is the Siam 7X a dual-screen phone, it is also a dual-SIM phone. The phone comes fully unlocked, so it can be used on all GSM networks.
Backers of the Kickstarter campaign will receive an extra bonus with the phone purchase. Each Siam 7X will come bundled with BioSport smart earbuds from SMS audio. These earbuds double as a heart rate monitor that feeds into the Siam 7X, allowing active owners to ditch extra heartrate monitoring devices.
One feature about the phone that isn’t immediately apparent from the Kickstarter campaign page is the way ring tones on the Siam 7X work. CRBT Inc. isn’t just a random name for a company. It actually stands for Caller Ring Back Tone, which is technology that the company owns that feeds customized greetings or advertisements back to callers instead of a standard ringtone. The Siam 7X smartphone includes this technology, which CRBT said this is perfect for small businesses to connect with customers.

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CRBT Siam 7X Dual-Screen Smartphone


Main Screen
5.0-inch IPS Multi-touch / 1280x720


Back Screen
4.7-inch E-Ink paper touch 16 grey level / 960x450


Rear Camera
16.0MP auto focus with LED flash


Front Camera
-8.0MP front camera
-Records 1080p @ 30fps


Processor
Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64bit 1.2 GHz


GPU
AMR MailT760-MP3 @ 450 MHz


Dual Sim
Micro SIM and nano SIM


Sensors
Gravity, Proximity, Light, Magnetic, Gyroscope


Network
LTE FDD/DD Cat.4 (150MHz/50MHz), WCDMA, EDGE, GPRS


Band
-2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
-3G WCDMA 850/1900/2100NGZ TD-SCDMA
-4G FDD-LTE Cat.4 150Mbps


Connectivity
Wi-Fi, WLAN Hot Spot, iEEE 802.11 a/n/b/g/ac, built-in GPS, A-GPS support, Bluetooth 4.0, IR Smart Remote, FM Radio, 3.5 mm Earphone jack, Micro USB


Battery
2100mAh



Dimensions
142 mm x 70.6 mm x 8.9 mm

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The Siam 7X dual-screen smartphone Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/siam7x/siam-7x-us-first-dual-screen-smartphone/description) launched on November 2 and is set to wrap up on December 1. The company is selling the phone for $420 to the first 100 backers, and a version with a 32 GB micro SD card is also available for $470. If the company reaches its $50,000 goal, the phones will go out to backers in December. As an added bonus, the company is offering free upgrades so backers can get to the next model Siam smartphone in the future at no additional charge.



Noticia:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone-kickstarter,30483.html

[Enzo]

Não me convence. Preferia um telemovel "dobravel", ou slide que quando desdobrasse/abrisse, formasse um widescreen por exemplo, ou pudesse trabalhar nele como nos PCs em multi-monitor.

[Jorge-Vieira]

About The Siam 7x, A Dark Horse Dual-Screen Smartphone From Out Of Nowhere

In an already-saturated smartphone market, there isn't much room for upstarts, but CRBT, Inc. believes its dual-screen Siam 7x smartphone can punch through. Although its Kickstarter campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/siam7x/siam-7x-us-first-dual-screen-smartphone/description) to fund the development of the Siam 7x fizzled somewhat (it was suspended and relaunched on Indiegogo (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone#/) after a minor copyright issue), the phone is apparently going to become a Real Thing.
After we wrote about the Kickstarter earlier this month (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone-kickstarter,30483.html), we had more questions than we had answers about this device (and the company making it), so we reached out and spoke with Darius Allen, CRBT's president.
Who? Indeed, who is CRBT, Inc.? We had certainly never heard of the company before, and that's because (up to now), its primary business was caller ring back tone advertising (hence the CRBT name). The company has been around since 2004, and it has no previous experience developing hardware.
Therefore, the decision to wade into the thick smartphone market, especially at the higher-end, seems ludicrous.
This is not lost on Allen. However, the bottom line for him and his company is that they saw a gap in the smartphone market that they wanted to fill, and they felt they could do it. "There's more technology that's out there that [smartphone] manufacturers aren't releasing," he said. "Partially, that's because they're trying to sell you linear integrations of the technology and make profit along the way."
Two Screens Specifically, they were intrigued by the dual-screen design that first gained prominence with the YotaPhone (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/yotaphone-2-coming-north-america,29127.html).
Indeed, the Siam 7x has a regular 5-inch (1280x720) display, but it also has a 4.7-inch E-Ink display on the back. CRBT, Inc. has built (and continues to update) custom software and firmware to enable additional features on that second screen.
"We have a lot of custom applications to make the second screen useful," Allen said. "There's no point in having just a plastic back. It's real estate, let's use it." He noted that, for example, an ereader application already works well on an E-Ink display, but they wanted to deliver more than that.
The Siam 7x uses the E-Ink display for news feeds, social feeds, notifications, calls and more. One use case Allen mentioned was if you're using your GPS and receive a call, the two screens allow you to answer the call and talk without having to minimize anything else.
http://media.bestofmicro.com/L/J/537319/gallery/siam_w_600.png (http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/siam,0101-537319-0-2-12-1-png-.html)How Will They Pull This Off? It's one thing to astutely identify a void in a given market, but it's quite another to execute a plan to take advantage of it. Because CRBT, Inc. as a company has no hardware background, the first and most obvious question is how exactly the team plans to actually make the Siam 7x.
On this point, Allen is unbowed. He said that his U.S.-based engineering team includes seasoned veterans with CES design wins on their resumes, and they have already successfully designed and engineered working handsets that are ready to ship.
They've outsourced the actual manufacturing to a Chinese factory, but all the packaging and shipping is done back in-house at company headquarters in Fort Worth, TX. (Allen said that they looked at manufacturing in Houston but found the cost to be prohibitive.) And then, the company's software expertise can handle the tricky parts of making apps work on a second screen. Rounding out the package is CRBT, Inc.'s Blue Magic warranty (http://bluemagicwarranty.com/).
Assuming the hardware and software are solid, there's still the issue of advertising and distribution. It sounds as if CRBT, Inc. is confident that the product will find some footing, mainly because the team feels that customers will want something more when they see it. Allen said that bigger companies can rely on customer loyalty to an extent to keep selling iterative handsets rather than being challenged to create innovative ones, and by pushing out new devices quickly, they can ensure sales via upgrades. The wager is that the Siam 7x will provide a compelling enough experience that customers with any amount of Samsung and HTC (et al) fatigue would consider switching.
Coming Soon: Two Full Color Displays Although the second E-Ink display is a relatively new idea on its own, at first, CBRT, Inc. planned on something a little bolder. "Our original device that we've been working on for three years or so is two full color displays," said Allen.
He said they were trying to get away from the idea of the second display being black and white, because they wanted more functionality than the sort of "lite" uses that an E-Ink display affords. Two color displays sounds next to impossible. However, "My engineering team got it done," he said.
Allen said that the hangup came when his Chinese manufacturer struggled with the concept, and after much back-and-forth, the CRBT, Inc. team decided to just roll with a black and white second display for the launch of the first-gen Siam 7x, "Only to fill a void, to pick up the slack where YotaPhone couldn't deliver" in the North American market.
Now, though, Allen is confident that a dual, front-and-back color display smartphone is in the offing. "On our flagship device that we're going to launch next year, the back screen is going to be fully functional, as is the front screen."


Siam 7x Promo

The Specs The Siam 7x runs on a quad-core MediaTek MT6735 SoC (http://www.mediatek.com/en/products/mobile-communications/smartphone1/mt6735/), which has an ARM Mali T720 GPU.
The bill for the Siam 7x will be $549, which is by no means at the top of the smartphone cost heap, but it is significantly higher than many "flagship" killers. With that price tag, though, you do get a pair of SMS Audio Biosport ear buds (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-sms-audio-biometric-earbuds,28284.html), which normally cost $149.95 on their own. With that in mind, what is effectively $400 for the smartphone itself is a much more palatable cost. For now at least, the pricey earbuds and Siam 7x are a package deal.
(You can, however, still snag one for $420 (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone#/) via the Indiegogo campaign for a few more days.)

<tbody>
Siam 7x


Display
-Front: 5-inch IPS (1280x720)
-Rear: 4.7-inch E-Ink paper touch (16 gray level adjustment, 235 ppi, 960x540)


SoC
MediaTek MT6735 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit, 1.3 GHz)


GPU
ARM Mali T720


OS
Android 5.0 Lollipop


Dual SIM
-Micro SIM
-Nano SIM/TF card 2 in 1


Cameras
-Rear: 16MP autofocus w/LED flash, shoots in 1080p HD
-Front: 8MP


Sensors
Gravity, proximity, light, magnetic, gyroscope


Network/Bands
-2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
-3G: WCDMA 850/1900/2100 MHz TD-SCDMA
-4G: FDD-LTE Cat.4 150 Mbps (Band 1/3/7/20), TD-LTE 2, 4, 7, 17


Connectivity
-802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, supports hotspot
-GPS, A-GPS
-Bluetooth 4.0, IR remote, FM radio
-3.5 mm earphone jack
-micro USB


Battery
2100 mAh


Dimensions
142 x 70.6 x 8.9 mm, 170g


Warranty
Blue Magic (http://bluemagicwarranty.com/)


Price
$549, with earbuds

</tbody>

The 2100 mAh battery looks like it could be a trouble spot for a phone with two displays, but Allen said, "Our team did a great job of engineering to utilize less energy on normal operations." He also pointed out that because the E-Ink display can handle a number of applications, you can use the lower-power display often, which has the net result of consuming less juice.
This is a GSM phone and thus will operate on AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Allen said the company is working on carrier partnerships, including potentially a CDMA version of the Siam 7x for Verizon and Sprint networks.
Challenges Accepted CRBT, Inc. has a huge challenge ahead of it, and one can't help but wonder if the company is in for a rude awakening when the Siam 7x slams into the wall of a North American smartphone market that is well-saturated by a flood of quality handsets, most of which come from a small group of heavy-hitters. One does not simply walk into the smartphone market, to borrow the meme.
On the other hand, if the company can put together a strong one-two punch of hardware and software to go with its more or less exclusive dual-screen design, it may just be able to sway smartphone customers who have become less than enthusiastic about the offerings from the established smartphone makers.



Noticia:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/about-the-siam7x-dual-screen-smartphone,30648.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Dual-Screen Siam 7x Smartphone Beats The Odds, Hits The Market

http://media.bestofmicro.com/H/Z/561815/gallery/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone_w_600.png (http://www.tomshardware.com/gallery/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone,0101-561815-0-2-12-1-png-.html)
Back in November, we wrote about the Siam 7x, a dual-screen smartphone from a virtually unknown company (CRBT, Inc.) that had never before made hardware. That’s a recipe for vaporware soup if we’ve ever heard one, but it appears that CRBT beat the odds, as the Siam 7x is now on sale.
You can snag one for $549 from the Siam website (https://www.siamsmartphone.com/review/product/list/id/9/) or Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=siam+7x). (For some reason, there’s a white version of the phone on Amazon that’s $50 less at $500. On the Siam site, the white version is still $549.)
For details on the Siam 7x and the company making it, head over to our original article (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/about-the-siam7x-dual-screen-smartphone,30648.html).



Noticia:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/siam-7x-dual-screen-smartphone,31269.html