Nokia received a newly issued patent covering a laptop-style device with two touch screens and a removable keyboard. Nokia shows in this patent its development breadth towards the convergence of laptops and cell phones and has created this concept to smartly attain a smaller device size with improved functionality.
Nokia’s design allows a user to fix the display as a flat single touch screen surface while the keyboard is removed to maximize the viewing surface. With the increasing use of multiple small LCDs on cell phones and the impending explosion that the iPhone should bring in touch screens, the ability to integrate screens for a larger viewing screen combined with a more compact and safer storage design are the clear benefits of this device’s design.
From Nokia’s US 7221330 description: “Because touch mode functionality renders a flat device configuration desirable, the present invention discloses a flat configuration, and sliding pieces for fixing the device in that flat configuration. Thus, the two screens unite in the flat configuration. When the sliding pieces slide away to allow the device to be closed, no screen faces outward in an unprotected folded position.”
Nokia has some experience in dabbling in laptop design as shown in US 6903927That experience along with the 770 Internet Tablet and the N-Series broadening Nokia’s reach, designs like this begin to bring more industrial design into a device that may be able to compete with the OQO as another competitive ultra-mobile PC option.
