Bucking the touch screen trend, Samsung has opted for an E Ink display to empower its next-generation Alias 2 cell phone. What the E Ink offers is the ability to morph the physical keyboard based on the user application. Some users prefer this "hard switch" keyboard to the virtual on-screen display, such as the one used by Apple’s iPhone.

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Some hard-core text users can really fly with the tactile feedback that a hard switch creates. So, the Samsung group decided to use a unique E Ink display behind the keys to allow the phone keypad to switch froma keyboard in text mode to a number pad in phone/dial mode.

Here’s how John Messina described the phone’s operation in his recent Reghardware.com article. "When the phone is held vertically, numerical keys are displayed. Switching the phone to the horizontal position gives you a full QWERTY layout that can also change to numeric with symbols. Other controls, such as the navigation arrows and the soft keys, also change positions."

The phone is a dual-hinge design that allows use in flip and slider modes. That’s cool engineering. It gives hard-core texters a great option if the touch feedback is acceptable. The E Ink approach could also be a boon to software developers (if they are given the hooks) to develop custom templates that work with, say, games or other unique applications.

Insight Media had a chance to check out the phone and we have to say we liked the new switchable keyboard/keypad. It works quickly and the keys are front illuminated for use in dim environments, but easy to see in direct sunlight, too. Clever.

This device is an upgrade to the 2007 Alias from Samsung, then a fresh new dual-hinge design that needed some tweaking. E Ink display works nicely here in revision 2.

We think Samsung is on to something with the use of the E Ink display, but let’s remember the opportunity cost to get this kind of tactile feedback. This is, no doubt, a complex system with expensive engineering, assembly cost, and extensive BOM that includes two unique displays to do the work that could be accomplished in software and one large, bright LCD or OLED panel.

Will the Alias2 reverse the trend in cell phone design toward large, multi-touch displays with virtual keyboards and other software controls? Probably not. But it may make enough customers happy to justify the effort. We’ll see.