The Readius Smart Phone Sports a Large 5" Foldout Display

The Readius is a smart phone and e-book reader that is scheduled to hit the markets sometime in mid 2008. Produced by Polymer Vision the Readius is the first cell phone ever manufactured that will have a fold out display, when the display is folded up it fort of wraps around the phone!

The extremely large 5 inch display will actually be larger than the phone itself, it is easily folded out when ever you want to surf the web or check emails and a snap to fold back up to a small cell phone size device when you're done!

The debut models of the Readius will only display images and text in black and white, that sort of resemble ink and paper, like a newspaper or book. The polymer vision display will use organic semiconductors that will display text and images on the paper thin, flexible screen.

Connection to the internet is done through a wireless, High Speed Downlink Packet Access 3G network, ActiveSync and USB mass storage are both supported and it can even use Bluetooth 2.0 for accessory connection!

The data speeds are very fast with a ARM11 400MHz processor, 128mb ram and 256mb internal ram. The end-to-end delivery platform will allow users to configure the device to their own personal needs. Once setup is complete, email, podcasts, blog feeds and other such items are delivered and updated automatically.

The Readius will be running the Windows CE operating system and only have 8 "Simple Touch" buttons, but a keyboard will probably be added to new models. With the Readius you'll be able to play MP3s, audio books, surf the web and make world wide calls.

These debut models will be provide a expansion slot for Micro-SDHC memory cards that will allow up to 8GB of extra storage space to be added and the battery life is projected to last six times longer than other cell phones, giving you approximately 30 hours of use.

A spin-off of the Phillips company, Polymer Vision hasn't released the exact date these devices will become available. And, they've not given any hints as to the price of the Readius yet, but it is suspected to fall somewhere between the $500 to $700 range.