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Dual front is a design concept which allows a device to have two distinctive sides, one for each function. It is most commonly used in
camera phone
A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...
s.
Advantages
The main advantage of using a dual fronted device is the enhanced ease of use by having distinctive functions for each side.
For example, having a mobile phone with a dual front for the camera encourages the user to hold the phone horizontally which reduces the learning curve because the buttons and functions are located in similar places to a common
digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile device ...
.
Use in market
The dual front concept began in 2003 when
Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...
started its camera phone range with the
T610 and T630 which could be held comfortably in the style of a real digital camera due to its side-mounted shutter button; they also had rear designs which loosely resembled the design of digital cameras. Sony Ericsson described the design of the T630 as 'Putting an end to phones having a front and a back, the T630 has two sides. One for the camera... the other for telephony...'
With the announcement of the
K700i and
S700i, Sony Ericsson introduced a new marketing term, "Dual front" to refer to camera phone where the "back" of the handset is styled as the "front" of a digital camera, hence the term of "dual front".
The market responded well to this design and
Sharp
Sharp or SHARP may refer to:
Acronyms
* SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme
* Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 199 ...
was the next company to begin designing dual front products, by producing a
clamshell phone with a dual front design (
Sharp 902). This had not been done before on clamshell phones as it was difficult to find a convenient location to put the camera due to the physical limitations.
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
, after observing the continued response towards mobile phones with dual front designs announced the
6111 and the
6270/
6280 in 2005, all of which had a dual front element to them. They had also previously created a new design which involved the twisting of the top flip in order to create a
camcorder
A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swa ...
like display (as on the
6260). Whilst not strictly dual front, it was later elaborated more to form the
N90,
N92 and
N93.
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
's
UpStage
Upstage may refer to:
*UpStage, an open source server-side application that has been purpose built for cyberformance
* ''Upstage'' (film), (also known as The Mask of Comedy) is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film
*The Upstage Gallery, featu ...
, released in 2007, features a new form of dual front design, where one side is the phone side and the other side resembles an
MP3 player
A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...
.
Other uses
Sony Ericsson also used the dual front design in the Japan release, the Sony Ericsson Radiden. On the back it had a separate screen for accessing radio functions.
[Camino, Luis]
"New Sony Ericsson “Radiden” for Japan"
'' Unofficial Club Sony Ericsson''. 31 August 2005. Retrieved December 4, 2007.
References
Mobile phones