Folding phone is no doubt the future. ‘Future’ is the keyword here because, at this point, folding display technology is still finicky at best. And so, if you really need more screen real estate, you can look to LG V50ThinQ 5G which has an optional second screen, or this: the castAway Case.
castAway Case is a smartphone case and it is also a second screen for your smartphone. With it, you effectively turn your Android into the world’s smallest Chromebook or your iPhone into a miniature laptop.
It runs on its own operation system (Chrome OS) and boasts a multi-touch WQXGA display. It has its own processor too. It is powered by a Hexa-core processor made for Chromebooks, paired to Mali-T864 GPU, and it has 4 GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 32 GB eMMC.
Those are not it. It even has its own cameras (5 MP rear snapper and a 2 MP selfie camera), built-in stereo speakers, sensors, battery, and its own set of connectivity, including dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1 technology, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and not one, but two USB 3.1 gen1 Type-C ports.
It may be a smartphone ‘case’ and a secondary display, but castAway really is a second phone that attaches to your primary phone.
Not going to lie. The prospect of a second screen is tempting. And I guess it is for most people as proven by its on-going Indiegogo campaign that has, at the time of this post, amassed over 515 percent in funding?
In any case, inventor Ken Mages is not out roll in fund for production. The campaign is on Flexible Goal, which is essentially a pre-order campaign.
If you are down, you can pre-order the castAway Second Screen for Smartphone for $149-169. Be warned though, it won’t be delivered until May 2020.
This isn’t the first time someone attempt to add a second screen to a smartphone. OAXIS has been doing it for quite sometime now with e-ink display, but in a single protective case as opposed to a folding case.
