Hitachi's e-ink 'Silhouette Screen' W61H (it's just a kind of mobile phone) : Tech Digest

As well as all your usual phone bits like being able to make calls, send text messages and also working as a clock/watch when you need to know the time while "on the go", the Hitachi W61H has a special kind of screen stuck on the outside of it to make it look all edgy and designery.

It's an e-ink screen - a kind of super-low-power ultra-thin display technology (yes, we had to look it up) - capable of showing pretty patterns. Up to 95 pretty monochromatic patterns.

The potential uses for this are limitless. Or incredibly limited and slightly gimmicky. But it does look nice.

The W61H does well in the phone stakes - it's thin, silver, has a 2.8" proper 240x400 screen around on the business side, a 2megapixel camera and a 2GB micro-SD generously thrown into the box for storing all your "choons" on.

It also has a 1-Seg TV tuner built-in, so if you're ever in Japan you'll be able to watch weird Japanese telly shows on it. But should you import one, you'll either get static or a bewildering error message - it's 100% incompatible with our creaky old broadcasting standard.

(Via AVING)