Verizon Alias2 with dynamic keypad gets outed

Consider our interest piqued, Verizon. Fresh from leaksville comes the first solid details and mock ups of the upcoming Samsung U740, or Alias2, headed to Verizon Wireless in the near future. Those of you familiar with the Alias will immediately recognize the same dual-hinge design that allows the phone to be opened portrait-wise like a standard clam shell, or landscape-wise for some QWERTY action. The difference with this new version — and it’s a huge difference, we might add — is the keypad. Glancing at the image above, you’ll notice what appears to be a typical 0-9 keypad surrounded by a bunch of blank keys. That’s no mistake. Apparently the Alias2 is equipped with a dynamic keypad that displays 0-9, a d-pad, etc when the phone is opened in portrait mode, and a full QWERTY keypad when the phone is opened in landscape mode. Think of it as a slightly dumbed down version of the Mozilla concept we saw back in February — a poor man’s Optimus Maximus for mobile handsets. Very, very cool. We’re not sure exactly how the dynamic keypad works for the time being, though the HoFo member who supplied the images believes it to be an electronic ink (or similar) technology. Whatever it is, it sounds pretty sweet and we’ll definitely be checking it out first-hand if Verizon decides to show it off at CTIA. Hit the jump for the full images and details.

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