Hitachi, the giant Japanese manufacturer and service provider, unveiled its latest mobile phone, Hitachi W61H, a handset that comes to emphasize the company's slogan, "Inspire the Next", with its e-ink display and its exquisite look.

Hitachi W61H is a clamshell phone with two displays, a normal one and an e-ink one, on the front cover. Named "Silhouette screen" by the producer, this 2.7 inch front display is designed to make the phone look like no other phone on the market, as it can show no less than 95 pre-set graphics. Other than the good looks, the Silhouette screen doesn't really have other utility, or at least none that we know about, but it could represent the beginning of a new era in mobile design. Imagine a time when anyone will have unique-looking mobile phones thanks to e-ink displays and their ability to show countless patterns - nice dream, eh?

Aside form the fashion-purposed display, Hitachi W61H also packs an internal 2.8 inch screen which can be flipped to become external, while the e-ink one takes its place. Together with the 1-seg feature, the "normal" display makes the handset a perfect Mobile TV one.

Measuring 107 x 51 x 16.9 mm and weighing 137 grams, the new Hitachi phone features a 2 Megapixel camera (1.97 more exactly), not bad if you're satisfied with medium-quality pictures, includes a 2 GB microSD card (non-expandable unfortunately) and can provide a talk-time of up to 250 minutes. Other specs remain unknown for the moment.

Hitachi W61H will be released in March 2008 in Japan, via KDDI's au network, for a price that hasn't been disclosed yet - it should be a pretty high one anyway. Too bad the phone won't get to see other markets except the Japanese one.