Aside from slightly different form factors, today’s smartphones all look pretty similar; they have large displays that take up the majority of the space, and just a few physical buttons. But NEC is hoping to throw something different into the mix. The Japanese company has today unveiled the Medias W N-05E, a folding smartphone that has two 4.3-inch displays.

As you can see from the picture above, there’s one display on the front and one on the back, and you can fold the device open like a book to view both displays side-by-side. Both LCD panels sport a 960×540-pixel resolution, and when opened up, they give you around 5.6 inches of display.

On the inside, there’s a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage — expandable via the microSDHC card slot. There’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that sits just above the second display, as well as a front-facing camera that sits above the first display. The device also boasts 4G LTE connectivity, and Android Jelly Bean (it’s unclear which version).

The Medias W looks and sounds crazy, but if you think about it, having two displays could have its advantages. According to NEC, apps and games can use both displays together, or independently. So, you could use them independently to read an article on one screen while making notes on the other — or you could use them together while gaming so that you have a dedicated screen for virtual controls.

The Medias W will make its debut in Japan in April, but pricing and availability for other markets hasn’t yet been announced.

• ViaEngadget