Summoning illusionist David Blaine to help with the hype, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse on Monday unveiled a first-of-its-kind dual-screen smart phone made for multi-tasking and with the potential to splice two screens into one larger view. The Kyocera-made Echo is a phone sleek enough to slide into the most discreet of pockets, but with a pivot hinge and double-screen operation that opens wide enough to become a small work station. It debuted in a publicity event in New York City on Monday night. The Echo’s launch, preceded by Blaine’s act of seeming to smoke and drink under water for five minutes, marks the first unveiling of a gee-whiz gadget from Sprint in 2011. Sprint’s new device, working on Google’s popular Android operating system, can display two apps at a time. Or it can be used, particularly for functions like maps, to stretch a single image over both screens. It’s a combination traditional smart phone rigged to double as a miniature tablet. Its multi-tasking ability — Sprint’s show tried to inflict the words “simultasking” and “pocketable” into our lexicon — could set it apart from an ever smarter set of phones flooding the market.

Sascha Segan, the managing editor of PC Magazine, got a preview of the handset before the show Monday. He responded by declaring it a “bold” move by Sprint that puts something “absolutely unique” into the marketplace. “You don’t see a two-screen phone anywhere else. I love innovation,” he said. “This is innovation. … This is a way of having multiple windows open on your phone the way you always do on your computer.”

Slide from the event in NY tonight.