Yotaphone 2 launched, Could be coming to the US next year (maybe)

03.12.2014 Nate Hoffelder 6 Comments

As I predicted when I broke the news last month, Yota Devices officially launched their second dual-screen smartphone this week.

The Yotaphone 2 sports a 5″ AMOLED display on one side, and flip it over and you’ll find a 4.7″ E-ink screen on the back. (5″ + 4.7″, hey, we’ve got a 9.7″ screen on a phone). Kidding aside, that AMOLED screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, while the E-ink screen has a resolution of 960 x 540 (about 235 ppi). Both screens have a capacitive touchscreen, though at this point it looks like only the AMOLED screen is backlit.

There’s really very little new to report about the Yotaphone 2; it seems the specs haven’t changed since the first prototype was unveiled in February of this year.

All the press reports say that the new phone is running Android 4.4 KitKat on a quad-core SnapDragon 800 CPU with 2GB RAM and 32GB Flash storage. The production model has the same pair of cameras (8MP and 2MP) found on the prototype in February, and it also supports Wifi, Bluetooth, and GSM and HSDPA cell networks.

That price tag puts the Yotaphone in the same range as high-end smartphones, and at least one of the early reviewers thinks it doesn’t do enough to justify the price.

Cnet got their hands on an early review unit, and said in part:

The e-ink screen suffers from ghosting issues, the software for customising it isn’t particularly easy to use, the camera doesn’t impress and there’s no expandable storage. … Although the YotaPhone 2’s e-ink display is wonderfully novel, and can result in much better battery life, the phone needs to be considerably cheaper if it’s going to be a sensible purchase over other Android phones.

Other early reviewers include Engadget and TheNextWeb. Neither review was as critical as Cnet, though they do comment on the price.

As for me, I think it sounds like a great phone. It’s way outside of my reach (my smartphone cost $250, and that includes a year of service), but I do think the tech sounds cool. I look forward to playing with the new Yotaphone when CES rolls around.