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Yotaphone 2 Updated With Android 6.0 Marshmallow

The dual-screen Yotaphone may have been abandoned after its parent company was sold off and the remaining stock sold out in clearance sales,  but that doesn’t mean that development has stopped.

A reader has tipped me to the news that the Yotaphone 2 has been updated. There is what appears to be an official announcement on the VK social network that Yota Devices’s Russian team has released a system update with Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

The improvements include the addition of the Gmail app, better support for pushing apps to the E-ink screen, better power management, and of course Android 6.0 and support for the latest Android apps.

The firmware has been under development since at least December 2016, and is only valid for Yotaphones running on an RU firmware. (According to my source, you can install the firmware on the $140 Yotaphones sold by GearBest.)

This release comes only a few short weeks after rumors that Yota Devices was working on a Yotaphone 3, and it will surely add fuel to the speculation.

Unfortunately, the official word is that there will be no Yotaphone 3. The Chinese company that bought Yota Devices last year had initially shown interest in releasing a new model but later decided that they didn’t want to invest the capital.

So if you were holding out in the hopes that the next model would be better, it’s time to settle on the Yotaphone 2 (which is a pretty good phone, especially if you got it for $140).

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Comments


Name (Required) April 2, 2017 um 3:27 pm

This update seems to be only for phones with Russian firmware. I think it is because they wanted to stagger the update so the servers would not be overwhelmed by people updating their phones. Also, they might want to beta-test other language versions.
I am pretty confident that there will be update for my phone from GearBest as well.

People at XDA-developers forum report their phones being updated. Of course they have intercepted the needed files, so if you are very impatient you can side-load the update. Some people did and report success.

Not bad for a fire-sale phone – being able to update from the original Android 4.4 to Android 6.0

They MUST be preparing something. Perhaps not YotaPhone 3 in the immediate future, but why else would they be investing manpower to the development of the Android 6.0 firmware update for the older model. They obviously want to maintain the goodwill with the existing customers and they want people to perceive the YotaPhone brand as dependable.


Vikarti Anatra April 2, 2017 um 11:37 pm

Same VK group links to https://yotaphone.com/ru-ru/ and here we say that they open pre-order this summer. Pre-order for…something.

Nate Hoffelder April 2, 2017 um 11:55 pm

Interesting!

I know I can trust my source who told me it’s not going to happen, but now i wonder if he didn’t have the whole story.

Thanks for the heads up!


Yotaphone 3 Going up for Pre-Order This Summer (?) | The Digital Reader April 9, 2017 um 12:43 pm

[…] reader has tipped me to the fact that the Russian-language Yotaphone website is now teasing the launch of a new […]


Jon May 24, 2017 um 1:49 pm

Any luck with an update being available for non Russian firmware Yotaphone 2’s? Mine still doesn’t show an update as available.

Where is the information to side load? I am hoping that the greater e-ink app support would allow me to use the Kindle app.


Yotaphone 3 Going up for Pre-Order This Summer (?) | The Digital Reader May 31, 2017 um 9:22 pm

[…] Here's an interesting follow-up to yesterday's story about Android 6.0 Marshmallow on the Yotaphone. […]


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