Yotaphone 2 Smartphone Features an Improved AMOLED + ePaper Dual Display

About two years ago, Yota , a technology company based on Russia, introduced the Yotaphone, an Android smartphone with an innovative dual display solution comprised of a standard color display on the front, and an E-ink display on the back, in order to extend battery life. The idea was interesting, but the phone did not look that great. But with Yotaphone 2, the company upgraded the processor with a Snapdragon 800 processor, a larger 5″ display, and if the back ePaper display looks as crisp and clear in real life as in the picture below, you could have a winner, and copycats will eventually show up.
Yotaphone 2 specifications:

• SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core Krait processor @ 2.2 GHz with Adreno
• System Memory – 2GB RAM
• Storage – 32GB eMMC
• Displays
  • Front – 5″ AMOLED touch screen, 1920×1080 resolution,16M colors, 442ppi, with Corning Gorilla glass 3.
  • Rear – 4.7”  electronic Paper display, 960×540  resolution, 16-level gray scale, 235ppi, with Corning Gorilla glass 3.
• Audio – 3.5mm AV connector, FM radio
• Camera – 8MP rear camera AF, LED flash, 2.1 MP front-facing camera
• Cellular Connectivity
  • GSM/EGPRS 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
  • WCDMA, DC HSDPA (rel. 8, cat. 24)
  • HSUPA (rel. 7, cat 7) bands 1 (diversity), 2, 5 and 8
  • LTE (rel. 9, cat 4) bands 3, 7 and 20, VoLTE
  • Nano-SIM
• Wireless connectivity – WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (VHT20, MSC 8), Bluetooth 4.0, NFC , A-GPS + GLONASS
• USB – MicroUSB 2.0 (SlimPort)
• Sensors – Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor
• Battery – 2500mAh with wireless charging
• Dimensions – 144.9 x 69.4 x 8.95 mm
• Weight – 145 grams

The phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat. The 5″ color screen works just like with a normal phone, and you would turn it on and off, as needed, while the ePaper display is also on, and only consumes power when the content changes. So for example, if you often use your phone to check the time, you don’t need to unlock it, just read the time on the ePaper display. Other possible tasks on the ePaper display include reading notifications, reading/sending SMS, making calls, reading ebooks, taking better selfies with the rear camera, etc..

A review is available on Russian website Hi-tech@mail.ru (Google translation), and I’ve included their video review, also in Russia, but it’s interesting even if you don’t understand a word of it, as it shows what you can expect from the ePaper display.

Android Police reports the phone will be available in Russia for 32,990 Rubles (currently around $600, but the exchange rate fluctuates a lot these days…) in Russia later this month, with Europe following up later this year (so this month too, right?), and Asia in Q1 2015. For more details, and subscribe to find out when the phone will be available in your country, visit Yotaphone 2 product page. If you wonder how you can develop apps optimized for the ePaper display, you may want to checkout Yotaphone developer page.

Via Liliputing

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