Yotaphone 2 smartphone with the particularity of including a 4.7″ E-Ink display on the back on top of the front 5″ AMOLED display was first introduced at the end of 2014 in Russia, before being offered on Indiegogo for $525 in May of last year. This morning I got an email from Tinydeal claiming they sell Yotaphone 2 for $149.99 including shipping with coupon 149YOTAP (with Tinydeal app only), or $159.99 without coupon. Bear in mind that it is a pre-sale with delivering starting only on August 31st.
Here’s a reminder of the technical specifications for the phone:
- SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core Krait processor @ 2.2 GHz with Adreno GPU
- 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” e-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 with 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, Quick Charge 2.0 support
- Battery life
- Good for up to 48 hours with YoTaEnergy mode;
- 16 to 17 days in stand-by mode (2G, 3G or 4G);
- Up to 41.8 hours 2G calls, Up to 13.7 hours Skype audio call over LTE, up to 1.8 hours Skype video call over LTE;
- Up to 109.3 hours reading with Yota Reader on e-Ink screen with 3G active
- Up to 5.5 to 5.8 hours watching video over WiFi or LTE; 9 hours for local video playback
- Up to 92 hours audio playback with headset; up to 62.4 hours with speakers
- Dimensions – 144.9 x 69.4 x 8.95 mm
- Weight – 145 grams
According to Tinydeal product page, the phone is apparently stuck to Android 4.4, however some mention Lollipop support on XDA forums, and the Linux kernel can be found on Github.
Price is quite amazing since shops on Aliexpress ask for $300 or more, and on Amazon prices range between $300 and $400+. So I don’t know if it is a mistake, or they simply have getting rid of somebody’s stock…
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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A wise man, speaking of this phone, said back in 2014: “…copycats will eventually show up”
🙂
They are rather insistent that the coupon does not apply.
Nice phone for the features … If the boot-loader is unlocked and custom ROMs can be made for it, it is actually a great phone for the price
seems like 801 chips might now get nougat.
https://9to5google.com/2016/08/25/rumor-devices-powered-by-the-snapdragon-800801-wont-get-nougat-because-of-the-vulkan-api/
@Andrew
It could be a clone too, but they sell it as the original version…
@eebrah
I tried it too, and it did not work either. I’ve let the company know. Maybe they’ll fix the coupon issue in time.
@eebrah
I got an answer. The coupon only works with Tinydeal app -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tinydeal.android&hl=en
According description and discussion under product this have limitted LTE support: “FDD-LTE, Band 1 (2100MHz), Band 3 (1800MHz), TD-LTE, Band 41(2555-2575)”, but other sellers like coolicool have “FDD-LTE B3/B7/B20” with $169.99 price.
It’s possible that this is some special chinese hardware version without full LTE? I have found directory with firmwares ( ftp://fw.ydevices.com/YotaPhone2/Firmwares/ ) , maybe all i need to unlock B20 is to flash EU firmware.
they are planning the “2s” with all the missing features like 3GB ram if this phone goes well.
Long time ago were rumours that this phone is full of russians rootkits and FSB backdoor
http://securityzap.com/yotaphone-backdoor/
but the idea of e-ink phone is tempting
http://www.banggood.com/Yotaphone-2-5_0-Inch-2GB-RAM-32GB-ROM-Snapdragon-800-Quad-Core-Smartphone-p-1076214.html?utm_source=bbs&utm_medium=telchina&utm_content=hehuishan&utm_campaign=Yotaphone
159,99
with code: yatabg20 = 140$
This is an unique and fantastic phone for someone who loves to read books stolen a few hours per day during the trip, but did not want to take the seed of ebook reader. The quality is outstanding, I see.
Furthermore truly useful thing if you extended the operating time, a lot of good things can eInk display it in everyday life. I’m using a reader: BN Nook Simple Touch has long been with hacked open Android, but looking at the videos, it’s much more usable.
one serious drawback it stuck at kitekat.
but it could be worth to use it as backup ereader instead of Sammy note4 and android 4.0 Eink-reader.
Now i switched from 6″ eink-ereader to sammy because it’s more handy in the train/bus/metro.
So maybe Yota is good choice i must deeply consider pros and cons.
5.0.0-EU1.1.87a.zip should be a Lollipop OS
@BluPix
There are 3 versions of Yotaphone 2: YD201 (original Russian, have B20), YD205 (some LTE version, have B20) and YD206 (chinese, don’t have B20).
I have bought on Coolicool YD201.
GearBest has 400+ units of Yotaphone 2 for sale for $133.99 -> http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_346981.html
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
The only big limitations are very old OS Android 5.0.0 and one year old kernel 🙁
Geekbuying has this phone for $145. GearBest has regular price $157.
@Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)
GearBest price is $157.
How did you got the $133.99 ??
Anyone knows if it is the YD201 version??
@cbm80
@JotaMG
It was $133.99 yesterday. I can see they have two warehouses China and HK. China is now out of stock, maybe that’s where the price was $133.99.
Yotaphone 2 for $119.99 @ http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_346981.html (39 pieces left)
Marshmellow 6.0 Official Yotaphone 2 :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/yotaphone-one/general/marshmellow-6-0-official-yotaphone-2-t3518062
Now it is on sale! We purchased a few yota2s. 🙂
http://www.gearbest.com/cell-phones/pp_346981.html?wid=11
@Kain Jorge
Good find. Note: sometimes Gearbest will cancel orders for big discounts if you purchase more than one.