The YotaPhone has not been able to crack the mainstream segment in the smartphone industry enough to be called a success and yet, the company behind the smartphone has already made a third iteration of this very niche product and as per the leaks, seems like it has improved from its predecessors as well.
Yota 3 will retain the main USP as per its predecessors by including a secondary e-ink display on the rear of the phone. The phone’s specifications and other details have been leaked much before the intended official announcement of the phone. According to the alleged leak, the phone will feature a Snapdragon 625 SoC, which is known to be one of the most power-efficient chips on the market, and will be a good fit, since the phone will be supporting two different displays. The phone will also reportedly come with 4GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage.
(image credit: Liliputing)
The phone might come with a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED panel on the front and a 5.2-inch e-ink display on the rear with 720p resolution. Other features include a USB Type-C port, support from dual-SIM and SD card hybrid, as well as a 12MP rear camera and a front-facing 13MP camera. Powering everything is 3,200mAh battery. Interestingly, the Yota Phone will come with its own iteration of Android that will support the e-ink display as Android does not natively support such displays. The Android-based platform will be called Yota OS 3.0.
The secondary black and white screen will be able to display notifications such as WeChat messages, stock prices, news, the time, weather and also function as pedometer step count. As is the case with e-ink displays, the advantages are perfect visibility under direct sunlight, low power consumption and can display an image indefinitely.
As far as availability and pricing is concerned, reports indicate that the phone will be available for $350 for the 64GB variant and $450 for the 128GB variant. It seems that the Yota Phone will be launched first in China and Russia. Whether it will make its way to other countries has not yet been revealed. Whether the phone is still a novelty in the times of curved displays and narrow bezels is yet to be seen, as the Yota Phone is the only device that offers two full-fledged high-resolution screens in one device on the front and back. Hopefully, the company is third time lucky.