Tag: YotaPhone

Dual Screen Yotaphone unveiled at Mobile World Congress

Yota Devices, the company that innovated the world’s first dual-screen, always-on smartphone, unveiled the next generation YotaPhone today at Mobile World Congress (MWC). The next generation YotaPhone has full-touch control on its always-on electronic paper display (EPD) and many other new hardware and software features, making it even more intuitive “YotaPhone’s arrival on the market last year marked one of the first game changers in smartphones in many years. Yota Devices proved that there is an antidote to the always-dark smartphone screen,” said Yota Devices CEO Vlad Martynov.

“The future of smartphones is always-on displays allowing users to stay connected without turning off the real world and disrupting the people around you. The next generation YotaPhone takes this totally innovative concept in smartphones and makes it even better. Now, with two full-touch displays, the next generation YotaPhone is twice as smart, twice as useful and twice as beautiful,”

1-Look, 1-Touch Always-On Display

With the first generation YotaPhone, notifications and other important information appear automatically on YotaPhone’s always-on display. The next generation YotaPhone allows users to open and respond to these notifications, with just one touch, without having to wake up and activate the color display. Users can immediately respond to mails and SMSs, accept and decline meeting invites and post to social media.

The next generation YotaPhone delivers an even better reading experience on a bigger and better screen. The always-on EPD display is 4.7” with higher resolution, greater pixel density and a built- in light. “Now you can read comfortably in bright sunlight or in the dark on the always-on display,” explained Martynov. YotaPhone delivers 50+ hours of battery life when reading on the always-on. With two displays, users can choose how best to use their smartphone. They can watch videos, play games, view photos and browse the internet on a bigger, brighter and more brilliant 5.0”

AMOLED display. On the energy-saving 4.7” EPD, they can open and respond to real-time notifications, read books and newspapers, keep track of meetings and post comments to social media. 74% of YotaPhone is usable, interactive display, compared to just 30-40% on other premium Android smartphones.

The next generation YotaPhone also comes with a Smart Power Mode so users can turn off the energy-consuming color screen and perform functions like making and answering phone calls on the always-on display to preserve battery life. The next generation YotaPhone also boasts a Qualcomm quad-core 800 series processor, wireless charging, near-field communications (NFC), advanced anti-theft protection and high-performance integrated hands-free audio (IHF).

“The next generation YotaPhone is sleeker, thinner and even more beautiful,” said Martynov. “The sleek, soft and rounded body fits naturally and comfortably in your hand. We’ve taken a gorgeous phone and made it even more stunning.”

Now Open: YotaPhone SDK

Yota Devices also announced today that it is opening YotaPhone’s SDK to third-party developers. Tools and information can be found at http://developer.yotaphone.com.

“Thinking out of the box just got two times more fun for app developers around the world. YotaPhone’s unique dual-screen, always-on experience provides vast opportunities for third-party developers to adapt and create fun, productive and totally new types of applications,” said Yota Devices also unveiled several new apps at MWC, including Sportscaster, which allows users to track their favorite team, including play-by-play text commentary streamed in real time to the always-on display. Fitness Tracker syncs with any health monitoring device and tracks health status and fitness goals. Yota Devices also announced a partnership agreement with Israel-based Cellrox to include the company’s multi-persona technology on YotaPhone to provide functionality, privacy and security for both corporate and personal use. An agreement was also reached with MobiSystems to allow for reading of office docs on YotaPhone’s always-on display.

Yotaphone coming soon to the UK

We have recently covered the upcoming Yotaphone. Now we have more information for the Russian made device and things are looking good.

The handset features two screens, a 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 LCD in the front and 4.3-inch 360 x 640 electronic paper display (EPD) on the rear.  The Amazon Kindle-like EPD stays lit, displaying updated information such as the time, date, maps, social media and messages.  It’s even possible to set certain items (like maps or contact information) to remain on the EPD even after the battery has been exhausted.
Vlad Martynov, CEO of Yota Devices sees the dual-screened phone as “a revolution in telephone architecture” and states that “Before Yotaphone, this space was useless.”  While a constantly lit EPD would seem like a quick death to standby and operating times, the screens ultra efficiency can actually conserve battery life.  Martynov explains: “The typical user picks up and activates their smartphone more than 150 times a day”  Why? Because users worry that messages or information they need or want are hidden behind their phone’s black screen.”  Since the Yotaphone gives users the ability to quickly check phone statuses without powering up the more energy intensive LCD throughout the day, users can actually experience increased operating times.

Yotaphone runs Android 4.2 Jellybean and features a dual-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage, a 1-megapixel front facing camera, 13-megapixel rear camera and a 1800mAh battery. Yotaphone is currently selling in Russia, Austria, France, Spain and Germany. UK launch as yet to be confirmed however, we are on it and hope to update you soon.

YotaPhone incoming

A phone is coming from Russian company Yota Devices. Though its tech specs are not all that special, the YotaPhone is special in that it has a display on both the front and back of the device. The rear-facing panel is a 4.3-inch 360 x 640 EPD 16 grayscale e-ink display with a capacitive touch area underneath the display. On the front, you have a more traditional 4.3-inch 720 x 1280 capacitive multitouch LCD. The rear display functions as a notification screen and displays other information such as the time and date. It’s always on, even if your battery is dead.

YotaPhone is based on a dual-core 1.7 GHz CPU and 2 GB of RAM and features 32 GB of storage, support for WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS, a 13-megapixel camera in the back, a 1-megapixel camera in the front, and an 1800 mAh battery. It runs on Android Jelly Bean v4.2.2. No word on pricing just yet, but we’ll keep you posted.