Russia Smartphones : Yota Phone Review: The Android Smartphone From Russia With Two Screens - by Ewan Spence

YOTA Dual Smart Phone

Last year at CES, Russian manufacturer Yota demonstrated a prototype smartphone with two 4.3 inch displays, an LCD screen on one side and an e-Ink screen on the reverse. Now in production and available to buy in a number of European territories, how does a dual-core dual-screened Android device cope in the real world? Surprisingly well is the answer, even though there is some room for improvement.

Let’s start with the underlying hardware. Compared to some of the flagship and high-end Android devices launched in 2013, the Yota Phone is decidedly mid-range. The Dual-Core 1.7 GHz Krait CPU has the speed and capability to run Android comfortably, but the handset doesn’t stretch the specs in the current market. It’s nice to see it comes with 2 GB of RAM, and when it was announced at CES 2013 these were cutting-edge specs, but the Android world has moved on since then.

The handset comes in just one storage memory configuration (32 GB) and unfortunately there is no SD card expansion port. Given 16 GB feels a bit tight on Android handsets today, the 32 GB option should be good for the life of the handset, and with smart use of cloud based services for storage and streaming it should suffice for the majority of use cases.

International wise this is a 4G handset focused on Europe, with the key LTE  (800/1800/2600 MHz), UMTS (900/1800/2100 MHz) and 3G bands (900/1800/1900 MHz) all covered. The current configuration would struggle frequency-wise in the US market but if the handset was to appear in the future I’m sure that a US configuration would be supplied. For now, the focus is rightly on Yota’s home and European markets – adding in US frequencies right now would simply drive the manufacturing cost up for little return.

The handset is a monoblock design, and in this case that phrase is incredibly appropriate. Apart from a slight tapering at the top-rear of the handset, the Yota Phone is black, rectangular, blocky, and angular.With a glass front to the LCD, and the familiar feel of e-Ink on the rear, the only real scope for flair is in the banding around the device. Yota have went with a black plastic edging broken by the MicroUSB charging and connectivity port and microphone on the base, volume keys on the left hand side, and a headphone jack and SIM tray on the top.

There is a power button, but you’ll probably need to hunt for it. It’s actually the SIM card tray pulling double duty. A SIM ejection tool will free it for your card, and the rest of the time pressing it in with your finger will turn the main screen on and off. It’s nice touch and shows that Yota are thinking about design, but I suspect that forcing the two screens into the chassis has left them little room to do anything artistic.

Does it work and is it worth it? That’s the two questions to ask about the Yota Phone, because without the second screen we have a workmanlike Android 4.2.2 device coupled with a 1280×780 LCD screen. Quite frankly there are a lot of devices out there which match those parts of the specifications. The device is also more expensive than the major specifications suggest at €499. I suspect this is down to the extra cost of the e_ink screen, and the smaller volumes that Yota will be building.

In my time so far with the Yota Phone, the answer is yes. By virtue of being e-Ink, the second screen is always on, drawing very little power, and Yota’s customizations of Android and their own apps which use the screen prove the concept works.

With just the e-Ink screen I’ve been able to navigate around Edinburgh, check my diary and upcoming appointments, follow my favourite websites via RSS, read a number of eBooks, control the playback of music on my smartphone, and naturally see what the time is. All without powering up the battery hungry LCD screen on my smartphone.

Read more: Yota Phone Review: The Android Smartphone From Russia With Two Screens - Forbes