YotaPhone 2 is happening this Spring

If you were one of the many who thought the dual-display YotaPhone was cool, you’ll be happy to know that a sequel is, indeed, on the way. The company reportedly confirmed plans to bring a YotaPhone 2 to market starting this Spring in the United States.

The device will initially be offered through an IndieGoGo campaign there folks can pledge funds and stake their claim to one once they’re ready to ship. There aren’t many details available about the smartphone’s features just yet, but they will reportedly introduce a high-end experience and the phone’s cost will be in the 0 ballpark.

The original YotaPhone (pictured above) introduced a unique take on smartphones that included a traditional display on the front and a fully functional e-paper display on the rear. It allows folks to do basic tasks like checking messages and notifications without having to deal with the drawbacks of keeping a traditional OLED or LCD display powered on.

YotaPhone 2 is said to be coming with full support for LTE on both T-Mobile and AT&T, and the company is working on upgrading the existing firmware to Android 5.0 Lollipop to be ready in time for launch.

[via PhoneScoop]

YotaPhone 2 with E Ink back launching in the US via Indiegogo, price drops in UK with new white color option

The dual-display YotaPhone 2 was one of the surprise showstoppers during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. We got a hands on with the phone and loved not only its sleek minimal stylings, but its unique E Ink back. Sure, the back display was a little more clumsy in real-world use than we had anticipated, but overall we felt like it was a fresh idea and something more interesting than the higher core count most Android devices are boasting nowadays.

Today, the folks at Yota Devices are announcing a price drop for the device in the UK — now only £440 — and the introduction of an all new white color option with inverted E Ink back to match. What’s more is the YotaPhone 2 is just about ready for its US launch, well, only if it can raise enough funding through an Indiegogo campaign kicking off this July. We still don’t know how much they’ll be looking for, or once funded, how much longer it can take before the device is finally available to US buyers with support for our unique carrier bands.

It’s clear Yota Devices needs to act fast. This year we’ve seen some near perfect Android devices and when pitted against the YotaPhone 2 — with its aging hardware specs — the Russian smartphone could find itself left behind in the dust.

[YotaPhone 2 (white) | via The Verge]

You can now pre-order the dual-display YotaPhone 2 in the US through IndieGoGo

The YotaPhone 2 officially went on sale in the United States today through a good ol’ grassroots IndieGoGo campaign. This is a pre-sale, so the device won’t be shipping until August 2015 if you decide to get one.

The YotaPhone 2 is the second generation of this unique dual-display device. On one side is your traditional smartphone display for gaming, messaging, web browsing, watching videos and the like. Flip it around and you’ll see an e-paper display that’ll let you read books, check basic social networks and news apps, and more without excessive battery drain.

They claim up to 5 days of battery life if you’re just reading, and even a whopping two days for “basic smartphone functions” (meaning don’t expect to play a game for 2 days nonstop without the battery draining on you). The other benefit of using an e-paper display is that it’s an always-on element that’s ready to give you a glance at weather, incoming messages and more without having to fire up the more resource-heavy main display.

Beyond that, it’s a typical high-end smartphone. The 5-inch AMOLED display dishes out 1920 x 1080 resolution for 442 ppi, while the 4.7-inch  e-paper display comes in at 960 x 540 for 235 ppi, both of which are more than adequate for their respective purposes. You’ll also get a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset, 2,500mAh battery with wireless charging, WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS, 4G LTE and more. You can find out more details in our YotaPhone 2 hands-on from CES earlier this year.

So, price tag time: the normal starting price for the YotaPhone 2 will be 0, though getting in on some of the early orders can net you a decent discount. Unfortunately the 0 early bird option has already run out of stock. YotaPhone is running a special 48 hour price of 5, but that obviously won’t last. The more plentiful 0 option should be freely available for the life of the campaign. All options come with your choice of white or black, and a free bumper case worth . You can also snap up a portable wireless charging pad and a 4,000mAh power bank bundle for more.

Be sure to check out all of the details right here, and consider ordering one if this quirky smartphone piques your interest.