It’s been a few years since Russian company Yota Devices launched its last dual-screen Android smartphone. But it looks like a Yotaphone 3 could be on the way.

There aren’t many details yet, but according to the Yotaphone website pre-orders for a new phone will open this summer, and that follows a recent post on Instagram indicating that work on a Yotaphone 3 was underway.

The company’s last phone featured a 5 inch, 1080p color AMOLED screen on one side and a black and white 4.7 inch 960 x 540 pixel E Ink display on the other. The Yotaphone 2 was one of a very small number of phones with this sort of design, and the idea is that you could use the same device as both a phone and and eReader… or decorate the back of the phone with E Ink images, maps, directions, or other content that would be visible even when the primary screen was turned off.

The Yotaphone 2 launched in Asia and Europe in late 2014 and it was supposed to come to the United States through a crowdfunding campaign in 2015, but the US launch was eventually  scrapped.

Yotaphone 2

At launch, the Yotaphone 2 was rather pricey for a phone with a Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. But these days you can pick one up for as little as $140.

There was a report in late 2015 that ZTE was going to manufacture a 3rd-gen Yotaphone, but that doesn’t seem to have panned out.

It’s probably worth noting that there are some indications that the new owners of the company aren’t interested in investing in a new model… so if a Yotaphone 3 really is on the way, don’t be surprised to see the company go the crowdfunding route.

While there’s no word on what kind of hardware it will feature, it seems likely that it’ll have the one feature that made the company’s first two phones special: dual screens.

via GizmoChina

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8 replies on “Yotaphone 3 dual-screen smartphone coming this summer?”

  1. Use it all the time. In summer the second screen is getting onlookers envy. But I mostly use it for reading ebooks on the way to work and home. It’s practical, don’t need to carry and extra ebook reader.

  2. I am a extremelly satisfied user of a yota 2. I enjoy to be outdoors, and the second screen is just wonderful under the sun. Most of the apps work seamessly in the secondary screen, and I use RSS (inoreader) and offline reading (instapaper) besides kindle app. Consulting a map is a bliss, and even writing using a bluetooth keyboard is a very good experience.

    I would pay a lot for a yota 3 with better camera and bigger screens. However, there are sad news about it

    https://www.vedomosti.ru/newsline/business/news/2017/03/14/681068-chemezov-yotaphone

  3. I like the concept, but in practice I would never use something like this.

    I’m sure others have already pointed this out, but you could never use a case on this phone (unless ofcourse, it is a clear case).

    Also, I’m not really in the habit of picking up my phone, and flipping it over, to look at things. I think my current habits of checking things like Time, weather, etc would render this feature unused.

    Ontop of all this, wearables are covering this need quite well. I can see most of that data on my smartwatch.

    1. I’m with you, Grant. I love the idea of this phone. Using the back as a low-powered display for reading text or holding a map of a city or a boarding pass while traveling in case the phone dies is a great idea, but smartwatches can do the same. My Pebble Time Steel can hold this same info. Also, I can print out a map of the city I visit, and I typically print two copies of my boarding pass so I have physical backups (one in my backpack, one in my suitcase).

      And I have a dedicated eReader that I picked up used for dirt cheap (Gen 1 Nook, with some software hacks on it). It’s much more comfortable to read on a 6-inch display than a 4.5-inch, and the Nook is easy to hold and transport.

      When the first Yotaphone came out, it was a fantastic idea and I almost pulled the trigger on buying one. But now that other tech has started to mature that handles this kind of stuff better, I think the Yotaphone will have a hard time finding a niche.

    2. I’ve had a YotaPhone 2 for a couple of years now and I love it. Constantly using both screens for different purposes. The phone’s battery lasts so long when using the back screen, it’s so much nicer to read articles on and you can use it in bright sunlight when my friends’ phones have to be out on battering hogging max brightness and even still it’s not as clear as my e-ink display. The front screen is really clear hd colour and videos look really good!

      My next phone will be the YotaPhone 3 but there’s no rush as the YotaPhone 2’s working brill.

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