Update coming for dual-screen Yota one later this year

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 24 Feb 2014

Yota Devices will launch a new version of its innovative dual-screen smartphone by the end of this year, it said Monday at the Mobile rld Congress expo in Barcelona.

The Yotaone looks like a conventional smartphone from the front, but flip it over there’s a large e-paper screen on the reverse side. Because e-paper displays retain their image only require power when new information is drawn on the screen, the Yotaone’s second display remains on continuously without impacting battery life.

In the first version, notifications appeared on the e-paper screen but users had to flip the phone over wake up the main screen to interact respond. In the second-generation phone, notifications can be responded to email SMS messages replied to directly on the e-paper screen, the company said.

The 4.7-inch e-paper screen has also been upgraded with a higher resolution, finer pixel density a light.

Yota Devices claims a battery life of around 50 hours when using the e-paper screen. The display is suitable for text-based applications but is monochrome only. The 5-inch full-color AMOD screen on the front of the phone will be the best choice for interactive apps multimedia, albeit at the expense of battery life.

To help conserve power, the phone will have a “smart power mode” that turns off certain components when they are not needed.

The new Yotaone will be available in Europe, the Middle East Africa in the final quarter of this year. It will go on sale in North America Asia around three to four months later, the company said.

No price was announced for the hset. Users of first-generation phones, which cost €499, ($685), will be given the option to upgrade “at a significant discount.”