Dual Screen Yota Phone- A star is born

The YotaPhone makers, Yota Devices have finally unveiled, their latest smart-phone at the CES 2013. If you are a serious phone news watcher, you will know that this phone is going to surprise a lot of people. Wondering what’s so unique about the phone? The YotaPhone comes with a dual display. The regular LCD display on the front and a rear mounted e-ink display. It is such a simple idea that Yota Devices have used to give their product a USP, that it is almost unbelievable. The rear of a phone is never really used for anything, so this new feature is sure to grab a lot of eyeballs. Launched in Russia and Europe only at the moment, the phone is tagged at a cool €499. The rest of the features are not so surprising. There’s the 1.7Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip (variant unknown at the moment), 2GB RAM, a 4.3 720p front display and a small 1800mAh battery. The phone is quite chunky but fits well into your hand. A large power button on one side and a small tray for a sim card entry. No removable covers. The overall device is quite sturdy. If one were to read these specs, they are that of a very average phone.  No surprises there. But what makes the phone worth its money is the cool rear e-ink display. Let’s look at how this helps. To get the content from the LCD display to the rear e-ink display, it just takes a two finger swipe at the bottom of the LCD display. But not all the apps are e-ink friendly. There’s the usual organizer, social and language learner to begin with. The biggest plus of having an e-ink reader is the load off on the battery. It provides a cool 60 hours of e-book reading time. It’s safe to say then that the YotaPhone is two devices rolled into one. The expensive price tag could be a bit of a deterrent but if one looks at the fact that the YotaPhone is bound to use less battery, which means more time spent on the phone as compared to other smart-phones where one can’t get online or use the phone when the battery dies. The YotaPhone ensures longer battery life and eventually it is upto the user to see if he feels there is value for money in it. Yota Devices CEO, Vlad Martynov said that these costs are only applicable and inevitable in the first version of his phone. He is in the process of making the second version more affordable to the users. If nothing else, the company has offered up something unique in a world of sameness in the mobile phone world.