Dual-screen smartphone YotaPhone 2 is coming in December

Back in February, Yota showed off a new prototype of the famous dual-screened YotaPhone, and now the company has unveiled the YotaPhone 2 at an event in London. The second-generation YotaPhone has the same party trick as the original – an AMOLED screen on the front, and an e-paper screen on the
back.

Yota teased the YotaPhone 2 on its official Twitter account in November, so the design and the specifications are familiar. On the front of the YotaPhone 2 is a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, and on the rear is a monochrome 4.7-inch, e-paper display with a 960 x 540 pixel resolution. While a dual-screened phone sounds like a real battery hog, the combination of the two actually helps preserve battery life, due to the e-paper display only drawing power when it refreshes.

A major difference between the YotaPhone 2 and the original is the rear screen is now touch controlled, rather than relying on the awkward touch panel used before. Each display is covered in Gorilla Glass 3 for improved feel and protection.

In addition to the two screens, the YotaPhone 2 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. A wirelessly charged 2500mAh battery is inside the 9mm thick phone, and depending on how you use the YotaPhone 2, that e-paper screen could save you a lot of energy — especially if you read ebooks on your phone.

There is an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and autofocus fitted to Yota’s newest phone, plus a 2.1-megapixel selfie cam. Other features include 4G LTE connectivity, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and 32GB of internal storage space.

Yota will put the YotaPhone 2 on sale in the UK during December, and it’ll be available in limited numbers through both its own online store, and selected retailers including Clove Technology. The price and exact release date has yet to be confirmed, but in Russia, it costs the equivalent of $600. A U.S. release isn’t expected.