REVIEW: YotaPhone 2 - From Russia with love

The YotaPhone 2 has to be one of the most interesting smartphones in the market.

The original YotaPhone was the first Russian-made smartphone and an engineering marvel with a LCD display on the front and a second E Ink screen on the back, similar to those found on eBook readers like Amazon’s Kindle. The new and improved YotaPhone 2 ramps up the specs, overhauls the software and introduces higher-resolution displays for both the front and back of the device.

The company behind the handset, Yota Devices, is a subsidiary of Russian mobile broadband services provider, Yota. The small tech company has managed to sell more than 3.5 million devices over the course of its five year history and is regarded as a success story.

It’s perhaps unsurprising then that there is a lot of national pride behind the company’s latest flagship smartphone, the YotaPhone 2, with the country’s President, Vladimir Putin, recently presenting the handset to Chinese President Xi JinPing as a showcase of Russian ingenuity.

While the original YotaPhone went on sale in select markets in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, Yota has global ambitions for its sequel with plans to hit Asia Pacific, China, USA, Canada and Latin America by the end of the first quarter. Initially, Yota Devices is targeting fairly modest global sales of one million handsets, but its larger purpose is to create brand awareness in a market dominated by Asian and American players.

The YotaPhone 2 was designed and developed by the Russian company, however, the R&D team behind the device comprises of a crack team of former Blackberry and Nokia veterans.

So does the YotaPhone 2’s new and improved dual-screen hardware deliver something truly special?

Double the magic

The YotaPhone 2 design language centres around delivering two excellent displays without compromising on thickness or weight.

YotaPhone 2 fits two screens into a smartphone that is just a hair thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S5 (8.95mm versus 8.1mm) while overcoming potential heat sync issues. It’s no mean feat but that’s exactly what the company has achieved.

At just 145grams, the YotaPhone 2 even weighs the same as Samsung’s flagship single screen smartphone and the physical dimensions of 144.9mm (length) x 69.4mm (width) means it is comfortable to hold and easy to use one handed.

The YotaPhone 2 is made of a magnesium chassis with a glass fibre-reinforced plastic outer surface. Both the front and rear screens are protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, which should keep scratches at bay. Of course, having glass on both sides also means you increase your chances of shattering the display whenever you drop the thing. Luckily, Yota sells a bumper case accessory (sold separately) that wraps around the sides of the handset and elevates both screens so they don't come into contact with the pavement.  

Subtle design touches such as how the glass protecting the E Ink display gently curves in to make the device feel thinner in the hand, giving it a premium edge. Another thoughtful touch is the use of matte glass as opposed to a glossy finish which means you won’t have to worry about fingerprints.

The side of the handset is home to the power button and volume rocker, the latter of which cleverly doubles as the nano SIM card tray. The buttons, however, have little travel to them and feel unpleasantly spongy.

Overall, the YotaPhone 2 might lack the design flare of the HTC One or an iPhone but it’s a well-built smartphone that feels solid in the hand.

The most power-efficient smartphone in the world

Another trait that the YotaPhone 2 shares with Samsung's S5 is the 5-inch 1080p AMOLED display, which exhibits the same stellar contrast, wide viewing angles and vibrant colours. We did find the AMOLED panel on the YotaPhone 2 to be less bright, however, sunlight legibility was still decent thanks to the low reflectivity of the screen’s surface.

The rear 4.7-inch Electronic Paper Display (EPD) is a 960x540 resolution panel with 16 levels of greyscale. Text doesn't display quite as inky black as the E Ink panels you will find on dedicated ebook readers like Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite, however, it does provide an excellent reading experience that is much more comfortable to the eye than any other smartphone display. We read three-quarters of a novel on Yota's rear display without experiencing any eye fatigue or strain. And unlike traditional smartphone displays, text remains clearly visible even in direct sunlight. Unfortunately, the E Ink display on the YotaPhone 2 lacks a backlight so reading in the dark or in low light is out of the question.

E Ink displays are extremely power efficient - the nature of the technology means that it only sips power when changing states, for example, turning to a new page - and for this reason, YotaPhone 2 claims to be the most power-efficient smartphone in the world. The E Ink display is seven times more power efficient than the main display, equating to five days of ebook reading off a single charge according to Yota. And you’re not just confined to reading ebooks on the E Ink display either thanks to the ‘YotaMirror’ function which can be initiated with a flick of the thumb and will beam whatever is running on the front AMOLED display to the back. The transition is seamless with the front display automatically turning off once the handset senses that you have flipped the device over.

Reading long articles in the web browser or from Amazon’s very own Kindle app, checking social media or email and using Google Maps are all possible on the E Ink display. Just like the AMOLED panel on the front, the E Ink screen on the rear supports multi-touch input and is capable of rotating the screen based on the handsets orientation. In fact, the power efficient E Ink display shines in some of these other functions like GPS navigation mode in Google Maps where Yota quotes an impressive 18 hour battery life.

Conversely, the inherent drawbacks of E Ink display technology limit its application in other areas. The low refresh rate and monochrome colour palette means that watching YouTube videos or gaming is a task best left to the AMOLED display on the front.

One issue we did notice when mirroring full Android is ghosting where faint traces of images and text linger on for a while after the picture has been refreshed. Hopefully this can be rectified in a future software update as it does have a noticeable impact on the overall clarity of what is being displayed.

Fortunately, Yota provides software and streamlined widgets that play to the strengths of E Ink. The fact that E Ink doesn’t consume any power when displaying a static screen makes it an ideal canvas for displaying calendar/clock, weather, recent notifications, music controls, RSS feeds or even an image pulled from your Facebook or Instagram account. And unlike other smartphones, you’re free to leave the screen on all day long, which effectively acts as an always on lock screen without burning power. Widgets can be customised to your liking with the included YotaPanel app.

One other handy feature that bears mentioning is if you find yourself low on battery, electronic tickets like boarding passes or QR codes can be displayed and will remain plastered on the back well after you have run out of juice. 

Aside from the custom code required to power the rear display, it’s as close to stock Android as you can get without buying a Google Nexus smartphone. The YotaPhone 2 runs Android 4.4 KitKat with a 5.0 Lollipop software update promised by Yota in the near future.

‘YotaEnergy’ 

The YotaPhone 2 comes with a reasonable 2,500mAh non-removable battery and also uses the power efficient Snapdragon 801 chip resulting in a runtime that is pretty typical of flagship Android smartphones released in the last 12 months. We managed to get two days of moderate usage which consisted of an hour of calls, an hour of video watching, an hour of web browsing and two hours of music streaming each day in amongst regular checking of email and social media.

Switching the bulk of smartphone tasks over to the rear display, however, is where you will see truly astounding results as far as endurance is concerned. Shunning the AMOLED display almost entirely and using the rear E Ink display for web browsing, reading, tweeting, email, SMS and music streaming allowed us to go well past four days

If you prefer to call on the E Ink display only when in a dire low battery situation, then you have the option of turning on ‘YotaEnergy’ which activates the rear display and turns off the energy draining front display while still giving you access to all the key functions. It can be set to automatically kick-in the moment the battery hits 15 per cent, adding 8.5 hours of operation time.

A handset begging for tablet treatment

The YotaPhone 2 is a breath of fresh air in a market that can so often seem stagnant.

It’s surprising to think that the first hybrid E Ink smartphone didn’t come from tech giant Amazon but a small tech company out of Russia. Frankly, the YotaPhone 2 is what the Amazon Fire smartphone should have been.

If your are an avid ebook reader and lament carrying around a dedicated device like the Kindle or Kobo, then the YotaPhone 2 is a compelling option. It also holds great appeal to those who like to read long articles on the web or regularly find themselves reviewing documents on their smartphones. And if you’re willing to conduct most of your smartphone duties on the rear E Ink display over the rich colours of the AMOLED panel, then the YotaPhone 2 also offers an insanely long battery life that simply no other smartphone can match.

The YotaPhone 2 is not without its faults - the lack of a backlight on the E Ink display and mediocre camera being the most notable disappointments. And if there is any handset that is begging for a phablet or tablet variant, it’s the YotaPhone 2. The other issue is the relatively high price tag of $859 (the handset is officially available for purchase to Australian and New Zealand customers from online retailer Expansys) which puts the YotaPhone 2 in the same price bracket as other top tier smartphones like Apple’s iPhone 6 and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4.

For that price, you could buy the new Moto X and a Kindle Paperwhite and still walk away with some change.