CES 2013: YotaPhone to release dual-screen Android device

Russian company Yota Devices has displayed a fully functional prototype of a dual screen, Android based smartphone with E-Ink at the CES. Sounds like a fantastic concept, but it is as real as it gets.

The handset will run Android and will come encased in Gorilla Glass. The LCD display in the front will be 4.3 inches  wirth a 720 x 1280 resolution. On the rear will be a 200dpi E-Ink display of the same size and toughness. The phone will be powered by an impressive dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor having 2GB of RAM.

An LCD screen in front and an E-Ink display at the back!

The phone will come in 32GB and 64GB variants. The phone comes packed with a 12MP rear camera and 720p front facing camera as well as LTE. The handset itself is sleek at 10 mm thickness and weighs 140 grams.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

The interesting rear panel that features E-Ink will have information displayed through an open API, which will allow apps to feed data to the secondary panel whenever needed. This will include books, playlists etc. YotaPhone has a plan up its sleeve to conserve the 2,100mAh

battery’s power. Yota’s pre-installed software will display notifications to the rear screen, getting them to stay there for as long as it’s needed.

The company says this way they can boost battery life by almost 50 percent. It will also help by improving readability by making notifications visible on the E-Ink panel so that they’re visible even in direct sunlight. 

Yota Devices hopes to launch this handset in Russia by Q3 next year and is also in talks with certain US and European carriers. The price of the dual display handset has not been revealed yet.