YotaPhone2, The Innovative and Practical Russian Smartphone

From the very beginning of the internet world, Russians have been outstanding and creative entrepreneurs, and have managed to start-up millionaire projects like mail.ru, Kaspersky antivirus or VKontakt, the Russian Facebook. Most of these highly successful projects at one time or another have had to give in to pressure from the state or Russian economic situation. Pavel Durov, VKontakt founder said that his plan “are not compatible with the plans that the Russian state in internet is concerned”.

Great creative, great programmers which earned them bring out an ambitious project: the two screens smartphone. In February last year, our colleague Belén García already wrote in Luxonomist about this device In that article a number of new mobile phones from northern Europe were mentioned. One was this original Yotaphone2 (from OOO Yota Devices), which has finally began its sales in Europe from end December 2014 to an estimated retail price of 700 Euros.

The phone is original to have two screens allowing both save energy. Actually, one of the biggest challenges facing the mobile industry is getting batteries that last as long as possible. While getting the reading in the second screen, the electronic ink is pleasing to the eye and allow for reading similar to that experienced when we use an ebook.

The presentation in Moscow was made by the CEO of Yota Devices Vladislav Martynov, and he said, that “the devices have characteristics that no one has, as electronic ink display that makes it easier to read and allows the screen is still visible in the sunlight. The display is always active, you do not need unlock every five minutes». Yotaphone2 uses version 4.4 of Android, has a 4.7 inch screen and an electronic ink display which does not reflect sunlight, making it more comfortable to read.

Yota Devices CEO, stressed that the device is one of the safest in the world of smartphones. The slide was stated that the device is approved by the Federal Security Service of Russia, but Martynov did not name the technology, which formed the protection base. For the development of the device, the company spent a little over $ 15 million. The first New Year party YotaPhone 2 was released in the amount of 150,000 units.

The YotaPhone 2 in Russia was 32 990 Rubles (an amount that was diminishing in Euro terms because of devaluation) . Sales began in Russia on December 2 in YotaPhone official website, and December 6, the novelty was already available in online stores «Yulmart» “Wikimart” and “Ozon”. The owners of the first generation YotaPhone could buy a new smartphone with 20% discount.

During the presentation, company representatives said that the owners proposed 24 hours/7 days technical support and a similar phone during the time of device possible failure. In addition, Yota Devices will soon open its first in Russia Yota-center, to be located in the design factory «Flakon» in Moscow.