Yotaphone 2 Review

A phone of two halves, but one is better than the other

 

 

TechRadar's verdict

"The Yotaphone 2 is a huge leap forward from the original and it's certainly a product which can appeal to a wider consumer base, but ultimately it still feels like a work in progress."

For

• Innovative second touchscreen
• Potential for long battery life
• Decent colour display

Against

• Expensive
• Still a work in progress
• Average camera

Introduction and design

It's not often you come across a truly unique device in the smartphone market, but the Yotaphone 2 is exactly that. Unique.

From the front it looks like any other Android smartphone, but flip it over and you're greeted with a second, all-touch display - only it's an e-ink screen similar to those found on ereaders.

The Yotaphone 2 is the Russian brand's second entry into the market following on from the original, proof of concept,Yotaphonewhich launched in 2013 and aimed squarely at early adopters.

This time round Yota Devices means business. This is a global device aimed at the average consumer rather than those sitting at the forefront of technology. It's even opened a dedicated store in London to really drive home the intent.

The Yotaphone 2 release date is December 4, where it goes on sale in over 20 countries, with Asia Pacific and China joining the party in early Q1 of 2015, and the US, Canada and Latin America towards the end of the same quarter.

There's no logo or navigation keys below the screen, and its rounded design reminds me of a cross between the Samsung Galaxy S3 andGalaxy Nexus.

It's simple, yet I'm oddly drawn to the clean, fuss free design. With Gorilla Glass 3 front and back it feels supremely solid and the plastic frame which runs round the circumference has a textured rubberised feel providing a welcome level of grip.

The power/lock and volume keys are on the right side of the Yotaphone 2, and both fall nicely under thumb/finger during one handed operation.

The volume key has a pretty neat party trick which it's learnt from its predecessor - it doubles as the nanoSIM tray.

Your standard SIM tool won't be long enough to dislodge it from the handset though, you'll have to use Yota's elongated tool which arrives in the box, or in my case a slender paper clip.

There is a fear that if used frequently you could end up damaging the volume keys and/or SIM tray, but for most users it's unlikely that you'll access the SIM particularly often.

The handset is only a touch taller than the Galaxy S5 (142mm) and not as wide, while the metal framed Lumia 930 is wider (71mm), thicker (9.8mm) and heavier (167g) than the 145g Yotaphone.

Considering it's packing two fully touchscreen displays the fact Yotaphone 2 is just 8.95mm thick is impressive and the 144.9 x 69.4mm body means it sits comfortably in the hand.

Battery life

  

The Yotaphone 2 comes with a 2500mAh battery sealed in between those two display, which is a touch smaller than the power packs found in similarly priced competitors.

A slightly smaller battery coupled with an older Snapdragon 800 processor means power efficiency via the main 5-inch display isn't particularly stellar. I found the Yotaphone 2 was consistently running out by the end of the day when the colour screen was predominantly used.

 

Running the 90 minutes battery test video with the colour screen at full brightness and accounts syncing in the background the Yotaphone lost 20% of life.

That's better than the Xperia Z3, HTC One M8 and iPhone 6, but it's beaten by the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy S5 and OnePlus One.

It's a shame it's missed out on the Snapdragon 801 chip as it saw big battery life improvements over handsets rocking 800, and considering the processor in the Yotaphone 2 is way over a year old now it seems like a missed opportunity.

Yota isn't overly concerned with the difference in power efficiency between the 800 and 801 chips, as it claims the Electronic Paper Display (EPD) can deliver significantly longer battery life.

Use the rear screen for day to day tasks such as text messaging, emails and social media and you'll only drop a handful of percentage points.

The down side is you'll need much more patience - typing is a bit of a chore as you wait for the e-ink technology to keep up with your taps, and general navigation isn't as fluid as the colour screen.

It's a trade off I was willing to make a lot of the time though, and the fact I can get live information on the low power display makes it great for glancing down at on my desk to get a quick update.

If you do find yourself running particularly low you can always engage the YotaEnergy power saving mode, which switches off various features in a bid to extend life as much as possible.

Yota claims that enabling YotaEnergy when you have 15% battery left will extend life by up to 8.5 hours, versus 1.5 hours if you didn't enable the power saving mode - and it reckons with the mode enabled earlier the handset can last two days on a single charge.

You can set YotaEnergy to automatically come on when the battery falls below 15%, 10%, 5% or your own custom value, plus you can toggle which features it disables.

YotaEngergy can do a variety of things such as throttle processing power, turn off key functions such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC, and enable a 2G only mode which cuts mobile data but still allows calls and texts.

Camera

Considering the price tag attached to the Yotaphone 2 I was disappointed to find an 8MP camera slapped on the rear of the device. Especially when its predecessor has a 13MP snapper.

The top Android phones at the moment are sporting 13MP, 16MP and even 20MP+ cameras, so the Yotaphone does feel a little behind the times.

It's not all about meagpixels though, and the iPhone 6 shows that an 8MP lens is more than capable of taking some quite lovely smartphone shots. Sadly though, the camera here isn't in the same league as Apple's.

 

This is a snapper you'd expect to find on mid-range devices, around half the cost of the Yotaphone 2. It's certainly not terrible, just a little disappointing.

At least Yota has shifted the camera to the more sensible top-centre location on the back of the handset, as the original had it in the bottom corner which was pretty inconvenient.

The camera app is just Google's stock Android offering, which offers up a small array of features including photo sphere, panorama and lens blur. It can also capture 1080p video through the rear camera and the front facing, 2.1MP lens.

It's all pretty standard, with no effects or advanced settings over a flash, timer and the option to toggle manual exposure.

The rear screen does provide a useful feature - fire up the camera app and then switch to mirror mode and when you flip the phone around you'll see your face on the e-ink display.

For the selfie lovers out there it makes getting yourself and your mates in shot easy and you get a better quality picture as you're using the higher res rear camera.

Camera samples