Russian smartphone manufacturer Yota on Thursday announced the launch of its new generation dual-screen smartphone, dubbed as the “YotaPhone 3” at an event at Russian Embassy in Beijing, China. The new YotaPhone 3 is the successor to the company’s previous YotaPhone 2, which was released in February 2014. To recall, the YotaPhone 3 was first introduced at the China-Russia exhibition, which was held in Harbin back in June. However, the new YotaPhone 3 also known as Yota 3 in China and Asian markets. The YotaPhone 3 comes in two different variants based on its internal storage capacity: YotaPhone 3 with 64GB internal storage and YotaPhone 3 with 128GB internal storage.
As for pricing, the YotaPhone 3 with 64GB internal storage has been launched in China with a price tag of CNY 2,398 (approximately Rs. 23,050), while for the top-end variant with 128GB internal storage, you have to pay CNY 3,098 (approximately Rs. 29,800). Both the variants or models will be up for pre-order in China starting September 5 (Tuesday) on Chinese e-commerce website JD.com and the same will be made available for purchase in China starting September 18 (Monday) via JD.com only in Black colour option. After China, the company plans to bring the dual-screen smartphone to its homeland, Russia. Unfortunately, the company has made no official announcement on the pricing details and availability of the YotaPhone 3 for other markets.
Talking about its specifications, the new YotaPhone 3 comes equipped with a 5.5-inch full HD AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a scratch resistance curved glass coating on top. On the other side, the smartphone also sports a 5.2-inch HD always-on Electronic Paper Display (EPD) with a screen resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor coupled with Adreno 506 image processing unit to handle the graphics.
In terms of memory, the YotaPhone 3 is backed up by a 4GB of RAM and 64GB / 128GB of onboard storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card. On the software fronts (OS), the YotaPhone 3 runs company’s proprietary Yota OS 3.0 custom UI skin, based on Google’s Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. The smartphone also features a front-mounted fingerprint sensor, that is housed underneath a capsule-sized physical Home Button of the device.
In terms of photography, the YotaPhone 3 houses a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus and dual-tone LED flash module. The rear-facing camera is also capable of recording 4K UHD (2160p) resolution videos. On the front, the smartphone features a 12-megapixel front-facing shooter for capturing selfies and making video calls.
On the connectivity front, the YotaPhone 3 offers various connectivity options including dual-SIM dual standby (using a Hybrid Dual-SIM slot), 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port for super-fast charging and data transfer. Sensors on the device include a Proximity sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Fingerprint (front-mounted), and E-compass sensor. On the battery front, the YotaPhone 3 is fuelled by a powerful 3,300mAh battery. The Russian brand is expecting to sell over 1 million units of YotaPhone 3 with a major focus on sale from the Chinese market.
