More than five years ago, YotaPhone was one of the first smartphone makers to come out with a dual-display device. Unfortunately, it appears that the company has been declared bankrupt by the Cayman Islands Supreme Court.
It was reported that a lawsuit filed by Hi-P Singapore had led the downward spiral for the company. They were sued for US$126 million for failing to take delivery and presumably paying for minimum order it had committed. It was reported the Russian smartphone brand had only sold about 75,000 units for both YotaPhone and YotaPhone 2.
The first gen YotaPhone did arrive in Malaysia but it was sold at RM1,699. That’s quite pricey for a phone that runs on an entry-level Snapdragon 400 processor.
For the second-gen model, the YotaPhone 2 packs a 5″ Full HD display on the front while the rear gets a 4.7″ e-ink display. It also ran on a flagship class 2.2GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB RAM and 32GB of storage. With an e-ink display, you can view your ebooks and various content on the secondary screen with very minimal power required.
While the YotaPhone was an interesting device, the smartphone maker wasn’t fast enough to push the device into the hands of consumers. Other manufacturers have recently released dual-display devices like the Meizu Pro 7, Vivo NEX Dual-Display Edition and the Nubia X. On top of that, the future of smartphone appears to be heading towards foldable devices like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X.
