Nowadays, an ordinary person can hardly imagine his life without fashionable gadgets: smartphones, tablets, computers. Until recently, domestic companies did not think about producing their own devices. However, at the end of 2013, our developers from Yota Devices began selling the very first version of the Yotaphone smartphone. And after 12 months, the company presents the next generation device, which takes into account the errors and shortcomings found in the previous model. And already in 2021, Yota Devices announces the release of Yotaphone 3, the release date of which was set for September 5th of this year.
Built-in memory
Third-generation Yota smartphones will have a fairly large amount of memory installed, which will also vary from 64 to 128 GB, depending on the configuration. In addition, the buyer will be able to add additional memory by installing an additional microSD flash card. Also, a significant difference from the previous generation of smartphone will be an increase in the amount of RAM. In Yotaphone 3 it will be as much as 4Gb.
⇡#Camera
Before meeting the Yotafon, the author of this review thought that 13 megapixels in the “camera” line of technical characteristics was a guarantee of, if not ideal, then at least decent photographs that would definitely not be a shame to share on a social network. It turned out that this is not necessarily the case: it happens completely, completely differently.
Of course, shooting in the Russian winter twilight is not the easiest task for the camera built into a smartphone. But many devices cope with it quite well - but the footage received on Yotaphone evokes a strong desire to buy a three-month supply of vodka and grieve until spring. Problems with focusing, terrible “soap” (in HDR mode it is absolutely prohibitive) and terrible “bluish” colors - apart from the tablet “eyes”, this is the worst camera we had to deal with in 2013.
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | LG G2 | Huawei Honor 3 | Yotaphone |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | LG G2 | Huawei Honor 3 | Yotaphone |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 3 | LG G2 | Huawei Honor 3 | Yotaphone |
We, of course, understand that it is difficult for the first Russian smartphone to compete with expensive “Koreans” (although in fact they are not that expensive - the Yotafon costs about the same as the LG G2 and only slightly less than the third Laptop). But even a “Chinese” shoots much better for 13 thousand rubles!
Smartphone screens
Yota manufacturers remained true to themselves and did not abandon the main feature of their smartphone - two displays. In addition, developers keep up with the trends set by such large companies as Apple and Samsung, and develop their product by imitating the model of foreign manufacturers.
That is why the Yotaphone 3 smartphone went on sale in several configurations, differing primarily in display sizes. The standard diagonal will be 5.5 inches, a figure that is neither too large nor too small. Also, the configuration will have a significant impact on the price of Yotaphone 3.
The main display will have a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and support video playback in FullHD quality. Regarding the screens located on the back of the smartphone, everything will change slightly. These displays will continue to use electronic ink technology, but their resolution has increased significantly compared to Yotafons of previous generations.
Unfortunately, the manufacturer did not meet the expectations of customers, so the new smartphone will not use an IPS matrix, but a cheap AMOLED version. The overall design of the displays has also been changed. The developers abandoned rounded corners in favor of a flat surface, due to the fact that the curved shape reproduced the picture with distortion at the rounding points
YotaPhone 3 Plus - technical specifications, review, photos, comparison with YotaPhone 3 and 2
YOTA 3+ technical characteristics and comparison with Yota 3 and Yota 2:
| YOTA 3+ | YOTA 3 | YOTA 2 |
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If you are now looking at the table of comparisons of these three smartphones, then you probably think that the characteristics of two smartphones are contrasted here, not three: the differences between the YotaPhone 3 Plus and the standard YotaPhone 3 are so minimal. Let's immediately go through these significant differences . The first thing that distinguishes Iota 3+ and Iota 3 is new software. The new product received the latest version of Android 8.1.1 and the updated YOTA OS 4.0 shell. We can’t say anything about the new features of the OS, since we haven’t given any clear information about it. The second “major” change is the upgrade of the e-ink display. If you thought that it received a better resolution or acquired a radically new technology for transmitting gray color, then you are mistaken - only three new features of the additional screen await you: App2Back - a useful feature that allows you to launch any application on the second screen and use it simultaneously with the main one, Always-On Display is a well-known feature that allows you to display information on the E-Ink screen when the smartphone itself is locked. YotaSnap is an interesting feature that allows you to save information on the display even if your Yotafone 3+ is dead. That's all, the differences end. The main screen was not enlarged or made better or larger; the e-ink display also remained of the same quality. The dimensions and design of the device also remain the same.
Why change anything and follow the trends of frameless and elongated screens - this is all nonsense. The main question is: why didn’t the manufacturer improve the performance of the Iota 3+, leaving the smartphone with a good, but still obsolete, Snapdragon 625 processor. Of course, the chip now feels good on smartphones that cost 8,000-15,000 rubles, but not on Yota 3+, which costs over 40,000 rubles. On the new Yotafon, a Snapdragon 670 or 700 would look more logical - this would be enough to increase demand for a smartphone. And so, who in their right mind would buy a phone with Snapdragon 625 for that kind of money, even with an additional e-ink display. There is a small suggestion that Yota Technologies does not know about over-the-air updates and in order to roll out a new version of their excellent OS, they are releasing a new phone. This is the only way to explain it. There are no other options. If you want to see other characteristics of the smartphone, here they are: cameras - 13 MP main and 12 MP front cameras, battery - 3300 mAh, non-removable, has a fast charging function.
⇡#Conclusions
Yotafon has several disadvantages. Firstly, the hardware is very weak - this is a huge smartphone with a small display, a low-capacity battery and a terrible camera. This could have been survivable if that was all there was to it. But that’s not all: secondly, the developers have gone too far with the controls: it’s not easy to understand right away how to work with this smartphone.
Thirdly, the creators of Yotafon should have worked more seriously on aesthetic aspects. And we’re not even talking about the design of the smartphone body, but about the software. For example, you can fall in love with the Amazon Kindle reader, at least for the chic engravings-screensavers, designed taking into account the features of e-ink technology. The developers of Yotafon did not foresee anything like this.
And most importantly: fourthly, the second display, for which everything was started, turned out to be almost useless. Seriously: you won’t even be able to read books on it in your favorite e-reader. And doing anything else is inconvenient to the point of pointlessness. In the end, there is only one thing left to do: hang a picture on it - try, by the way, to choose the right wallpaper for 16 shades of gray - and a clock with notifications. Was it worth building a garden for this?
The Yotafon developers honestly tried to surprise - and the entire smartphone was ultimately built around this idea. Most hardware flaws are an extension of its quirks. The sad thing is that, despite considerable effort to make something amazing, the device turned out to be surprisingly boring. Tested on people: in most cases, a person who picks up the Yotafon loses interest in it within a minute. The planned miracle doesn’t really work, and there’s nothing else interesting about this smartphone.
Battery and charger
A non-removable battery is a tradition for YotaPhone. You will have to change it only at service centers for some money. High capacity combined with energy-saving technologies should provide a service life of several days - nothing is known about this yet. But many people will like the fast charge function, since they will have to wait less. We connect the charger, wait 15 minutes - you can last on this amount of charge until the end of the day. Please note that the USB Type C connector is used here.
A few rumors - it is expected that YotaPhone 3, released for the Russian market, will receive support for Qi wireless charging. Why it is not included in the model for the Chinese market is unknown.
