The YotaPhone 3 smartphone has been officially announced and prices given for the two variants that will be available. Precise information about most of the specifications has not been detailed by Yota Devices yet, nor has there been a release date given. However, pricing details have been provided and there will be one variant with 64GB of internal storage that will be priced at $350, while the other model will have 128GB of internal storage and a price tag of a $450. Like its predecessors from the Russian phone maker, it will have an color screen on the front of the handset and an e-ink display on the back that saves the image even when the battery runs out.
News of the third-generation of the YotaPhone came from the general director of BaoliYota Technology at the China-Russia Expo in the Chinese city of Harbin yesterday, and a more expansive presentation of the phone is due to take place towards the end of summer. There should then be full details about the specs, features, and design. An unconfirmed overseas report states that online orders for Russia will be available around September with sales in China starting at the same time, and the Chinese model of the phone is expected to have local apps such as Baidu and WeChat pre-installed. Nothing has been announced about availability of the YotaPhone 3 elsewhere, and it’s perhaps worth noting that a planned 2015 launch of a U.S. version of its predecessor, the Yotaphone 2, was eventually cancelled.
The YotaPhone 3 has been some time in development, as Yota first said the phone was being worked on back in 2015, and rumors around that time suggested the phone would release in 2016. All went quiet for some time, until March of this year when a notice published on the official YotaPhone Instagram account said that the YotaPhone 3 was still in development, and that interested parties should stay tuned for further information. A short time later the company posted a teaser image of the phone, with a brief message saying that pre-orders would be opening in the summer, and this latest news suggests that the company is on track to fulfil that earlier pledge.