YotaPhone dual-screen smartphone 'to launch before Christmas' The YotaPhone has an 4.3-inch HD LCD display on the front and an e-ink display on the back. The idea is that you can use the colour LCD display like a normal Android phone, and receive notifications, read news or send maps to the rear e-paper display to save battery. The YotaPhone is made by Russian smartphone manufacturer Yota, which also provides mobile broadband services in the country. The YotaPhone won the CNET Best of CES Award for 'Hottest Mobile Device' at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show. At the time, the device featured 4G LTE, Android 4.1, a 4.3-inch 1280p HD display, a 12-megapixel camera, and a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus (MSM8960) chip. However, it is likely that at least some of these specs will be updated ahead of the launch, which TechCrunch reports will be before Christmas. The YotaPhone is not the first dual-screen smartphone - earlier this year Samsung launched "the Hennessy," a dual-screen flip phone with a touch-screen on both the outer and inner surfaces. However, it is the first to combine an LCD screen with an e-ink display. Yota Devices chief executive Vlad Martynov claims that the YotaPhone represents "a whole new archetype in smartphones." As well as saving battery, the e-ink display also provides a more comfortable reading experience and lets users view notifications without having to activate their phone. Reports in the Russian press suggest that the YotaPhone will ship with a price tag of 20,000 rubles (roughly £380), but the company has so far made no announcements on pricing.