ZTE and Yota teaming up for YotaPhone 3, arriving in Q1 2016

While the actual real-world utility of having two screens is debatable, the YotaPhone is probably one of the most unique smartphones to have come out to market in the last few years. Unfortunately, limited production capabilities have also resulted in a crippled market reach for the company.

When the first YotaPhone was announced its specs were actually reasonably solid, but upon release about a year later, it was looking rather dated. A similar situation occurred with the YotaPhone 2, which saw a slow rollout in many markets and pulled out of a US launch after it had already successfully funded an Indiegogo campaign to bring the phone to the US. Will things be any different with the YotaPhone 3? Possibly, or at least a new partnership with ZTE means that the odds are better.

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Yota and ZTE have formally announced an agreement that will see the larger Chinese company work with Yota for “the production of new generation of YotaPhone smartphones, as well as the development and integration of mobile services and software.” How far this partnership will reach remains unknown, but the big takeaway is that the YotaPhone 3’s announcement will hopefully be followed by an actual product launch much sooner than with the first two YotaPhones. Working with ZTE in China should also result in lower expenses, and hopefully a much more aggressive price tag in turn.

The YotaPhone 3 is expected to go on sale in Q1 2016 with a first run of about 100k units, though it has yet to be formally launched just yet. We imagine a formal announcement isn’t too far off and will be sure to update the post as soon as we learn more!