Putin gives Xi world's first dual-screen smartphone

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-11-10

Vladimir Putin gives Xi Jinping a new Yotaphone 2. (Internet photo)

Chinese president Xi Jinping has become the owner of the world's first dual-screen smartphone courtesy of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Xi was personally presented with a YotaPhone 2, developed by Russia's state-owned tech company Rostec, by Putin, who had arrived in Beijing on Sunday ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leadership summit on Nov. 10-11.

Apart from a traditional LCD screen on one side, the back of the YotaPhone 2 features a 4.7-inch electronic paper display (EPD) for reading e-books and playing simple games like Sudoku or chess. If the main screen runs out of battery, the EPD side can act as a backup.

The special edition of the smartphone Xi received has reportedly been installed with special Russian, Chinese and APEC paraphernalia. It also includes a special data protection system developed by Russian engineers, which is said to make the phone "unique" in regard of safety levels.

Xi was reportedly all smiles when he received the gift, and later even asked Putin, "Do we have partnership in this project as well?" to which Putin responded, "Will do!"

The official launch of the YotaPhone 2, which runs on Google's Android operating system, is scheduled for December. The phone will then hit European markets before arriving in China and South-East Asia in the first quarter of 2015.

Apart from playing with his new phone, Xi also managed to squeeze in the execution of 17 bilateral cooperation agreements with Putin that traverse areas such as natural gas, oil, nuclear power, transportation, aerospace and finance.