The phone with two faces: Russian YotaPhone2 takes on Samsung and Apple

Since South Korean and US brands dominate the market for high-end smartphones, Vlad Martynov, CEO of Moscow-based Yota Devices, has his work cut out for him.

In Hong Kong last month to launch the YotaPhone 2 - dubbed the "Russian iPhone" - in Asia, Martynov seemed undaunted by the challenges posed by industry behemoths such as Samsung and Apple. "YotaPhone has unique and valuable features that no other smartphones can offer," he says.

Martynov describes one of the features - a dual screen with a five-inch, high-definition LCD panel on the front and a 4.7-inch electronic paper display on the back - as revolutionary. While the colourful LCD display works like that of any other Android device, the rear e-ink display can receive notifications, display news and other information such as time, weather and maps, helping to conserving battery life. Yota Devices owns the patent for the dual-screen design and the software that allows information to be shared between the two.

Martynov says the phone's design has solved some nagging problems that have dogged phone makers and users for years. "From the day we set up Yota Devices and developed our smartphone business, we understood that in order for us, as a start-up, to win market share and compete with such big brands as Samsung, we'd need to come up with a powerful disruptive idea that would change the way people interact with their smartphones.

"We looked into current problems with smartphones and quickly realised that the first problem concerns battery life. Most users, particularly heavy users, need to carry multiple chargers with them.

"Another problem is it's very difficult to use a smartphone in direct sunlight. When you go outdoors, it's hard to see what's on the display. [With the e-ink display], YotaPhone is [the only] phone on the planet that can be used easily in direct sunlight."