The YotaPhone 2 was one of the most pleasant surprises of last year, combining an OLED display on the front and an E Ink panel on the back to offer a uniquely versatile Android device. The surprising thing about it was how well it worked, and how far it managed to steer away from being a simple gimmick, and today it's getting even better with a couple of major changes. Chief among them is a significant price cut: the YotaPhone 2 now costs £440 in the UK, having started off at £555, or €599 in the rest of Europe, where it used to be €699.

Coming to the USA in July via an Indiegogo campaign

Those prices put the unlocked 32GB smartphone at roughly $680 in American currency, and if you're wondering whether it will ever make its way to the United States, the answer is yes, with your help. Yota plans to run an Indiegogo campaign to help it fund a July release in the US, which would follow recent expansion into China.

Yota promises big changes on the software front with a new over-the-air update that's rolling out now to new and old devices alike. The company credits Android Lollipop with not only improving the phone's performance and responsiveness, but also helping to make the camera better. Most of the YotaPhone interface sticks to the stock Android design, which is nice to see, with the YETI (Yota E Ink Technology Integration) software being composed of apps you can run on the rear E Ink screen. Among them, there are now Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter widgets, which will periodically refresh and give you glanceable updates that don't require turning on the phone.

Today also marks the introduction of a white option for the YotaPhone 2. It's mostly identical to the black one (and costs the same), but it inverts the color scheme on the E Ink screen so as to properly match its new look. The front of the white handset remains black, which Yota chose in order to keep a cleaner appearance on the front and because the company liked the contrast of colors better.