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If the average Android phone made a baby with a Kindle, it would look like the YotaPhone 2. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

LAS VEGAS — I’ve seen pictures of the bizarre YotaPhone, a premium Android/e-ink smartphone from Russia, but when I first held it at International CES this week, I realized it’s something you have to use to understand.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 With everyone but BlackBerry seemingly copying the iPhone’s design these days, the YotaPhone (now in its second generation) stands out as something strikingly unique. It features a 1,920 by 1,080-pixel, 5-inch LCD display on one side, and a responsive e-ink screen on the other.

It’s not something you’ll ever see out of a company like Apple, but you have to give the YotaPhone kudos for being an oddball.

Yes, it's a Nexus 6 without the Nexus logo. Photo: Motorola

Yes, it’s a Nexus 6 without the Nexus logo. Photo: Motorola

Motorola is making a comeback in China, and it has a trick up its sleeve that it is hoping will bring success in a market that’s obsessed with super-sized smartphones — a 6-inch Moto X with Quad HD display. The device is essentially a rebranded Nexus 6, and it’s joined by Motorola’s original 2014 Moto X and Moto G.

BBM on your wrist. Photo: BlackBerry

BBM on your wrist. Photo: BlackBerry

BlackBerry is at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week where it is showing off BBM on Android Wear. The Canadian company promises to take its messaging service’s most popular features and make them available on your wrist, so you can do more than just preview new messages.

LG will compete against its own Android Wear devices. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

LG will compete against its own Android Wear devices. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

LG may be building its own Android Wear smartwatches already, but that hasn’t stopped the South Korean company from developing new wearables powered by its own webOS platform. Sources familiar with its plans say we can expect to see the first of those devices in early 2016.

The Moto G GPE is no more.

The Moto G GPE is no more.

The original Moto G Google Play Edition has now been dropped from the Play Store, leaving the HTC One M8 as the only Google Play Edition (GPE) device that’s still standing. The move comes four months after the second-generation Moto G first went on sale in the U.S., but it doesn’t look like Google has any plans to make the new model a GPE smartphone.

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