Minimal Phone: A low-priced smartphone with E Ink display and complete keyboard

The Minimal Phone is a smartphone with an E Ink screen instead of a conventional LCD or OLED screen. It also features a physical keyboard.

Nowadays, smartphones are gravitating towards particular design pattern: the display should be as borderless as possible, and cut-outs for the camera and buttons are no longer necessary. The buttons themselves are often found on the sides of the smartphone. The Minimal Phone takes the opposite approach, coming with a keyboard and using an E Ink screen instead of a colorful AMOLED.

The screen is equipped with a 3.5-inch E Ink screen with a pixel density of 300 PPI. A high refresh rate is advertised, at least by E Ink standards. These are certainly not as fast as a conventional display at 60 or even 120 Hz, but values of 15 Hz are certainly conceivable. Although unsuitable for displaying videos - also because it cannot display colors - the Minimal Phone should nevertheless be easy to use as an e-reader. The technology should also allow for a long battery life, with the 4000 mAh battery lasting several days.

At the software level, the Minimal Phone is based on a customized version of Android 13 and uses the MediaTek MT6769 SoC. It has 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. The front camera has a resolution of 8 MP and the main camera 16 MP, of which the latter comes with flash. Bluetooth and WiFi for both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands are supported. NFC, GPS and a side-mounted fingerprint sensor are also included, as are a compass and gyroscope.

The keyboard is designed to allow texts to be entered quickly. On the images shared so far, we can see apps for phonecalls, messages, notes and calendars. The Indiegogo campaign is currently calling for a price of at least $325, with delivery scheduled for August 2024. Potential backers should be aware of the significant financial risks involved. The specs currently stated are also subject to change.

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