Los Angeles-based The Minimal Company specializes in stripped-down phones that put just a handful of essential tools in your pocket and leave out the distracting stuff. Its latest model marks a major departure, while aiming to stay true to the vision of reducing your screen time.
The Minimal Phone 2 (MP2 hereafter) follows the brand's previous Android-based model from 2024, which featured a physical QWERTY keyboard beneath a e-paper screen. Unlike the first one, though, this features an exquisite metal body and a more elegant design reminiscent of some top-end BlackBerry phones of yore.
While it's designed for you to less spend time on it, good luck putting down a keyboard that looks this inviting.
An aluminum frame surrounds a 4-inch AMOLED 90-Hz touchscreen and the full-size transparent polycarbonate and silicone backlit keyboard. The result is a much shorter device than your typical iPhone, and a thickness of 9.78 mm – a bit more than most handsets on the market.
We've seen a few modern QWERTY phones before, but the finish and proportions on the MP2 have me positively drooling over it. The keyboard looks particularly good, with spaced-out keys that promise a decent bit of travel.
There's a lot more to love about the hardware itself. A physical switch on the side turns off the cellular antennas or silences notifications, a configurable LED lights up in different colors to let you know who's calling or texting, and a headphone jack lets you enjoy audio with a wired connection.
There have been a bunch of different approaches to making phones less of a time-suck: from monochrome screens to basic operating systems that lack social feeds to custom flavors of Android that limit your exposure to distracting apps. These come with some compromises when compared to regular smartphones.
With the MP2, Minimal has opted to offer full-fat Android so the phone can do everything your daily driver can, from hailing cabs to texting via Signal to making contactless payments.
The company's Minimal OS (running on top of Android) is what helps you cut down on screen time. It displays all your texts, calls, and emails in one place for quick triaging. You can start typing on the home screen to jump into actions like texting a contact without opening an app first, adding a to-do, asking questions to an AI, or scheduling a calendar appointment.
If you want to go hardcore, there are settings to block specific apps, reduce notifications, and switch to grayscale mode. Undoing these requires a full factory reset, so you're properly locked into these limitations. I really like this flexible approach to letting you choose how your phone should work for you.
On the inside, you've got a Dimensity 8300 processor that featured in a number of mid-range phones from two years ago. Minimal says this operates pretty efficiently, so you'll get plenty of use out of the 3,000-mAh battery that supports okay-ish 27W charging. Wireless charging works too.
There's also a 50-megapixel sensor for the single rear camera mated to an f/1.8 lens and LED flash, and a 20-megapixel snapper on the front. I imagine neither will deliver results worth writing home about, but then again, the MP2 is more about staying in the moment than about high-end photography.
This unlocked model is expected to retail at US$699, but you can snag one with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $599 while it's being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Minimal Phone will also throw in $100 worth of accessories, including a case, screen protectors, and a 27W fast charger.
Leveling up the storage to 512GB will bump up the price to $675 (down from $799 MSRP). Both variants are available in handsome Pearl and Onyx finishes – but the Kickstarter exclusive Ember (a vibrant reddish orange) variant with 12GB RAM looks especially hot.
The pricing isn't too bad, given this is a QWERTY phone with what looks like good build quality. If you're on the fence – or don't really care for anti-distraction features – the $499 Unihertz Titan 2 offers a physical keyboard that doubles as a trackpad, a secondary screen on the back, and a larger display and battery – but a lower-end processor.
All crowdfunding campaigns carry an element of risk, so you'll want to keep that in mind if you choose to back this campaign. For what it's worth, Minimal Phone successfully shipped its previous model, and has raised over $850,000 for this one. If all goes to plan, orders are slated to ship worldwide in December 2026.
Source: Kickstarter
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