It's easy to get distracted these days, thanks to the portable supercomputers in our pockets. Last year, a project aimed to strip things back to basics with a phone sporting a monochrome E Ink display, Blackberry-like keyboard and limited apps. Now the Minimal Phone is here.
Andre Youkhma and the folks at the Minimal Company are not the first to strive for a simpler, less overwhelming pocket companion. We've seen similar ideas pop up such as the Light Phone, Mudita Pure and the BoringPhone. Like those projects, the Minimal Phone took to a crowdfunding platform to get it into production.
But even before that kicked off, negative whispers about the project began to gain momentum on online forums and tech chats. Youkhma took to Reddit for an AMA to field questions from critics and potential backers alike.
The funding campaign launched on Indiegogo in March of 2024, and subsequently raised over US$600k. Talk of shipping began in September, and the first batch started going out to early backers toward the end of last month.
Reviews have also started appearing on socials, while the Indiegogo has switched to its InDemand "shop" and a slightly higher-spec version has been added to the available options. The Minimal Phone has also gone up for pre-order direct from the company.
The first thing you might notice from the imagery is a slightly different form factor. The renders of old showed 120 x 72 x 10 mm (4.7 x 2.8 x 0.39 in) dimensions and a low-profile QWERTY keyboard.
The production version sports a bigger touch-enabled monochrome E Ink screen, at 4.3 diagonal inches, with a 600 x 800 pixel (230-ppi) resolution at 4:3 aspect. There's also a navigation bar between the display and keyboard. A front light is included to continue the minimalist party when ambient light starts to fade.
The keyboard features 35 slightly raised keycaps spaced out for easy thumb use, each having a 0.015-mm travel. Most of the keys perform double duty. In order to type in upper case, for example, the up arrow needs pressing down at the same time as the letter key, and you need to keep the ALT key down to select numbers and symbols.
The right side is home to a power button with fingerprint unlock. The left edge hosts a SIM/expansion slot, volume buttons and a screen refresh button (to clear the image of any ghosting). A microphone, speaker and proximity sensor sit up top, and another mic/speaker combo goes down below along with the handset's USB-C port and 3.5-mm headphone jack. Around back is a 16-megapixel camera with LED flash, and there's a 5-MP selfiecam too.
Processing brains shape up as a MediaTek Helio G99 chip with eight cores, plus Mali graphics and an AI processing unit. The base model comes with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage – though there's now another option with 8 GB and 256 GB, respectively.
NFC is cooked in (with Google Pay support), along with Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2, and 4G LTE mobile internet can be had too courtesy of the dual-SIM slots. The 3,000-mAh battery is reported to last for four days between top-ups during active use, and Qi wireless charging is supported.
The idea here is to roll with basic functionality so that millions of apps and constant social pings don't interfere with your already stressful day. That said, the device runs Android 14 so you can hit the Play Store and download anything you feel is essential. "The Minimal Phone doesn't restrict your access to apps: it simply encourages you to use them more mindfully."
However, you'll be heading for disappointment if you are hoping to run high-res videos here, or play fast-moving mobile games. The refresh rate – even in the Ultra mode – won't be able to keep up with fast frame rates, so you'll need to manage your expectations. It could be a similar story for other productivity and entertainment apps too, though this may serve to dissuade their use on this device – which is in keeping with the overall theme.
If you missed the crowdfunding campaign, or were waiting to see if the device would actually be produced, the Minimal Phone is up for pre-order now via the source link below – or through Indiegogo InDemand. The list price is US$499 for the 6-GB/128-GB version in white, black or a mix of both, but customers can currently take advantage of a promotional discount of a hundred bucks. Shipping is included in the ticket price, and delivery is estimated to start from March.
As mentioned earlier, there's now a second offering that comes with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage – but is otherwise the same. This one lists at $599, but can be had for $499 during the pre-order period.
Product page: Minimal Phone