Skip to main content

No, those aren’t giant hands — the Tiny T1 is the world’s smallest mobile phone

As hard as it may be for younger readers to believe, there was a time before “phablets” became a thing, when cellphone companies were in a race against one another to see who could create the world’s smallest handset. Jump forward a decade and a half, and that particular fed has gone the way of nu metal, “bullet time” effects, and
Recommended Videos
personalized ringtones — but one company wants to bring it back, and they’ve created the “world’s smallest mobile phone” to show just how serious they are.

“The creation of the Zanco Tiny T1 was motivated purely by the challenge of whether or not it was possible to create a phone so small,” Robert Lattibeaudiere, operations manager at creators Clubit New Media, told Digital Trends. “In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, ‘We spent so long figuring out if we could, we never stopped to ask if we should.’”

Compared to your shiny new iPhone X, the Tiny T1 can’t do a whole lot. You won’t be unlocking it with your face or using it to check out the latest apps — but that’s kind of the point. Instead, it can store up to 300 phone numbers and 50 SMS, while being tiny enough that you can take it with you at times when you don’t necessarily want to be carrying around a larger, expensive new handset. Its Kickstarter campaign also notes that it, “will work with any mobile phone network. You can change the nano-SIM at any time if you want to change your network, too. The tiny phone operates on the 2G network. The battery has 3 days standby and 180 minutes talk time.”

Lattibeaudiere points out that the device is also good news for parents who want a way of being able to contact their young kid, without necessarily exposing them to the dangers of online influences and cyberbullying.

While Kickstarter campaigns can be unpredictable, Lattibeaudiere assures us that the Zanco Tiny T1 is currently a fully functioning prototype, and is ready to go into mass production. “Once the Kickstarter has ended it will only be an estimated 14 weeks to produce and deliver to backers,” he said. “It has taken 2 years of research and development to get to this point. The Kickstarter is to ascertain if the world is ready for a phone so small.”

If you’d like to get your hands (or, well your fingers) on the Tiny T1, you can place a pre-order on Kickstarter, where prices start at 30 British pounds ($40). Shipping is set to take place in May 2018.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Best Verizon Fios new customer deals: Get 2GB/s internet in your home
Fios TV Package

Whether you utilize the internet for work or you subscribe to one of the best live TV streaming services, the experience can be made better with blazing fast internet. With Verizon Fios you’ll get fiber optic internet service and some savings are out there that will rival the best home internet deals. Verizon Fios deals are especially attractive for new customers right now, which is why we’ve rounded up all of the best Verizon Fios new customer deals below. You can read onward for all of the details on what sort of savings are going on right now, and if you need some devices to pair with new Verizon Fios service be sure to check out all of the best TV deals, best laptop deals, best tablet deals, and best phone deals going on right now.
2 Gigabit Verizon Fios connection -- $85 per month + free extras
One of the fastest internet speeds you can get, and the fastest speed that Verizon offers, this is the sort of subscription you should grab if all the members of your family are essentially watching 4K content all the time. It's also great for those who want to host their own media server to share with friends or family while not impacting anybody else in the home. You also get a lot of great freebies included here, such as the Disney Bundle for 12 months.

1 Gigabit Verizon Fios connection -- $65 per month + free extras
If the super-fast speeds aren't necessarily needed, especially if you're in a smaller household without too many folks watching content, then the 1 Gigabit version is the way to go. It is $20 cheaper, so it's a lot of money that you're saving over the course of the year, and you still get quite a few extra benefits, even at this level. Just like the 2 Gigabit plan you'll get some freebies with this plan.

Read more
Apple Watch Series 10 vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: flagship face-off
Apple Watch Series 10 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.

The Apple Watch Series 10 has arrived with a thinner and lighter design and an even larger screen, once again shaking up the smartwatch world. Apple’s smartwatches have been solid wearables for so long that they’ve become the standard against which most competing Android smartwatches are measured, and this year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is no exception.

Samsung has often beaten Apple to the punch lately in terms of offering new health features, even if they’re not always fully baked at release, but that’s likely only because it can read the writing on the wall. Apple matches most of what Samsung comes up with only a few weeks later, keeping the two wearables neck and neck at most things. Apple and Samsung may be able to measure the same metrics, but each takes its own approach to how it presents and interprets them — and those approaches are as different as the designs of the wearables themselves.

Read more
These are the real prices of the Pixel 9 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro
The iPhone 16 Pro screen next to the Pixel 9 Pro

When you buy a Google Pixel 9 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro, you know how much you're paying. Both phones have retail prices of $1,000. They're expensive, but they're in line with other flagship smartphones.

But is that the real price of the phones? That's how much you pay, but how much do Google and Apple pay to make the handsets? Thanks to some new data, we finally have an answer.

Read more