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 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.
