Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. News

Minimal Phone 2 looks like a deliberate antidote to doomscrolling

The coming phone leans on a keyboard, calmer software, and a smaller body to fight smartphone overload.

Add as a preferred source on Google
Electronics, Phone, Hardware
Armen Youssefian / Minimal Company

Minimal Phone 2 has entered waitlist mode with a clear promise. Minimal says its next phone is coming soon with a smaller, more refined design, a better keyboard, an aluminum body, and improved software.

The first Minimal Phone already tested whether people wanted an Android device that slowed phone use down without cutting off everyday tools. Its e-paper screen and physical keyboard made endless feeds less comfortable, while keeping apps, messaging, payments, and other basics within reach.

Join the waitlist: https://t.co/j5BW9OY8qT

— Armen Youssefian (@ussefian) June 29, 2026

Why did the first phone land

The original Minimal Phone paired Android 14 with a 4.3-inch e-paper touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. It also included Google Play access, NFC payments, wireless charging, dual SIM support, expandable storage, a headphone jack, and USB-C.

Recommended Videos

That mix gave it more range than a basic feature phone, but early reviews exposed the difficult part of building a calmer smartphone. The first model had to fight through a plastic build, camera limitations, e-paper ghosting, software roughness, and no 5G support.

Minimal’s sequel is being framed around the exact areas that needed attention. A metal body, tighter shape, revised keyboard, and software work could make the concept feel more finished without turning it into another feed machine.

Can the sequel fix enough

The hard test is trust. A distraction-reducing phone doesn’t work if people keep a second smartphone nearby for photos, fast apps, or basic reliability.

Minimal hasn’t confirmed the full spec sheet yet, so the biggest questions are still open. It hasn’t said whether Minimal Phone 2 keeps the e-paper screen, runs Android, supports Google Play, adds 5G, or changes the camera system.

Armen Youssefian’s post carries weight because public company coverage and the original crowdfunding campaign connect him to The Minimal Company and the first Minimal Phone. Still, the teaser can only go so far until Minimal shows the hardware and fills in the missing details.

Should you join the waitlist

For now, the waitlist is the only concrete step. Minimal says signups will get updates and early bird discount access, but it hasn’t listed price, launch timing, shipping timing, regions, or complete specs.

Sign up if the concept speaks to your phone fatigue, but don’t treat Minimal Phone 2 as a real replacement until the company confirms the screen, software, network support, camera, price, and launch window.

Paulo Vargas
Paulo Vargas is an English major turned reporter turned technical writer, with a career that has always circled back to…
Google’s new scam defenses on Android can hide your bank details and hang up on fraudsters
Gemini watches the links while Android hides the sensitive stuff
Google's New Android Scam Protection Feature

Scammers are getting smarter and more tech-savvy with each passing day, abusing phone features that can be used against you. So Google is rolling out a new Android security update, which aims to make some of those workarounds harder to pull off.

Android is getting several new scam protections spanning Google Messages, screen sharing, notifications, and call forwarding. One of the handy security upgrades is with screen sharing. Android can now automatically black out login fields and payment screens so sensitive information doesn't appear in the live feed when you stream the contents of your display through Chrome or an Android Web. The feature starts rolling out this month on devices running Android 15 or newer.

Read more
Splitwise now lets you calculate everyone’s share of a restaurant bill, including tax and tip
Splitwise is coming for the friend who orders the most and insists on splitting evenly!
splitwise-itemize-feature

Splitting a restaurant bill can turn a fun dinner into an awkward maths exercise. This is why Splitwise has rolled out a new free feature called Itemize that lets one person snap a photo of the receipt and have the app sort out exactly who owes what.

Itemize feature can divide tax and tip proportionally on Splitwise, so nobody has to overpay for a dish they never touched. The feature launched today and is already live for every Splitwise user in the US and UK.

Read more
Samsung Health now needs just 3 days of sleep data to coach you toward better sleep
Samsung is making its Sleep Coaching feature easier to access while adding more personalized advice and clearer sleep reports.
Samsung health sleep tracking

Samsung is making it much easier to get started with Sleep Coaching in the Samsung Health app. With its latest update, you only need three days of sleep data from the past two weeks to begin, down from seven days in a month.

I think that’s a welcome change. Sleep Tracking only tells you how you slept, while Sleep Coaching tries to help you build better sleep habits. Lowering the requirement means you reach the more useful feature much sooner.

Read more