Minimal Phone: Low-priced smartphone with E Ink display and complete keyboard
Minimal Phone: Low-priced smartphone with E Ink display and complete keyboard
The Minimal Phone is a smartphone with an E Ink screen instead of a conventional LCD or OLED screen. It also features a physical keyboard.
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I'm not disinterested, though $350 is a little steep ($450 if you're not an 'early bird'). Ideally it would be bootloader unlockable and rootable as well. I would probably use it like a PDA of old.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-minimal-phone-first-e-ink-qwerty-phone#/
Preliminary Specs:
- CPU: MTK 6769
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 128GB
- OS: Android 13
- Display: 3.5” E-Ink Touch / 300 PPI / High Refresh Rate
- Front Camera: 8MP
- Rear Camera: 16MP
- WIFI: 802.11 a / b / g / n 2.4GHz / 5GHz WiFi Direct，WiFi，B 4.1
- AT＆T: YES
- T-Mobile: YES
- Verizon: YES
- Battery: 4000mAh QC 18W Wireless charge less than 20W
- Features: QWERTY keyboard, NFC, GPS, A-GPS, Fingerprint (side), Face unlock, G sensor, Compass, Gyroscope, Proximity, Light sensor
I looked into E-ink displays this summer and the tech is just so high priced
Wasn't e ink in the highest tier of patents stifling advancement?
Yeah, licensing fees are super high. Who knows what kind of battery life and displays we might have on our personal devices today if eink wasn't so encumbered.
It's fucking crazy cause my city just put e-ink displays on bus stops and I thought it was because they were going cheap, I guess not, though.
Because e ink is basically perfect for bus stops. You don't need to update more than once a minute or two and it uses basically no power for running 24/7.
They can't claim carrier compatibility yet before they even source the parts. (They're in Japan right now sourcing Chinese parts, allegedly, and only have renders thus far.) Let alone until they have a working prototype to test against fyi.
Carriers may very well not certify the device due to compatibility issues. Or they won't be able to afford the certification process.
The phone still has a 3D printed shell in the video. Doesn’t look promising.