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Experience a combination of minimalism and productivity with an E-Ink QWERTY Minimal Phone

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Some people opt for a minimalist smartphone to reduce distractions and enhance productivity. These devices typically offer only essential features, such as phone calls, messaging, notes, calendars, internet browsing, and key Android apps. This setup allows users to focus on what’s crucial without interruptions from numerous app notifications. Furthermore, these simplified phones often have extended battery life due to their limited features. If you’re drawn to a minimalistic device, the Minimal Phone could be ideal for you. It’s the product of an experienced team with a combined 60 years in design, engineering, and technology entrepreneurship. Their vision is to deliver a product that eliminates all unnecessary features.

Designers: Andre Youkhna and Armen Youssefian

Click Here to Buy Now: $325 $450 ($125 off, exclusive perk for YD Readers only). Hurry, only a few left!

The Minimal Phone is equipped with a high-performance MTK 6769 CPU and 4GB RAM, ensuring a smooth user experience. It has 128GB of storage space for apps and data and operates on Android 13, which features the latest security and system updates. The display is a 3.5” E-Ink touch screen with a resolution of 300 PPI and a high refresh rate for clear images and smooth transitions. It has an 8MP front camera and a 16MP rear camera for photography. The phone supports 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi Direct and Bluetooth 4.1 and is compatible with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon networks. It features a sizeable 4000mAh battery with QC 18W and wireless charging support less than 20W. The most appealing feature is the integrated tactile QWERTY keyboard.

The e-ink display of the Minimal phone offers users a comfortable, glare-free reading experience, significantly reducing eye strain even during prolonged use.

Incorporating a tactile, responsive QWERTY keyboard into a smartphone design can be complex. However, the team behind the Minimal Phone has tackled this challenge directly. The ergonomic design of the keyboard has been carefully considered to provide a comfortable user experience. The team has analyzed various factors such as keyboard layout, key size, and key travel distance to ensure they meet the expectations of a wide range of users. They understand that speed and accuracy are crucial for a satisfying typing experience, so they’ve strived to optimize these factors in the design.

The team has selected high-quality materials for the phone, considering durability and regular use over its lifespan. Recognizing the need for the keyboard to maintain its quality and responsiveness, they’ve carefully chosen the construction materials and methods. As a result, the keyboard must feel comfortable to the touch and built to last. Other standard features include NFC, GPS, A-GPS, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, face unlock, a G sensor, a compass, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, and a light sensor. Additionally, it also includes a 3.5mm headphone jack located on the top left-hand corner.

The Minimal Phone, thoughtfully designed for ease of use and comfort, measures 121 x 72 x 10mm (4.74″ x 2.83″ x 0.39″), akin to the ergonomic shape of a passport. Its well-proportioned layout makes it extremely comfortable to hold and type on the physical keyboard. The microphone at the bottom left of the device complements the central USB-C plug-in port flanked by speakers on its right. The phone’s left side hosts the volume control buttons—up and down—with an e-ink refresh button nestled between them. The power button is on the phone’s right side, just above the conveniently placed SIM card slot, contributing to a well-balanced and intuitive design. Plus, its slim profile allows it to disappear into a pair of jeans pocket or slip easily inside a suit coat.

The major advantage of the Minimal Phone is its e-ink display, which provides a reading experience that closely mimics reading from physical paper. The display uses ambient light to illuminate the text, reducing eye strain associated with backlit screens found in tablets and smartphones. Furthermore, e-ink displays are easier to read in bright sunlight, making the Minimal Phone perfect for outdoor reading. Additionally, e-ink displays consume significantly less power, leading to the Minimal Phone’s longer battery life, which is ideal for extended reading sessions.

Click Here to Buy Now: $325 $450 ($125 off, exclusive perk for YD Readers only). Hurry, only a few left!

The post Experience a combination of minimalism and productivity with an E-Ink QWERTY Minimal Phone first appeared on Yanko Design.

World’s First E-Ink Smartphone with a QWERTY Keyboard will get your eyes and hands to fall in love

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It’s like if the smartphone, Kindle, and Blackberry had a baby… and frankly, it’s gorgeous.

The Minimalist Phone stands at a rather unique junction of two trajectories – one, with smartphones getting more and more advanced, and being able to do much more than they previously did, and another, with phones that are designed to be ‘dumb-phones’ that just handle the basics, and don’t have you becoming a screen addict. Strangely enough, even though the two of them should really never have an intersection point, it seems like the Minimalist Phone IS that intersection point. It’s a unique combination of traditional smartphone features, coupled with a no-nonsense design that cuts all the clutter, but reintroduces the QWERTY keyboard, bringing a world of user-focused functionality back. And just if you’re wondering, yes, the Minimal Phone works exactly like any other smartphone – it runs Android 13, supports all your favorite apps, has a fingerprint reader, 4G LTE, and surprisingly enough, both rear and front-facing cameras so you can click color photos just like you would on a regular phone. (You’ll still need to view them in color on a regular screen though)

Oh, and it also has a 3.5mm jack.

Designers: Andre Youkhna and Armen Youssefian

Click Here to Buy Now: $325 $450 ($125 off, exclusive perk for YD Readers only). Hurry, only a few left!

“Live more. Scroll less,” say Andre Youkhna and Armen Youssefian, the folks who designed the Minimal Phone, a smartphone designed to switch the existing relationship where we’re slaves to our technological devices. Here, the smartphone empowers you, giving you the features of a phone without the layer of addictive interfaces and notifications. In essence, the Minimal Phone behaves just like your existing smartphone but has a different approach to interface, features, hardware, etc.

The e-ink display of the Minimal phone offers users a comfortable, glare-free reading experience, significantly reducing eye strain even during prolonged use.

Just like the Fairphone focuses on supply-chain transparency, the Minimal Phone focuses on a user-centric design. The device boasts a 3.5-inch-wide e-ink touchscreen that runs all your apps, lets you send/receive messages, watch videos, and even browse the internet. It has a 300PPI resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate, which even by regular OLED screen standards, is pretty impressive. However, the e-ink screen notably, trades color for high-contrast, daytime visibility, and a much longer battery life. The lack of color isn’t really a bug, but rather a feature that helps deliver information without any distractions, ensuring you use your phone for exactly what you need and don’t spend more time on it than necessary.

Under the screen lies a 43-key QWERTY keyboard that brings back the glory days of being able to type out messages without accidental presses and those godawful typos that are still a problem with touchscreen keyboards. The Minimal Phone’s QWERTY keyboard is 70mm wide, and each key has a respectable travel of 0.15mm, giving you a confident and reliable typing experience.

When you’re not typing out messages and emails (or sh*tposting on X), the phone’s touch-sensitive screen lets you easily browse the internet, use apps, and perform regular smartphone-related functions. Building on the ongoing trend of the minimal OS courtesy brands like Nothing, the one on the Minimal Phone is fairly utilitarian too, with clear text, easy-to-navigate menus, and even widgets. The only difference, however, is the landscape nature of the display, which means apps look/feel different on the Minimal Phone. Nevertheless, you can still use all your favorite Android apps like Uber, Spotify, Instagram, WhatsApp, even Maps.

Its software capabilities aside, the Minimal Phone has some impressive hardware too. Under its hood you’ve got a MediaTek 6769 processor with 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 4000mAh battery that should last up to a week on a full charge. The Minimal Phone has Bluetooth 5.0, dual-band WiFi, NFC, and 4G LTE. The phone stands at 4.7 inches tall, 2.8 inches wide, 0.39 inches (or 10mm) thick. It’s got a fingerprint reader built into the power button, a USB-C port, a single SIM tray, a 12MP main camera and an 8MP front-facing selfie-cam, and most impressively, still retains a 3.5mm aux input, quite literally giving you the best of all worlds! The Minimal Phone starts at a discounted price of $325, and is designed to be completely repairable, complying with the latest EU regulations.

Click Here to Buy Now: $325 $450 ($125 off, exclusive perk for YD Readers only). Hurry, only a few left!

The post World’s First E-Ink Smartphone with a QWERTY Keyboard will get your eyes and hands to fall in love first appeared on Yanko Design.

Clicks QWERTY keyboard iPhone case brings back the joy of typing

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Remember the days when you could swiftly type a long response on your phone in just seconds? Even if you didn’t own a BlackBerry, our amazing human brains managed to evolve to adapt to the esoteric T9 input, resulting in a flurry of thumbs hammering out text at mind-blowing speeds. Just like with pen and paper, there are benefits to having physical keys to type with, including muscle memory, accuracy, and sheer satisfaction. Those are the joys that this new case is trying to bring to the iPhone by snapping on a full yet tiny QWERTY keyboard that gives creators the power to turn text into stories, quickly and accurately.

Designers: Michael Fisher and Kevin Michaluk

Although the BlackBerry is now a footnote in history, there was a time when it was the de facto standard of productivity. It’s a bit ironic that its most iconic feature is all but a memory today when text is even more critical in mobile life. From notes to todos to captions to messages, we type plenty of text on our touchscreen smartphones, which painfully drives home the fact that these smooth, flat surfaces have terrible ergonomics and haptics for such an activity. There have been a few attempts at resurrecting the BlackBerry or at least bringing the physical QWERTY keyboard to smartphones, but Clicks is trying to differentiate itself by projecting a fun and creative character that’s more in line with today’s creators.

For one, the cases distance themselves from the drab and serious styles of business-minded BlackBerry clones by embracing colors and curves, whether it’s the yellow Bumblebee or even the gray London Sky. Perhaps to avoid any litigation like its forebears, Clicks adopts circular keys with some spacing in between, giving the keyboard a more whimsical appearance. Regardless of the design, the Clicks QWERTY case has the same mission as all other QWERTY cases before it, bringing a familiar sensation to upgrade the typing experience. Best of all, the keyboard no longer eats up half your screen, leaving room for more content.

Using the case itself is as simple as pie. You slide the iPhone in from the top, carefully align the Lightning or USB-C connector, and snap the top on. The case doesn’t have a battery of its own, which makes it lighter and cheaper, so it draws power from the iPhone itself. It does support pass-through charging so you don’t have to remove the case just to charge the iPhone. The one drawback of its simple design is that MagSafe accessories won’t stick to it, but you can still enjoy wireless charging on a flat horizontal surface.

The Clicks QWERTY keyboard case is compatible only with the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models, though their availability won’t happen all at the same time. The $139 price tag is going to be debatable, especially for those who aren’t yet convinced of the advantages of having a physical keyboard at the cost of making a tall phone even taller. But for creators who find themselves always pecking at their phone’s screen, this quirky accessory is a done deal.

The post Clicks QWERTY keyboard iPhone case brings back the joy of typing first appeared on Yanko Design.

This cute BlackBerry-like phone is something some might wish they could buy

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By now, there is only one phone design that is known to “work,” and everything else is seen to be an experiment or an exercise in failure. Once upon a time, however, there was both beauty and chaos in diversity, with a new phone shape coming out almost every month or so (yes, we’re looking at you, old Nokia!). Although the age of smartphones has made the screen-only “candy bar” form factor the sole victor, there was one design, in particular, that almost stood the test of time. That would be BlackBerry’s QWERTY phones, a design that is perhaps forever associated with being “work-minded” more than anything else. The brand might be dead, but that design continues to spark some people’s imaginations and desires, as shown by this rather adorable take on that form factor that may never come to be.

Designers: Jasper Morrison for Punkt

The history of mobile phones is almost a beautiful testament to the amazing power of the human brain to adapt. Even with a T9 keypad that was really designed for landlines, people have developed the ability to rapidly hammer out text on just 12 keys. That said, it was the introduction of a full but miniaturized keyboard that made BlackBerry devices the go-to for more business-minded people. That and the company’s much-praised suite of services, including the once might BBM or BlackBerry Messenger.

The history of that company and the brand has now become legend, but the interest in QWERTY phones, as they are called, apparently lives on. CrackBerry shared an exclusive look at one such attempt that almost revived that design, though its fate still hangs in the balance. The Punkt MC01 Legend, from a Swiss company famed for its minimalist phones, took that QWERTY idea and gave it a more modern spin that honestly deserves a chance in the market.

Compared to the last traces of BlackBerry’s QWERTY phones, the MC01 Legend has the makings of a more ergonomic and distinctly minimal design. The keys are better spaced apart for more comfortable thumb typing, and the back isn’t completely flat but rises and falls to create an angled surface that makes it easier to grip the phone while typing. Admittedly, that does make the device thicker than even the thickest phone, but it chooses to optimize for what it does best rather than look good simply for the sake of appearance.

Unfortunately, the MC01 Legend might never come to be, though Punkt hasn’t completely taken it off the table. There have been roadblocks to the device’s deployment, most of which revolved around Android being deemed unfit for both the uncommon 4:3 screen size and the company’s hardline stance on privacy. Either way, the design is definitely striking and a tiny bit adorable, especially if you’re the kind of phone user that types out messages, emails, and texts more than you watch Netflix or play Genshin Impact.

The post This cute BlackBerry-like phone is something some might wish they could buy first appeared on Yanko Design.

BlackBerry Passport 2 concept images emerge, sporting iconic physical QWERTY keyboard + a dual-lens main camera

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It seems like the ‘berry still has some juice left in it! The Passport 2 concept builds on the successful 2014 BlackBerry Passport, and does what BlackBerry does best… provide a uniquely different smartphone experience that’s characterized by that beautiful QWERTY keyboard.

For everyone who thought BlackBerry was done and dusted, 2020’s been a pretty interesting year for the company. Chinese giant TCL no longer holds the rights to manufacture BlackBerry phones, and since August of last year, the Canadian smartphone company has been partnering with American brand OnwardMobility to keep the BlackBerry name alive. While both companies have been pretty mum about what’s in the pipeline, Ts Designer and LetsGoDigital have been cooking up some concepts based on the fragments of news they’ve gathered from press releases and company statements. Meet the Passport 2, a conceptual Android-running BlackBerry phone with a 4.5-inch touchscreen display, a physical keyboard, and a 5G chip on the inside.

I have to admit that seeing a new BlackBerry does give me a bit of nostalgia. I’ve never been a fan of touchscreen keyboards, and that’s a complaint that BlackBerry and I have always had in common; although BlackBerry phones have an archetype, and it’s safe to say that the archetype isn’t really popular anymore. However, there are still probably some people who would prefer a BlackBerry in 2021, and I’d venture a guess that the Passport 2 concept is targeted firmly towards them. LetsGoDigital reports that the Passport 2 is envisioned as BlackBerry’s first 5G-ready phone, with a waterproof exterior and Android OS interior. The overall aesthetic of the phone hasn’t deviated too much from BlackBerry’s signature style, and it looks every bit like the Passport from 2014, although with a slicker design featuring a slimmer upper bezel, gold accents around the sides and the keyboard, and a nifty dual-lens camera on the back… you know, to keep the customer happy!

Sadly though, the Passport 2, as exciting as it may look, is just a fan-made concept for now. OnwardMobility and BlackBerry are definitely working on a 5G Android phone according to reports, and I’ll be pretty happy if it looks even half as good as this!

Designer: Ts Designer for LetsGoDigital

Images via LetsGoDigital

Maybe we don’t need folding displays. Maybe we just need tactile keyboards…

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Folding displays are innovation, but what positive impact do they bring to a smartphone? What does a larger screen achieve? Tablets are a dying tech category, and not many apps are optimized for a massive squarish display (Instagram still doesn’t exist for the iPad OS). The folding display only has two foreseeable benefits. Bigger screen for media (still strange, considering 16:9 media on a square screen means a waste of space), and bigger screen to facilitate multitasking.

The folding displays are still largely a ‘power flex’ (Geddit? Because they’re flexible?), designed to make phones look different and to make companies look like pioneers of innovation. The Pro1 phone by F(x)tec on the other hand, innovates by looking back at a format that has, for long, served its purpose well. The Pro1 features a sliding screen that slides sideways to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. While phones slowly and steadily become as powerful as laptops, and while people are now increasingly using phones to type out mails (I’ve typed my share of articles on my phone too), the Pro1’s tilted-screen and QWERTY keyboard build helps bring the useful format to the smartphone world. This not only helps differentiate it from the hoardes of bezel-less notch-filled smartphones, but also brings true value to it.

The Pro1 features a sliding screen that promptly angles at 155° to give you the perfect viewing angle as you type on its fully loaded QWERTY keyboard below, featuring 5 rows of keys and responsive, tactile feedback within each keystroke, an experience heavily missed after over a decade of touchscreen typing.

The Pro1 also packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, a rear dual-camera system with Sony’s IMX363 sensor (capable of recording 4K/30fps, a fingerprint sensor on the side, dual SIMs, stereo speakers, 6GB of LPDDR4 memory and a memory slot that’s expandable up to 2TB. This makes the Pro1 an extremely good featured phone, especially for its $649 price tag. Take that, over-expensive, flexible, dare-to-be-different smartphones!

Designer: F(x)tec