A look at the world’s smallest phone and its features

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

In a world driven by perpetual advancement of phone technology, the newly proposed tiny t1 by Zanko is leading mobile phones down a completely different path. Smartphones keep increasing in size, but tiny t1 is smaller than your thumb, lighter than a coin, and still operates as a fully functional phone. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter in 2017, this meager new phone is going to be brought to available markets soon.

Zanco’s tiny t1 is the smallest phone in the world. Image source: Kickstarter.

Possessing a plethora of features, the tiny t1 has the ability to talk and text and the handiness of being irregularly small. Even with its abnormal size, it’s still extremely appealing to a large portion of smartphone users and is potentially super useful for joggers, hikers, or anyone who wants to carry a low-weight, emergency pocket-phone around. You could also benefit from the smallest phone in the world if you happen to find yourself on the wrong side of town with a bulky $800 smartphone.

The tiny t1 comes equipped with a surprisingly powerful 200-mAh battery that can last up to three days in idle mode and approximately three hours of continuous talk use. These are pretty good figures, considering that you can charge the micro-battery completely full in less than an hour with a conventional micro-USB charger. It also has the ability to store 300 contacts and up to 50 text messages utilizing only a nano SIM card, which are numbers to be scoffed at compared to conventional phone’s storage capabilities but are enough for a discrete secondary phone.

The phone presently works only with the outdated 2G data networks, which are currently being phased out of use in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and parts of Europe and Asia. Despite that drawback, it still raised over $169,000 on Kickstarter from over 2,000 backers. It does however, have over a dozen different voices to choose from contained on a built-in voice-changing program, which is a feature that might appeal to those who like to play pranks on others.

Despite its obvious advantages and disadvantages over a traditional smartphone, the Zanco tiny t1 is not expected or intended to replace them. The tiny t1 is solely designed to be used in places where you would not want to risk bringing your expensive phone to or a lifesaver if you lost your luggage and only have left what was in your pockets. If you are anything like me, falling into unfortunate circumstances like these more than you care to, having a backup phone that does not occupy more space than your finger would come in handy. Just keep a close eye on it, or use a lanyard, because the tiny t1 is one of those items that could fall into the seat of your couch, never to be seen again.