Meet Zanco tiny t1, the ‘world’s smallest phone’, even smaller than your credit card

Tiny t1 is a fully functional 2G phone that you can use for calling and texting.

tiny t1 next to a smartphone. (Clubit New Media/Kickstarter)

Over the years, we have seen phone makers try out different shapes for the calling machines, ranging from flip-phones, phablets with screen sizes 6 inches and bigger, to 5.5-mm ultra slim phones. As modern smartphones are more or less settling in for the 5-6 inch edge-to-edge screen size, a UK company is running a Kickstarter campaign for what it claims to be the world's smallest mobile phone.

Called "Zanco Tiny t1", the phone has been developed by Clubit New Media, an 18-year-old company involved in retail and wholesale distribution of video games, collectibles, novelty gifts and gadgets.

Tiny t1 is smaller than a credit card and just bigger than a £2 coin. The company on its Kickstarter page says the phone could be used as a backup phone, and is "perfect for joggers, runners, walkers, cyclists and those who take part in extreme sports because it's so compact it can go in any-size pocket."

While Tiny t1 is a fully functional mobile phone, it's not a smartphone but a feature phone with a candy bar form factor. It operates on the dated 2G network and comes with a 200mAh battery that is said to deliver three days of standby and 180 minutes talk time.

Zanco tiny t1 next to a £2 coin and keyring. (Clubit New Media/Kickstarter)

Zanco tiny t1 next to a £2 coin and keyring. (Clubit New Media/Kickstarter)

Tiny t1 measures 46.7mm x 21mm x 12mm and weighs merely 13 grams. It has 0.49-inch OLED screen with 64 x 32 pixels resolution and comes with 32GB of built-in storage. Other key features of the phone include nano-SIM card slot, backlit T9 keypad, microUSB and Bluetooth. It supports up to 300 phonebook memory and 50 SMS messages.

That said, Tiny t1 is still a Kickstarter campaign, and will be only funded if it reaches its goal of $33,480 by January 19, 2018, which seems highly likely as the company has already hit $24,419. Customers who pledge about $40 (₹2,563 approximately) will get one unit of the phone by May 2018 "anywhere in the world".

While tiny t1 may be the world's smallest mobile phone and still a kickstarter project, you can grab a similar tiny functional phone in India as well. A Delhi-based e-commerce platform Yerha.com last month launched a Nanophone C, which was touted as the world's smallest GSM phone.

Priced at ₹2,999, the phone measures 94.4 x 35.85 x 7.6mm and weighs 30 grams and sports a feature phone-like design with a 1-inch TFT display of 128x96 pixels resolution. It runs on MediaTek MT6261D processor and has 32MB storage and supports additional storage up to 32GB via a microSD card. Nanophone C is powered by a 280 mAh Li-Polymer battery.