Graphic designers, Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang have created a slim, credit card-sized phone designed with a battery that lasts for up to 20 days.
They call it the Light phone and it’s everything a smartphone is not; it’s dumb. Basically, it does nothing other than make and receive calls with a price tag of $100 (20,000 naira).
The phone has no browser, NFC, games or other features available on a smartphone, and could be a bit pricey at $100 dollars, but a battery that pretty much lasts forever is definitely a worthy tradeoff.
The phone is a prepaid GSM cell phone that works independent of a user’s carrier. It comes preloaded with minutes, a SIM card and an app to use with an existing phone.
The light phone can work by itself or can be tethered to another phone - a user’s primary phone - to receive calls when the battery on the primary phones runs out.
The developers are still crowdfunding on Kickstarter and are looking to begin shipping by 2016.
The developers are also considering shipping internationally.
“We’re happy to ship the phone internationally, however, we cannot provide SIM cards, prepaid minutes or power adapters… the phone uses a 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM and it’s your responsibility to make sure your local carrier can support the phone.”
Joe and Kaiwei, met each other during a 30-week experimental incubator programme for designers organised by Google.