This crowdfunded E Ink QWERTY phone isn’t vaporware after all

When the Minimal Phone was first announced this time last year, you might have been forgiven for thinking it was vaporware. But one year — and many delays — later, the world’s first Android phone with both an E Ink display and a physical QWERTY keyboard has begun shipping to backers.

In broad strokes, the Minimal Phone looks a bit like a BlackBerry, with a wide body and a squat screen perched above its streamlined QWERTY keyboard. We’ve seen phones like this before. What makes it stand out is the screen itself, which is a monochrome E Ink panel at a whopping 600 x 800 resolution.

Despite using E Ink tech, the Minimal Phone runs Android 14, so the only apps you’re giving up are those that really can’t run on the sluggish display and basic hardware — you won’t be popping many headshots in CoD: Mobile, I fear. Access to all your Android apps might put the lie to Minimal Company’s promise of a “distraction-free” phone, but the company suggests that the E Ink panel still “encourages you to use them more mindfully.” On the smartphone-sized Boox Palma e-reader we found most Android apps “just awful to use,” which proved a neat way of removing their temptation to distract, so the company might be right after all.

While the phone is basic in a few other ways — its 16 megapixel camera looks unlikely to impress, and it’s limited to 4G LTE connections — it packs a few unexpected perks too. NFC payments, a fingerprint sensor, and Qi wireless charging are all supported, and the inclusion of dual-SIM support, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and expandable storage ticks off most of the old-school smartphone nerd wishlist.

Originally set to ship to Indiegogo backers in August 2024, the Minimal Phone slipped to September, then December, and finally started heading out last week. The company says it’s shipping phones in the order they were purchased, running “from now until March.” You can also order the phone now for delivery in March, starting at $399, a $100 discount on the official retail price.

Its chief competition comes from TCL, whose Nxtpaper phones deliver a regular Android phone experience with the option to flip a switch and enable an E Ink-like monochrome mode. There’s no physical keyboard though, so unless Clicks keyboard cases expand to fit more phones, the Minimal Phone is the only game in town for those who demand QWERTY and E Ink in the same handset.