Minimal Phone 2 brings back the physical keyboard to fight screen addiction
The Minimal Company has unveiled the Minimal Phone 2, a compact Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, a 4-inch OLED display, and a focus-first operating system called Minimal OS. Priced from $599 and shipping in December 2026, it aims to reduce screen time with features like grayscale mode, app limits, and a notification LED. It runs full Android with Google services, but an official de-Googled ROM will also be available.
the average person will spend 0 years of their life looking down at a screen. endless feeds, alerts and algorithms are built to keep you there — long after there is anything left to see.
- zeumo
It's kind of cool, I like that there are people trying to do something else, but I don't how it's "minimal" or discourages heavy use.
It's an Android phone, with pretty decent specs. Nothing is stopping you from installing social media apps and doomscrolling all day and night, and chances are you will do that if that's what you do with your phone, just as you can just delete social media apps from your current phone.
The custom UI and physical keyboard are innovative though, I don't think I've seen a physical keyboard with touch support before, and I wish them the best.
- panja
I just wish I could get an answer from them on why a brand new phone is missing some pretty important LTE/5G bands in the US
- wuhhh
I would like more information on what Degoogled means and whether it’s still possible to install 3rd party apps by some other means. Nice looking device, I expected it to cost more. Also, does this only work in the US rn?
- reacharavindh
The single input box with different prefixes for actions - @people, #call, - todo etc is very nice. I wish I could have such a powerful input box in my Home Screen. iPhone or even a trimmed down android with such an interface would be cool.
I’m not a fan of the physical keyboard, the broad shape(they say one handed use immediately followed by a video of someone using both hands to type). I’m okay with the candy bar all screen phones of today. The UX is pretty cool if I can have it on my “regular” phone..
Anybody have an idea if it is doable on an iPhone or an android phone?
- FinnLobsien
This is great. I really like the “dumb phone” movement.
Sadly for now they’re too expensive to buy just as an experiment.