Here we have a question. Do you miss the era of compact phones? The era when companies tried to make phones smaller instead of bigger.
Today, the most compact mobile phone that is available in the market could be the iPhone SE, with a screen size of 4″ and we are talking about a very old and obsolete mobile phone.
Well, let's look at the Rakuten Mini, which is probably the smallest and lightest mobile phone in the world.
Rakuten mini, compact in everything
Technical Specifications
While the iPhone SE has a 4″ screen, the Rakuten Mini has the size of the screen iPhone SE. It is only 53.4mm (2″) wide and weighs only 79g.
The Rakuten Mini mobile phone comes equipped with the company's original user interface, based on Android 9 Pie. Since the device is so small, it can be easily operated with one hand. The phone is only available in Japan as of now, so it comes with the "Osaifu-Keitai", which is the standard mobile payment system in Japan.
This means you can hold this device when you are at a ticket gate or want to pay in a store.
Cameras
It also includes a 16MP high resolution camera on the back to capture your everyday moments and a 5MP front camera. Surprisingly this device also comes with facial recognition to unlock the device and it is the only way to unlock the phone other than password/pin.
Now we don't know how secure it will be, but the fact that they included the technology to recognize a face is amazing.
Screen, microprocessor and more
Now let's talk about the specifications it includes. While the phone itself is 4″, it features a 3.6″ 720p display with a resolution of 1280×720. The SoC that powers this device is the 439GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 2 Octa-core. It has 3GB of RAM with a 32GB ROM.
Contains a 1250mAh battery inside to power the device and uses USB-C to charge. The company claims that it can standby for 160 hours. The device currently comes in two colors: black and white, with a red variant set to launch after April.
The Rakuten Mini is available for a price of 19,819 yen, which is about 164 euros to change. But the catch is that it's only available at Rakuten stores, all of which are located in Japan. So if you're in Japan for some reason and would love to have a compact device in this age of giant smartphones, check out the Rakuten Mini.