If your smartphone makes you feel like you’re using the exact same device as everyone else, the Sidephone SP-01 might intrigue you. Here, no large screen, no ultra-optimized triple photo sensor, no chips that heat up the test benches. The SP-01 is a small 2.8-inch phone, running Android AOSP (without Google apps or services), with 4G, USB-C and a “2000s-style” camera.
Change personality and keyboard
The real twist is this magnetic keyboard that you remove like a Lego to put something else in its place: remappable T9 keyboard, iPod-style wheel (soberly called “Sundial”), controller buttons, icon pad… The team is determined to invent all the possible ways to press something to write a message. “ The Sidephone can become whatever you want it to be », repeat the creators. It’s a bit like a Swiss army knife, but a telephone version.
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No Google Play, but a small selection of essential apps (WhatsApp, Apple Music, Uber), and the possibility of installing your favorite APKs, within the limits of what works without Google Services. All with an announced autonomy of up to eight days in quiet mode. The SP-01 is clearly aimed at those who want to take it easy on notifications, or simply rediscover the raw joy of a physical keyboard.
Another particularity: behind this phone, no multi-billion dollar company. Just a few enthusiasts who tell almost everything on Reddit and YouTube. Successes, crashes, prototypes that work half-heartedly… it’s all there. “ I prefer to see problems shared rather than hidden », Explains one of the developers. Garage atmosphere, in short.
Co-founders Chris Ristovski and Sebastian Snell are joined by Laurent Le Pen, the French designer of Omate watches, who oversees production in Shenzhen, China. The first delivery, originally expected for summer 2025, slipped to January 2026. And for this first tour, there will only be 1,000 devices, at a unit Price of $250 for pre-order ($300 thereafter).
The smartphone market increasingly resembles a line of clones that change color every twelve months. The SP-01 brings something missing: a little daring and fun. And above all, it shows itself naked: we see the production live, the failures, the small victories. No big mysterious campaign, no AI-generated concept art, just a project moving forward with its imperfections.
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