We are Will, Austin, & Brennan. After years of watching phones get bigger and bigger, with almost no small phones available, we decided to create a premium, small smartphone!
We're making a phone that:
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is comfortable to use with one hand
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Roughly @ 5.3” diagonal screen length, 5.2” height, 2.5” width
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is built with premium components
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has a good battery life
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takes great photos
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doesn't cost a gazillion dollars
Once we decided to make the phone, we sought out a quality manufacturing partner, met them at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, and drafted a specification that got us excited.
This May, we traveled to Shenzhen to visit the manufacturer's factory and offices. While there, we visited additional factories to ensure we picked the best possible partner. We narrowed a list of ~20 potential manufacturers down to five. We budgeted two weeks to visit every factory, but we managed to fit in all the visits in a week.
At each factory we met with general managers, production line managers, engineering teams, and sales teams. We toured their production lines, offices, and fulfillment centers. We learned a lot about producing electronics, and even more about what makes a great partner.
The manufacturer we originally met at CES stood out from the rest.
- Their production line had advanced tracking and tightly segmented responsibilities at each step (more visibility than any other factory we toured).
- Their facility had clean separation between work areas, changing rooms, and a proper break room for employees (also not something we saw elsewhere).
- The components they use in their products were labeled and stored according to the results of the parts' quality testing, ensuring no defective units make it to the line.
- Their testing room and QA lines were well organized and thoroughly equipped.
- When we worked through the final spec together, they brought in the heads of engineering, design, and software to ensure our questions were answered and we settled on a specification realistic to all teams involved in the project.
Their transparency and willingness to collaborate convinced us we'd found the right partner. After many rounds of revisions, we've locked in the spec and kicked off R&D in June!
Timeline
Note: The following are conservative, best-guess estimates based on the most-likely scenario. The memory shortage caused by the boom in AI investment has not only affected lead times for components, but has also made ripple effects across the entire electronics manufacturing industry. We feel confident in our timeline, but in the interest of transparency, the following figures are subject to change pending unforeseen circumstances.
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July, 2026: ID Design created
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August, 2026: Dummy prototype created
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December, 2026: R&D complete, working samples delivered
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March, 2027: Production begins
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April, 2027: Shipping begins
We need your help!!!
We come from two small companies with real experience in the smartphone industry: Dumbwireless and SLEKE. We are confident in our ability to execute, but we can't fund production entirely on our own.
Our plan:
Build a list of motivated buyers, keep everyone updated through development, and launch a Kickstarter to place the bulk order. We need 2,000+ people on board to make this happen.
If you want a small, premium Android phone to actually exist, sign up at enoughphone.com and tell your friends. This only gets built if we do it together!
P.S.,
Check out the video we made about our experience touring factories!