Xun Chi 138: The world's smallest mobile phone?
We've seen some tiny mobile phones in our time, but none more so than the matchbox-sized Xun Chi 138
Taking a rare break from watching people set fire to their faces on YouTube, we stumbled across the Xun Chi 138, a mobile phone that appears to have been designed for hobbits.
Bizarrely, it doesn't have many buttons and there's no room for a keypad. This might seem like a fatal flaw in a mobile phone, but it has handwriting recognition and can be controlled by scrawling numbers and letters onto its touch-sensitive screen. There's a stylus tucked round the back, but this will inevitably get lost, so you'll probably end up using a matchstick.
As well as the ability to make calls, the Xun Chi 138 has 128MB of storage, audio playback software, GPRS and some sort of camera. It's labelled '1.3 MEGA PLIX', but we've never actually heard of a 'PLIX', so we aren't making any promises.
A marvel of engineering, or a pointless example of manufacturers buildings things simply because they can? Whatever your opinion, you probably won't get to fondle one in the flesh -- the Xun Chi 138 is unlikely to be released in territories inhabited by fat-fingered Westerners. Props to Phonedaily for the heads-up. -RR