Ditching its clunky E Ink screen, the Minimal Phone 2 packs a 3.92-inch 90Hz AMOLED display, tactile QWERTY keyboard, and punchy 5G specs into a sleeker aluminum body. The original's E Ink panel caused ghosting and sluggish animations, so the company swapped it for an AMOLED. Founder Armen Youssefian hinted at the overhaul on X.

The physical keyboard survives with backlighting and remappable shortcuts. The design changes from boxy to curved aluminum.\n\nUnder the hood, a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 with 8GB RAM and up to 512GB storage powers the device. It also features a physical mute switch, NFC, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The company turned to Kickstarter after opening a waitlist; the campaign has raised over $650,000 from more than 1,000 backers, confirming production.\n\nThe big question: Does an AMOLED screen on a 'minimal' phone defeat its purpose or finally make the QWERTY-powered experience usable daily? We'll see at launch, but for those wanting a modern BlackBerry-like device without E Ink compromise, this could be the answer.