The new ‘world’s thinnest phone’ slots into a business card case

By Sam Byford, The Verge

Business cards are still an inescapable part of life for most Japanese workers, so it’s good to see the country’s largest carrier make the most of the situation with a phone that can fit right inside a card holder. The “card phone” KY-O1L is made by Kyocera and is coming to NTT Docomo next month.

It’s about the same footprint as a credit card, and not all that much heftier at 5.3mm thick and 47g — Docomo calls it the thinnest and lightest phone in the world. It has a 2.8-inch monochrome e-paper screen, LTE connectivity, and a 380mAh battery. There’s no camera or app store, but you do at least get a web browser that I’m sure will be a lot of fun to use on that screen.

You can see the UI in action in this video from Impress Watch:

Is this really the world’s thinnest phone? There are certainly phone makers that might claim otherwise — the 2016 Moto Z came in at just under 5.2mm thick, for example, though Docomo would no doubt point out that it was cheating by not counting the chunky camera bump. Then again, Motorola could argue that Docomo is cheating by not including a camera in the first place.

Anyway, the KY-O1L phone will cost 32,000 yen, or about $300 — a small price to pay to carry one less thing in your pocket. Maybe.