Miss the days when cell phones were too big for your pocket? Here's your answer

By Jon Martindale November 4, 2016

Rotary Cell Phone Prototype

If you don’t feel quite hipster enough with your beard, eyepatch and snowshoes, you might consider changing up your fancy smartphone for a rotary. Currently, there may be only one in the world too, so you would certainly be unique. You will have to pry it from the hands of its creator, though.

YouTube video and hardware maker, Mr. Volt, showed off a bizarre amalgamation of 20th-centuryy technologies into one, giving him a mobile phone that can call people and text them while making the process much more laborious than it might otherwise be.

The phone has a rotary dial for selecting numbers and making calls, a satisfyingly chunky power button, a big red cancel switch, a memory function, micro-display and oddly enough, a built-in radio too. The case is made of wood and plastic and features a clear window on the rear for looking at the internal dial.

Calling works as you might expect, but texting requires scrolling through individual letters to make up words. You can save particular words or phrases to memory to speed things up, but if you were looking for convenience, this is the wrong device.

It is a very chunky, very retro piece of tech. While it is technically portable given it’s not tethered, it is hardly the kind of device you can slip in your pocket. You can guarantee it is more robust than your latest glass-backed smartphone, though.

The charge should last a long time too. Powered by micro-USB connection, you can even make the whole thing last a bit longer using sleep mode.

If you would like to go about making one of your own of these rotary handsets, Mr. Volt gives details of the internals too. It is built upon a Fona Feather board, which is Arduino-compatible and has a built-in GSM modem too.

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