The Jelly smartphone is the world's smallest handset to support 4G internet speeds and it's amazingly tiny, but arguably potent for its category.
The current trend might be about increasingly bigger smartphones with huge displays, but that's the opposite of the minuscule Jelly that sports a 2.45-inch screen.
Jelly blazed through its initial Kickstarter goals in no time and it's now on Indiegogo InDemand to expand its already impressive network of supporters before it starts shipping next month. It's fully funded and fully capable, so why has this tiny, tiny smartphone gained so much interest that it raised $1,499,283 USD so far?
The little Jelly smartphone starts at $79 and it comes in two variants - the regular model with 8 GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM, and a more powerful Jelly Pro version with 16 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM. The rest of the specifications, as well as the design and software, are the same for both variants. I've spent the past week with the Jelly Pro, trying to use it as my main smartphone as much as possible. I expected a more cumbersome and sluggish experience considering the Jelly's size and entry-level category, but I was pleasantly surprised. Here's the deal.
Jelly Smartphone Design
The first thing that strikes you about the Jelly smartphone is its design and, implicitly, its size. It definitely stands out because it's a fraction of the size of current smartphones, but otherwise its design is pretty basic and unimpressive - as expected for a budget handset. It has a glossy plastic build that can be slippery at times, but being so tiny makes the Jelly easy to use one-handedly and slip even into the smallest pockets.
That said, the miniature design does come with its drawbacks and those with larger hands might have trouble operating the smartphone especially when it comes to typing. A third-party keyboard such as SwiftKey does make things easier, particularly for those who don't mind typing by swiping, but it's still difficult to have a conversation. The keyboard also takes up roughly half of the screen even if you select the smallest layout, so you won't see much content on the display while you're typing.
While in the design department, it's also worth noting that unlike many current smartphones that come with a unibody design, Unihertz designed the Jelly smartphone with a removable back and battery. Once you pry it open and remove the rear cover, you'll see two SIM card slots and a microSD slot, which is not too shabby for a cheap entry-level phone.
