I’ve been following the Minimal Phone since its initial crowdfunding days. The first iteration had the right idea trapped inside the wrong body, I’d say. Plastic build, no 5G, an underwhelming camera, and e-paper ghosting that frustrated early adopters; all these issues kept the phone from reaching a wider audience.

Now, founder Armen Youssefian has posted what appears to be a 360-degree render of the Minimal Phone 2 on X, and from what I can see, the team has done its homework.

What do the renders actually reveal about the MP02’s design?

Quite a bit, actually. The phone will be available in two colors: a clean silver and a matte black. To me, the MP02 immediately looks like a more premium device. The rounded corners and the polished metallic frame running around the display give it that iPhone 5s energy, though it’s a bit wider.

Flip it over, and you get a minimal back panel with a single camera and the Minimal Company’s signature dot logo at the bottom right. No camera bump, no cluttered array, just clean, intentional design.

Up front, the iconic full QWERTY keyboard returns, which is visibly refined from the original’s 35-key layout. The keyboard section appears to sit in a slightly recessed area, which yet again reminds me of another classic: the BlackBerry phones.

Is the MP02 actually getting 5G this time?

Minimal Company’s co-founder Andre Youssefian also teased the next Minimal Phone on X, calling it the “world’s smallest 5G QWERTY physical keyboard phone.” That confirms the arrival of 5G cellular connectivity on the device, one of the biggest complaints surrounding the original model.

However, neither co-founder has revealed any other specifications of the Minimal Phone 2 yet. An early-access waitlist is live on the company’s official website; that’s currently the only concrete commitment the company has made, though. That’s why I’d move ahead with cautious optimism.

What Minimal Phone 2 could do differently is bring genuine Android utility to that space in a premium package. I’d say that the design ambition is there, but it will be the specs that decide whether the execution follows.