The Carbon 1 MK II is a light, thin smartphone made from carbon fibre – but is it such a big deal?

Today in London, a new phone was launched that seeks to address the issue of new smartphones getting ever heavier and bulkier.

The 4G Carbon 1 MK II, from Carbon Mobile, uses ‘Advanced materials technology’ and ‘Cutting-edge design’ to re-ignite the miniaturisation in mobile.

That’s all taken from the press release, as you might have gathered.

So what does this actually mean in reality?

Well, it means they’ve built a MediaTek P90 powered phone, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, packed into a chassis that measures 153.5x74x6.3mm and weighs just 125g.

There’s a 6.01-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080×2160 pixels, a 3,050mAh battery, and a 16-megapixel dual camera setup on the rear, and a 20-megapixel camera up front.

In terms of specs, this isn’t a heavy hitter – despite the €800 asking price.

Specifications (from Carbon Mobile)

As you can see from the above, there’s Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5, USB-C, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and a hybrid dual SIM tray that can take two nano SIMs or a nano SIM and microSDXH card for additional storage.

Pricing and Availability

All in all, the phone is all about the look and feel. If that’s a big thing for you then fine – but I suspect it’s going to appeal to a very small market.

Perhaps this is why the website only shows 2,000 for sale initially, and is taking sales in much the same way as a Kickstarter campaign. A 25% payment will be required to secure the phone that should be shipping in June, whereby the final 75% payment will be made 15 days before delivery commences.

Further information can be found on the Carbon Mobile website.