It’s a bad time and maybe also a good time to create a new smartphone. Brennan Jordan and Austin Boer are two-thirds of the trio behind the Enough Phone, a small phone that will run your choice of stock Android or the minimalist OdysseyOS. They are currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, and just one day after launching, the project is more than halfway to its $250,000 goal. The target specifications of the Enough Phone include a 5.3-inch display, a user-replaceable 3,500 mAh battery, a MediaTek Dimensity 7500 chipset, a 50-megapixel Sony sensor on the rear camera, and 8GB of RAM. The dimensions listed on the Kickstarter page suggest a size similar to that of an iPhone Mini; Jordan and Boer were also former iPhone Mini users. The two co-founded a software startup called Sleke, which sells refurbished phones loaded with OdysseyOS, their minimalist, low-distraction version of Android. Installing the software on existing phones is a win for sustainability, but it also helps them get their software to market faster, Boer tells me. The pair is offering small batches of Pixel 8 and 9 phones right now through Sleke’s website, but the large devices didn’t seem quite right to some customers. “One of the biggest things we get is, ‘I don’t want a phone that big for a minimal operating system,'” Boer says. They wanted to make a small phone and the opportunity came when Will Stults approached them with the proposal to create one. Stults operates an online store for non-smartphones called Dumbwireless. He also brings familiarity with the smartphone manufacturing process thanks to some previous work with a “big” phone brand. But hardware is difficult at the best of times, and 2026 has proven extremely challenging for phone companies large and small. The chip shortage has driven up prices and made RAM scarce. Jordan and Boer are feeling the pressures, particularly around pricing. The Kickstarter campaign offers some discounts for early backers, but after that, Enough Phone will sell for $599. “We don’t want to charge as much as we do now,” says Boer, “but as a startup you can only do so much.” They are a self-funded operation and want to keep it that way, he says, so they can choose their own priorities. External funding would change the dynamic and could pressure them to shorten the promised five years of software support or reduce other costs. As it stands, the project is going according to plan. According to the Kickstarter page, it’s in the production tooling phase, with plans to ship phones to customers in May 2027, although a footnote says that the “ripple effects of RAM shortages across the electronics manufacturing industry” could still complicate things. Boer sees this gap as an opportunity, even in the midst of a global AMR crisis. “No one was doing it, and we’re looking at why, because it’s not the ideal time to start. But that also makes it the ideal time to start, because no one else is doing it,” he says. “Let’s do it ourselves.” That’s enough. At least that’s what they hope.
