Zanco S-Pen is a unique smartphone: it has the shape of a pen and can be used to call but also to record secretly
Smartphones with special features in recent years we have seen many: The Motorola Flipout had two square screens on top of each other, the Touch Vertu Signature was completely covered in alligator skin and cost over eight thousand dollars, while the Nokia N-Gage was designed for video game enthusiasts. But the new Zanco S-Pen is a smartphone that has never been seen before.
The Zanco S-Pen is one of those strange devices that might appeal to 007 or another agent of MI6, the Secret Service of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom. To most normal users, however, it might seem like one of the strangest things I've ever seen. What is it? It's a mini smartphone, complete with numeric keypad, contained in the shape and size of a stylus pen. This device was born on Kickstarter, where its creators asked for $ 10,000 in funding to develop it and have collected over 67,000 thanks to a cost of just $ 49. Now the Zanco S-Pen project is about to go into production and the deliveries of the first devices purchased by the users-financiers is scheduled for April this year.
Zanco S-Pen, the features
In addition to having the functions of a smartphone (with a slot for the SIM phone) and pen, the S-Pen also integrates a microSD memory slot needed if we want to use the two built-in cameras (one front and one rear). There's even a 3.5mm headphone jack and a small screen to navigate the device's interface. It has two built-in microphones and can be used as a voice recorder. If we want to use it as Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnam, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig would do on the set, we can do that too: it's light, discreet, the cameras can't be seen if you don't observe it well and closely. If, however, we want to use it as a normal smartphone things change because in cell phones size counts. The tiny display is enough to navigate through the menus, but it is certainly not comfortable, while with the numeric keypad you can also type characters and write short texts, but no more.
However, according to its creators the Zanco S-Pen was not born to replace the smartphone but to add and integrate with it: it can be connected to the phone via Bluetooth and become an expansion of the main device (a bit like the mini smartphone Jelly Pro, to understand each other). Unfortunately, you can not install external applications and the resolution of the two cameras is very low (VGA: 640×480 pixels). Photos are downloaded via micro USB cable, the same connector used for charging the battery, which is only 400 mAh but the consumption of this device is really very low and the autonomy reaches up to six days. Thanks to the laser pointer this the Zanco S-Pen can also be used during presentations.
How much does the Zanco S-Pen cost
The device was launched on Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform at a price of $49 and shipments will start in April.