The Raspberry Pi-Powered ZeroPhone

Smartphones have undoubtedly changed our lives, hopefully for the better, and they have definitely made accessing data much simpler. On the…

Hackster Staff
7 years ago

Smartphones have undoubtedly changed our lives, hopefully for the better, and they have definitely made accessing data much simpler. On the other hand, they can certainly compromise your privacy, are generally expensive, and if you want to tinker with one, your options are severely limited.

But what if you could build your own handheld device based on the Raspberry Pi Zero? That’s the idea behind the ZeroPhone, now in the prototype phase on Hackaday.io. The phone strives to be as open-source as possible, and can be assembled for about $50 in parts — which include the SIM800L 2G module and an ESP8266 board for Wi-Fi.

Surely there are some compromises in a gadget like this, such as its rather minimal display resolution of 128x64. However, it’s really neat to see something like this start to develop, perhaps giving us another choice besides Android or iOS…

When completed, its creator “Arsenijs” says the ZeroPhone will be capable of making calls, sending texts, playing music, storing contacts, and using basic apps such as an alarm clock, calendar, and web browser. In addition to that, developers can create their own apps, conduct pentesting, and experiment with a wide range of sensor-based functions. And since it’s essentially a computer, you’ll even be able to run ARM-compatible Linux programs. You can use SSH, too.

Intrigued? Follow along with the ZeroPhone’s progress on its project page here and sign-up to be notified of when its crowdfunding campaign goes live.

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