Raymond Wong

Design

World's first carbon fiber phone is thin enough to cut cake with

The Carbon 1 Mark II is billed as the world's first phone with a carbon fiber body. It means the phone is super thin and light, but how much is that worth to you?

About a year ago, before the pandemic (remember those days?), a German company called Carbon announced the Carbon 1 MK II, a phone made of carbon fiber. The Carbon 1 MK II was touted as the thinnest and lightest phone in the world.

Carbon

2020 came and the phone never launched. Carbon now says the phone's launching at the end of March.

6.3mm

The thickness of the Carbon 1 MK II.

At 7.4mm, the iPhone 12 Pro is a thiccc boy in comparison.

Raymond Wong / Input

125g

How much the Carbon 1 MK II weighs.

Carbon

There's nothing remarkable about the Carbon 1 MK II except its carbon fiber design. As you may know, carbon fiber is well known for its thinness, lightness, and strength. The trade-off is that carbon fiber usually doesn't play nice with cellular and wireless connectivity.

Carbon

Carbon claims it's solved any wireless issues. Pity the Carbon 1 MK II only supports 4G LTE and not 5G, though.

THE SPECS:

• 6-inch AMOLED (2,160 x 1,080)

• MediaTek Helio P90 CPU

• 8GB of RAM

• 256GB of storage

• 3,000 mAh battery

• 20MP f/2.2 camera with EIS (no OIS)

• 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera

• Side-mounted fingerprint reader

• 2x nano SIM cards or 1x nano SIM + microSD card slot

€799

Or about $962. Yikes...

I've said before that the design pendulum needs to swing away from glass and metal. A carbon fiber phone sounds attractive. But there's no denying that its specs are all terribly outdated.

The Carbon 1 MK II's other big sell is sustainability. With less than 5 percent plastic, Carbon's hoping eco-conscious buyers will appreciate the phone. However, it doesn't help that the phone's only going to be available in Europe, and limited to a few countries at that.

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