
The mystery of the power bank phone taking over Ghana - donohoe
http://qz.com/411330/the-mystery-of-the-power-bank-phone-taking-over-ghana/
======
userbinator
This is likely a truly unbranded OEM feature phone based on a Mediatek or
Spreadtrum reference platform. Resellers then add their own branding to it.

I couldn't find that exact one but a bit of searching turns up similar models:

[http://www.aliexpress.com/item/9000mAh-long-standby-power-
ba...](http://www.aliexpress.com/item/9000mAh-long-standby-power-bank-torch-
TV-FM-voice-king-Vibration-Dual-SIM-cards-waterproof-cell/32303218550.html)

[http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Original-H-
mobile-X8-4...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Original-H-
mobile-X8-4-SIM_60202719353.html)

[http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Original-
Xiaocai-X6-...](http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Original-
Xiaocai-X6-Phone-With-Power-Bank-Dual-SIM-Card-Senior-Flashlight-Big-
Speaker-1-8Inch/302720_32217997305.html)

It is a bit surprising at first to see such enormous feature phones still in
mass production, but it makes sense that the conditions in developing
countries would favour more rugged designs and versatile physical features; in
that environment a thin touchscreen smartphone made of mostly glass and metal
would be an overly fragile piece of kit with little advantage.

~~~
solidpy
The main reason to use feature phones in my developing country is that they
are not worth stealing.

~~~
ThomPete
Is this something you have sources on or just an opinion? Would be interested
in knowing.

~~~
vorbote
Hmmm... Very uninformed of you.

Just walk into an alley at night in Manhattan or Chicago or Boston or Los
Angeles or (surprise!) San Franciso and you'll know... Seriously, read the
newspapers of any more or less poor third world country and you will find many
notes about people mugged and killed, stabbed or shot to death, to steal them
some US$75 chinese MediaTek shitphone you can find in Amazon.

I'll give you some newspapers in Latin American cities that range from 6 to 25
million inhabitans:

[http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/](http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/)

[http://www.eluniversal.com/](http://www.eluniversal.com/)

[http://www.clarin.com/](http://www.clarin.com/)

[http://www.eltiempo.com/](http://www.eltiempo.com/)

[http://oblobo.globo.com/](http://oblobo.globo.com/)

[http://www.folha.com/](http://www.folha.com/)

As always, Google Translate is your friend.

~~~
ThomPete
I live in New York and I don't experience what you claimed but we arent
talking about the west as far as I can tell.

I am still trying to figure out if that is actually the reason or just an
opinion. The links didn't provide info about that but thanks for trying.

------
plorg
Only partially related, but I have a friend who carries around a comically-
large 14000 mAh battery[0]. Comically large as in about the size of three or
four iPhone 6s's stacked on top of each other - he wore it on a belt clip.

My other friends and I made fun of him. He always had his ridiculously large,
power-guzzling phone plugged into it. But he insisted that he had it because
it could jump-start a car (he's a mechanic, but with no formal training and
only a high school education, and he said he had never used the device
himself). I and another friend, me with a masters degree in electrical
engineering, and he with a PhD in an engineering field, thought the idea
preposterous: Surely one could not draw enough cranking amps from such a
device to start a car, and could it even hold enough energy to do so?

I received, by way of my own carelessness, an opportunity to test this out
when I found my car's battery dead one day in the middle of winter. My friend
lent me his battery pack, and I set it up, leaving it connected to the car's
battery for 30 seconds before attempting to start the car. Lo and behold, the
car started.

I felt chagrined, but I also thought this was really cool. With the price and
availability of lithium batteries as they are, why _should_ you need a 50-100
lb lead-acid battery to jump start a car?

Also, maybe I should learn a little more about cars.

[0] I couldn't find the Amazon listing back, but this is in the same product
category:
[http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00D42AFS8](http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00D42AFS8)

~~~
semi-extrinsic
On a car (at least an old one) the ridiculously robust lead-acid battery is
used also to filter out spikes and to act as a voltage regulator. If you've
ever wondered why the headlamps on a kick-start moped flicker while idling,
that's what you get without using batteries as a filter. Li-ion wouldn't
survive very long in this application AFAIK.

~~~
bri3d
There are plenty of replacement LiFePO4 auto batteries available, and they
work very well without needing much in the way of support circuitry. I think
that it's mostly cost keeping lead-acid around (as well as operating
temperature range and lifetime), not that nothing is suitable for the
application.

The headlamps on a moped probably flicker because it uses a magneto instead of
an alternator as its power source.

~~~
LeUsername
Can't comment about mopeds, but in car, when your battery nears the end of its
life, when you turn the steering wheel (with electric power steering) while
stationary, headlights dim for a short moment until the alternator increases
its output.

------
jdmitch
I just got back from Ghana, where I was evaluating an ICT in education
project, and one of the people on the team that was implementing the project
had this phone. At first I thought he just had an old phone, then I learned he
had downgraded from a smartphone. Then I thought maybe he was doing it for
ironic retro style points (which is not really "a thing" in rural northern
Ghana in the way it is in London or New York). He did acknowledge a certain
smugness about the "anti-style." At the end of the day, it seemed like the
practical durability and the long battery life were the clinchers for his
decision to "downgrade".

~~~
keithpeter
What was the call quality like? I'd imagine fairly good simply from the better
microphone placement given the size of the thing.

PS: My old Blackberry can do 2.5+ days on a charge since I mashed the earphone
socket and can't use it to listen to music. The music application seems to
drain the battery for some reason.

------
mangecoeur
Batteries that last a week would be nice in current markets too! Not just
emerging ones.

I personally still don't understand how flagship phones costing $100s barely
make it through the day but still get rave reviews. I can't count the number
of times Galaxy and iphone touting friends have become unreachable in the
evenings because of this - I would have trashed those in a review, who cares
about fancy features if you can't even call your friends on a night out
because the battery doesn't make it past 10pm...

~~~
abalone
Quite simply because longer-life phones would get trashed even more for not
having the features they traded to get longer battery life.

Imagine what the reviews would be if the next iPhone is twice as thick and
double the weight. That it goes 3 days without a charge for most people would
be a footnote to an otherwise poor review.

~~~
hirsin
The irony of course is that after the Apple engineering team spends months
trimming off that extra millimeter of thickness, most of their users still go
out and get an otterbox that triples the thickness.

Of course, even if they designed an iPhone only twice as thick with triple the
battery life and no need for a case, it would still be panned.

~~~
baddox
That's not really irony, is it? A thinner phone in an Otterbox is still
thinner than a thicker phone in an Otterbox. Also, there are plenty of people
(myself included) who do not use cases, and instead prevent their phones from
being damaged by not dropping them. I suspect that "most users" do not use a
case anywhere near the thickness of an Otterbox.

~~~
jakobegger
Also, the lower weight makes the phone more resilient to drops. Anecdotal
evidence: I've never seen a cracked iPhone 5, but cracked iPhone 4's were
common.

Less volume means less mass, which means less kinetic energy that must be
absorbed by the frame when dropped on the floor.

Thin and light phones don't need a protective case like thick and heavy phones
do.

~~~
Spooky23
iPhone 6 models in my workplace (sample size 2000/12000) are about 4x more
likely to break than 5/5s models.

~~~
jakobegger
Interesting. I remember people complaining that the iPhone 6 was slippery, and
of course it is heavier than the 5/5s. Do you also have numbers for 4/4s and 6
vs. 6 plus?

~~~
Spooky23
We don't have a lot of 6+. We may deploy more later as iPad Minis age out.
FWIW, I dropped mine from a belt clip to the pavement and it shattered -- my
first dead iPhone ever, and I've dropped my phones dozens of times from the
3gs up.

5/5s was better than 4/4s, but not dramatically so.

------
jtchang
Can we talk about the Nokia 8210 candybar phones? Circa 1999 this thing was
indestructible and had battery life that would probably outlast 3-4 iPhones.

I think there is a market for these types of phones again. Even if it was ugly
it was durable and functional. There is definitely a market for a phone that
can be dropped and still function.

~~~
mturmon
I get nostalgic for my HP-41CV RPN programmable calculator. It had a printer
as a peripheral! And a magnetic card reader, and an optical wand. It's a
totemic device for me.

But I don't think there is a market for either my old calculator, or candy bar
phones, outside of nostalgic ebay purchases.

~~~
keithpeter
I take your point on the calculator, but as others have mentioned, the Nokia
branded candybar phones of current production are doing rather well actually.
People are buying them.

------
moron4hire
>> "Has built-in FM radio"

Technically, your phone does, too, but access to it has been blocked.

[http://freeradioonmyphone.org/](http://freeradioonmyphone.org/)

~~~
Piskvorrr
Technically, all of my smartphones so far have a working FM radio app
preinstalled (I'm in EU). Is this block some US thing?

~~~
userbinator
According to that link:

 _wireless carriers are dragging their feet and won’t activate the FM chips
that are in every smartphone_

So it's probably something similar to SIM-locking, and what happens if you buy
a phone from a carrier.

My experience has been the same with Asian no-name smartphones, in that they
all come unlocked and with FM radio. The reference platform has the feature,
and the manufacturers wouldn't bother removing it because doing so would mean
extra work and one less bullet-point in the feature list.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Aha, thanks for the explanation.

------
guelo
One of the confusing things to me about the apparently competitive smartphone
market is how little creativity there is in smartphone design. Why do we only
get thin rounded rectangles? Seems like there would be a market everywhere for
big thick indestructible smartphones.

~~~
nodata
Because it didn't really work out:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7600](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7600)

[http://www.slipperybrick.com/2009/12/starfish-diamond-
cell-p...](http://www.slipperybrick.com/2009/12/starfish-diamond-cell-phone/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3600/3650](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_3600/3650)

[http://www.gsmarena.com/toshiba_g450-2237.php](http://www.gsmarena.com/toshiba_g450-2237.php)

~~~
bodo352
I worked on Siemens' Xelibri
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xelibri](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xelibri))
brand of phones. The problem was the lack of usability studies or real
technical innovation. We basically chopped up existing Siemens models and
tried to squeeze them in a "cool" looking housing without causing to much
retooling for the manufacturing people.

Many of the examples you listed did the same. Different for the sake of being
different doesn't work out.

------
morganvachon
BLU is making a smartphone with a similar feature, the BLU Studio Energy. It's
a large Android phone with a 5,000 mAh battery and it's designed to be used as
a power bank for other phones.

[http://www.bluproducts.com/index.php/studio-
energy](http://www.bluproducts.com/index.php/studio-energy)

I've used a BLU phone before (the recently released Win HD LTE) and I wasn't
impressed with the build quality; my phone suffered severe touch lag and an
inexplicable lack of multi-touch capability, to the point that typing was
impossible. It also suffered frequent stuttering and crashes that even my old
Lumia 521 didn't have. I promptly returned it and went back to using Android
for the time being, and now I'd hesitate to get another BLU. But the Energy
does look like a nice concept.

------
hazz
This is a repost, original article here: [https://medium.com/product-
notes/the-mystery-of-the-power-ba...](https://medium.com/product-notes/the-
mystery-of-the-power-bank-phone-taking-over-accra-344adbb56919)

------
nickysielicki
I recently got rid of my Moto G in exchange for a $20 Nokia 208.

It's been great. I can still call or text my friends when we're out and need
to find each other. I'm not reading reddit everywhere I go. I can still do USB
tethering with my laptop. It has an MP3 player built in, as well as a radio.
It even has Opera Mini, which does well in a pinch for settling bets via
wikipedia. The only thing I really miss is maps.

But by far, the best part has been that it simply doesn't die. I charge it
about every 4 days. It charges in an hour or less.

------
shubhamjain
I think being a power bank + a phone is the major reason why it is getting so
much attention - "Hey, I ought to buy a power bank, so why not this one which
will give phone features too." Considering that the cost of this phone is
almost equal to a good power bank, people would definitely chose this over
others. I think this is an awesome example of giving something + some
additional features equating to viral growth, even if the other features are
not that good.

Do we have an equivalent of that in software world?

------
TrevorJ
I remember ten or so years ago being in Ghana and being amazed that after
driving 3 hours to a remote village, the residents had better cell coverage
than I had oftentimes stateside.

~~~
vollmond
I worked with a guy from 2006-2009 who was retired USNavy. He said he always
judged a country's infrastructure by whether all the natives drank bottled
water and had cell phones -- it meant they didn't have the ability to build
POTS infrastructure/water systems.

Of course, he then gave a knowing look and applied the same metrics to the
USA.

------
ghshephard
Impressive that it sells for $25 given that I just (yesterday) paid $60 for a
Fujitsu MC700 10,400 mAh battery.

~~~
ohitsdom
The battery in this phone is only 1,000 mAh, so not that impressive really.

Edit: my mistake, the phone is 10,000 mAh. Impressive indeed!

~~~
p1mrx
Using the USB port as a reference, the size of the battery pack is roughly
71mm x 35mm, so it probably contains two 18650 cells side by side.

Panasonic's best 18650s have a capacity of 3350mAh, which sets an upper bound
of 6700mAh for the pack:

[http://na.industrial.panasonic.com/products/batteries/rechar...](http://na.industrial.panasonic.com/products/batteries/rechargeable-
batteries/lithium-ion/series/cylindrical-series/CS474)

Those "5000mAh" 18650s you find on eBay come from Chinese manufacturers who
stick random numbers on cylinders, so the actual capacity is probably off by a
factor of 3-5:

[http://lygte-
info.dk/review/batteries2012/UltraFire%20TR1865...](http://lygte-
info.dk/review/batteries2012/UltraFire%20TR18650%205000mAh%20\(Blue\)%20UK.html)

------
undertow
I seriously miss low-tech phones that are actually so low-tech and dumb that
the only features they boast are the most practical necessities.

The worst part about most phones of any era is that they become ruined with
sinister bloatware, designed to funnel you into dark patterns of paying for
garbage that burns any trust you might invest into a device, until it's a
charred unregocnizable mess.

Unfortunately, even now, if they made a device that was purported to be "dumb"
and no-frills, I probably wouldn't believe that the phone were as pared-down
as I might wish to believe, simply because I'd be sure that the chipsets
available to manufacturers might actually possess far greater power under the
hood, than some simple throwback of a handset might seem to house.

~~~
userbinator
_Unfortunately, even now, if they made a device that was purported to be
"dumb" and no-frills, I probably wouldn't believe that the phone were as
pared-down as I might wish to believe, simply because I'd be sure that the
chipsets available to manufacturers might actually possess far greater power
under the hood, than some simple throwback of a handset might seem to house._

You'd probably get a 32-bit ARM at a few hundred MHz, with several MB of RAM,
like this:

[http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107](http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107)

I don't know if that counts as being minimal to you, but they're certainly not
putting even low-end smartphone SoCs in these. Interesting that a low-end
smartphone costs roughly the same, with all the _smart_ features, but not as
much ruggedness:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9558854](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9558854)

------
nokya
I felt more concerned by the behavior of the Facebook and Whatsapp
applications as the author described them. At first guess, the poor
notification for new messages might reflect the absence of a proper
multitasking OS.

On the other side, chances for these applications to be legit seem quite low
considering that nobody seems to have any clue where and by whom these phones
are manufactured. This constitutes a big opportunity for a serious widespread
scam scheme being built up (or already operational).

Any security folks looking into it?

~~~
gbl08ma
It is probably using the official J2ME "apps" for Facebook and Whatsapp. I
think it's about as dangerous as trusting any pre-installed app on feature
phones and even smart phones.

About the "absence of a proper multitasking OS", well, that's what many/most
non-smart phones have even today. I think my first phone that supported J2ME
software would not properly receive messages while the JVM was running, and
the handling of phone calls was jerky. If you received a call the
application/game would be terminated abruptly, causing any state to be lost.
Yeah, that's how most phones worked ten years ago - forget any sort of
background tasks, be them Java apps or music (MIDI!) playing. Not all phones
were as bad, though: Symbian-based ones, for example had some sort of
multitasking IIRC, but these also tended to be more expensive.

------
shirro
I wouldn't mind downgrading to a feature phone that was mostly battery that
had a minimal screen (watch sized) for power saving and was good for text,
voice, tethering, music and gps logging and not much else. Then tether a 7" or
bigger tablet sitting in the car or backpack for when I need the screen.

Lugging around a huge, fragile, power hungry screen just to play music and
receive texts and being tied to a charger is moving in the wrong direction for
me.

------
OliverJones
It helps to be reminded that wireless tech is a great enabler for the
developing world. I wonder if the entrepreneurs who rent solar-powered lamps
also rent batteries for these phones?

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-steve-israel/roll-back-
the...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-steve-israel/roll-back-the-darkness-
in_b_230935.html)

------
hucker
This phone looks really interesting as a backup/utility, especially for people
who travel a lot with many sim cards from different countries... Has anyone
found somewhere to order internationally?

EDIT: Specifically that exact design, there's something about it..

~~~
kens
If you find how to get one of these phones, let me know. I'd like to do a
teardown.

~~~
userbinator
Alibaba/Aliexpress would be the place to go for this and other unbranded
feature phones.

------
andor
The WhatsApp client is not official or licensed, I guess? I wonder how
WhatsApp deals with such third-party clients that end up with a large user
base?

~~~
captainmuon
It might be the WhatsApp java client (J2ME?). At least in the beginning,
WhatsApp made a point of being available on as many different devices as
possible, including low-end feature phones (java based, symbian, etc.).

~~~
andyjohnson0
[http://blog.textit.in/your-path-to-a-$16b-exit-build-
a-j2me-...](http://blog.textit.in/your-path-to-a-$16b-exit-build-a-j2me-app)

------
dharma1
I carry 20,000mah anker in my bag most days. Charges 5-12v up to 3A, good
stuff. Charges my blackmagic camera too

------
higherpurpose
Wait, so that "power bank" is only 1,000 mAh? I saw an Alcatel One Touch 20.01
"for seniors" recently that looked much better/slimmer yet still have a 1,000
mAh battery. It didn't cost much more than this. I think ~1,000 mAh is pretty
typical for such a low-end feature phone.

~~~
whyenot
It's 10,000 mAh.

------
nnrocks
Even I would like to get this phone. It's awesome especially with battery.

~~~
equartey
Hey there - I'm the author of the power bank phone article. Kindly let me know
if you'd like me to get it and ship it to you: equartey at gmail.

------
bernardlunn
Cheap phone with built in reliable solar charger - please

