In March we learned about a project based on Raspberry Pi Zero W that consisted of creating a smartphone with such Hardware Libre. Recently we have learned about another project called ZeroPhone which is based on the same board Hardware Libre, but at a lower cost.
The creator of this project, Arsenijs, has published a detailed guide with everything you need to build this type of smartphone, as well as a detailed guide of components that we can find in second-hand stores such as ebay. The result is a powerful mobile but can be built for less than $ 50.
ZeroPhone is a home phone thanks to its builder
Arsenijs has used two Raspberry Pi Zero W boards together with a 3G modem and a shield to connect an old OLED screen of a 2G mobile and a keyboard of the same smartphone. The result is a mobile with an old look but with the power of the latest technologies, technologies like Python, which offers us the possibility of installing modern apps that work on a smartphone created by us. Both the operating system code and the construction guide can be found at hackaday.io, the repository of free projects that is becoming more and more popular.
The materials of this ZeroPhone are reused, that is, we can take them out of any electronics store or any old mobile, such as the screen or keyboard that have been taken from an old mobile and that offer insured spare parts.
Personally, I think that ZeroPhone is an interesting mobile, more interesting than the iPhone 7 Plus or the Samsung Galaxy S8 +, but there would be things that I would change such as replacing the keyboard with a touch screen and reducing the thickness of the device. In any case, it seems that the future in which each one could build a mobile in our house is more present what future Do not you think?