While the rest of CD Projekt Red is busy with Cyberpunk 2077, company co-founder Michał Kiciński is bringing a minimalistic mobile phone to Kickstarter. The Mudita Pure is available to pre-order today and “aims to improve your wellbeing” by ditching apps, LCD screens, games, internet, and most features high up on shoppers’ lists.
What the Mudita Pure does have is a 2.84-inch E-Ink screen, a multi-band global GSM module, its own Mudita OS, tethering functionality, a loudspeaker, a music player for said loudspeaker, and a battery life up to 14 days on standby – those were the days. What has also survived the modern day distraction cull is the Medita Pure’s meditation timer – or ‘timer’ as it’s more commonly known – which will ensure you never miss a yoga session or chance to align your chakras.
The phone has been built from the ground up to ensure that you can stay offline when you don’t want to be disturbed. That means no internal browser (but it can be used to connect to another device), and a slider on the side that shifts from connected to do not disturb or offline.
The phone itself is 14 x 1.4 x 59cm and has been designed to look like… a pebble. It’s plain and simple, essentially. It’s also rather stylish in its simplicity.
“Every day we are overloaded with information,” Kiciński says, “it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find inner peace. We believe that Mudita Pure can also be used as a second phone to help us unplug during evenings, weekends or holidays in order to spend quality time with our loved ones or enjoying solitude.”
Kiciński started development on the phone after discovering Vipassana meditation (meditative practice based on breathing and inner reflection), during which he felt an increased sensitivity to electromagnetic radiation. Hence the journey to create a phone with the lowest possible Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value – a measurement of a user’s exposure to radiofrequency emissions.
You can pick up the Mudita Pure on Kickstarter right now starting at $221, discounted from the full retail price of $369, and the campaign will likely be funded by the time I finish writing this sentence. Which isn’t that surprising considering, for all its pretentious language, we actually really like the idea of the Mudita Pure – so let’s see if this one has what it takes to make it mainstream.