THE Bradford-born creator of the world’s new smallest phone won the backing of two celebrities for his Kickstarter campaign which ended yesterday.

Shazad Talib, who has created the Zanco Tiny T1 mobile phone, is a specialist in miniature mobiles, having previously created the current world’s smallest phone.

Mr Talib says the new handset, which weighs just 13 grams and is less than five centimetres long, makes the old model “look like a brick”.

The entrepreneur, who is now based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, has received the backing of one of Bollywood’s biggest stars and a cult figure in the British grime music scene ahead of the phone’s release later this year.

Deep Money, an actor and musician, has given the phone his support, along with grime artist Big Narstie, who achieved chart success alongside Craig David in 2015 and most recently made an appearance presenting the weather on Good Morning Britain, a clip that quickly went viral online.

Zanco will be providing Deep Money with its own Bluetooth headsets, and Big Narstie will soon be getting his own range of Zini headphones.

The phone’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign allowed people to pledge money to get their hands on the phone before it is available in shops, with the first batch of phones being shipped in May.

The campaign ended yesterday, raising more than £183,000, more than seven times the original total of £25,000.

When it goes on general sale, the phone will be available for £39.

Mr Talib, who grew up in Heaton and attended Bradford College, said he came up with the idea in 2004 and had been working on the phone with engineers for years.

“It is actually very easy to use when it is placed on your finger,” he said.

“My next design will be for a small smartphone. I have a lot of ideas.

“I live in China now, but I’m born and bred in Bradford, and I want to make Bradford proud.

“There are many, many phones on the market today that claim to be the world’s smallest but only one is telling the truth.”

Tiny mobile phones such as Mr Talib’s creation were criticised late last year by Justice Secretary David Lidington, who called on retailers to stop selling the phones as he said they could be easily smuggled into prisons to be used by criminals to facilitate more crime and intimidate victims.

But following Mr Lidington’s comments, Mr Talib hit back saying “at no point in our advertising, social media marketing or Kickstarter campaign have we targeted any markets based in criminality”.

He also called for more research into technology that could make mobile phones inoperable in prisons instead.