The cellphone that runs for 15 years on one AA battery

Like many of us, I suspect, I keep a spare mobile phone in my car. It’s just a cheap but reliable old Nokia, with a 365 day call bundle on it and a car charger to juice it up should it be required. I know it’s there should I not have access to my regular phone for whatever reason. However the SpareOne GSM cellphone is a much more sensible product for this type of scenario. It has been specifically designed to run for 15 years on a single AA battery.

Amongst the usage cases the manufacturers propose are cheap travel phones loaded with local minutes to use while you’re abroard, a robust emergency phone for kids that can just be carried around in a backpack until required and in case of disaster when there’s no power to charge your standard phone.

The SpareOne can hold its charge for 15 years – or longer if the battery manufacturers come up with a better battery. When in use you can get 10 hours of talk time from that one battery. It can be customised in a variety of colours and will take any standard micro-SIM card. If you want one, they start shipping in March.