Unihertz Jelly Star: Smallest Android 13 smartphone arrives with performance

Unihertz has returned to the world of tiny smartphones, having announced a copycat Nothing Phone (1) in the spring. Now, it has brought the Jelly Star to Kickstarter, which it claims is the smallest smartphone released with Android 13. While the Jelly Star looks like a transparent version of last year's Jelly 2E, it promises to deliver significant performance improvements over its sibling.

According to Unihertz, it equipped the Jelly Star with the MediaTek Helio G99, a 6 nm and octa-core SoC that outscored the Jelly 2E's Helio A22 by a factor of three in our tests. Unihertz also offers the Jelly Star with 8 GB of RAM, double the capacity included in the Jelly 2E. Additionally, the new handset has 256 GB of UFS 2.2 flash storage, a MicroSD card reader, a 2,000 mAh battery and a 3-inch LCD that resolves at 480 x 854 pixels. Meanwhile, the back of the Jelly Star is graced by a capacitive fingerprint scanner and a 48 MP camera; there is an 8 MP front-facing camera too.

Unihertz has crammed all these components into a device that measures just 95.1 x 49.6 x 18.7 mm and weighs 116 g with its battery included. Currently, the Jelly Star is available to back on Kickstarter for HKD1,329 (~US$170) in blue or red colour options. Unihertz hopes to begin shipping to backers in October 2023 and warns that the handset will eventually retail for roughly HK$1,675 (~US$214). Please see Unihertz's Kickstarter listing for more details 

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