Following our brief earlier coverage of the phone set to challenge the Credit Crunch, we’re very excited to have the first artist’s impression of this new handset, codenamed the 100-F from a Latvian manufacturer, new to the mobile phone market, called Lirpa. It seems bizarre, but the phone design has been inspired by the global credit crunch (which must have reached Latvia too), and works as either a coin-operated or credit/debit card mobile. The UK variant will have a £1 coin slot for calls and a 10p slot for texts (not a bad price for a PAYG text) as well as a card slot (for which you’ll need to enter your PIN). It sounds like it will be quite bulky, maybe comparable with some of the smartphones around, and features will be limited – no camera or MP3 player as the components would take up too much valuable coin space.
 

Here are some of the 100-F features:

Colour screen – No
Bluetooth – No
Weight – 110g empty, 400g full
Available colours – Midnight Black, Dirty Grey and Grey Black
Card slot – Visa, Mastercard, Electron
Messaging – SMS, MMS, IOU
Ringtones – Built-in, Vibrate, Jangle

The idea behind this phone is obviously to make you think about how much you spend on calls, and we understand there’s  another twist on this – users will be able to opt for having no access to the coin box, in which case they will have to take the phone to one of their network provider’s shops to have it emptied. None of the UK networks have commented on this as yet.
 
For more info or to pre-order visit the Lirpa Offers Page here.