The 01:Phone moves closer to reality

Our friends at T3's plans to create the 'ultimate mobile phone' are coming a little closer to fruition after it was announced it will be bringing the 01:phone to Mobile World Congress.

The 01:Phone consists of a touchscreen with slide-out QWERTY keyboard in a thin form factor, but has undergone some changes based on reader feedback.

Flash up

The 5MP camera is dropped in favour of an 8MP version with Xenon flash, and the wireless earphones have been dropped for wired versions, that are attached to a mini phone that can charge direct from the main 01:Phone handset.

And don't forget: this phone is likely to be built on the Android OS, which is designed to be an open source platform anyway.

A prototype model has been created in partnership with The Alloy designers, who will have the phone on their stand should you want to check it out.

Turning Chinese

T3 says the next stage in bringing the phone out to face Apple on its own turf is to get in contact with some companies in the Chinese phone industry:

"We'll be talking to manufacturers in the Far East to discuss actually making the phone. The Chinese market is vastly more advanced than Europe in terms of features, so if we're going to make the most sophisticated phone ever we'll be needing to forge relationships out there."

Fingers crossed... this new phone looks great and if it could do half the things it says it wants to, then it could easily take on half the touchscreen handsets out there.

Check out T3's video of the handset in proper 3D, detailing all the big changes and sparkly new look.