Ikko's New Square Phone Is Intriguing—But Not Without Tradeoffs

Ikko, a Chinese company known for making earbuds and audio gear, has released a phone called the MindOne Pro. It has a square screen, runs Android, and costs $499 (currently $429 on sale). The Verge's Allison Johnson tried one out at CES in January 2026 and published her first impressions.

The phone's design is genuinely unusual. It has a 4-inch square display with an OLED screen—the same high-quality panel technology used in many premium phones today. The camera is mounted on a flip arm that rotates upward, letting it work as either a rear camera or a front-facing camera for selfies. When you flip it up halfway, it doubles as a kickstand. Ikko also sells a separate keyboard that snaps on with magnets, adding a physical keyboard and headphone jack. The company promises free global cellular service is built in, and it ships worldwide.

The Square Screen Creates Real Problems

The square shape sounds novel, but it runs into practical headaches. Phones and websites are designed around tall, rectangular screens. Nearly all videos are shot vertically. And when you type on the phone, the keyboard takes up more than half the screen.

Ikko included a workaround: a settings toggle that switches the display to a tall, rectangular view with black bars on the sides—the same effect you see when a movie plays in widescreen on an older TV. You can also lower the resolution to squeeze more content in. These are helpful shortcuts, not real solutions.

Johnson found two other hardware problems worth noting. First, the phone got noticeably warm during initial setup—hotter than most phones in the same situation. Second, battery life was weak. Starting from nearly full, the battery dropped by 30 percent in about 90 minutes of light web browsing over Wi-Fi. If that holds up in real use, the phone would run out of power well before a typical workday ends.

A third issue showed up in photos. The camera's color processing was uneven, especially indoors, where pictures had a greenish tint. Software updates can fix this kind of problem, but it shouldn't be there on a $499 phone when it ships.

Why This Matters—And What It Doesn't

Ikko is not a phone company. It makes audio accessories. Companies that start in one tech category and jump to phones rarely succeed, because phones require expertise in hardware engineering and supply chains that audio makers simply don't have. Forbes' Ben Sin, writing in May 2026, called the MindOne Pro a "fun, useful second phone"—a description that admits it is not trying to replace your main device.

That honest framing probably gets it right. Small phones are genuinely hard to find today. Sony makes one premium option with its Xperia 5. Below that, almost nothing exists. A 4-inch phone with a keyboard, global shipping, and a sub-$500 price will appeal to specific people: travelers who want something pocketable to carry alongside their main phone, developers who use terminal windows for work, or people who simply want something different from the flat slabs everyone else uses.

The square design is the phone's boldest choice, and it cuts both ways. It makes the MindOne Pro instantly recognizable and different from competitors. But it also creates the friction with apps, websites, and videos. The fact that Ikko built in a workaround to fake a normal rectangular view shows the company knows this is a problem. What is not clear yet is whether they can build an actual ecosystem—apps, videos, and keyboards—that embraces the square shape instead of fighting it.

The early reviews came from a few hours of hands-on testing. Thermal behavior and battery life could improve in production versions or with software updates. Anyone seriously thinking about buying this phone should handle one in person and test how it fits their actual daily routine. The phone's value depends heavily on how it matches what you actually do with a phone.

The MindOne Pro costs $499 and ships globally. The keyboard accessory and the screen shape trade-offs both deserve a real trial before you commit to buying one.