Cell Phone Powered by AA Battery

Even a decade ago, cell phones powered by off-the-shelf batteries were real rarities. The market quickly moved to rechargeable handsets, since alkaline cells burned out fast and got expensive to replace twice a week.

And now it's baaaaaaaack!

Sanyo's unnamed prototype takes us back to 1992 by powering its monstrously huge, cylindrical handset with a single AA cell. It also looks to have improved on the power issue: 250 hours of standby and a not-totally-awful five hours of talk time on one battery. It probably helps that the phone has no screen to drain the juice. Naturally there are zero extras here: No SMS, music player, or camera, either.

Don't look for this phone in the U.S. any time soon. It's designed for Japan exclusively, and considering that country's love affair with teeny tiny gadgets, I'd be surprised if it actually makes it to market. As Gizmodo notes, it may just be a publicity stunt for Sanyo, which is launching a new line of batteries called Eneloop.

LINK: Battery-powered chat