Here’s what’s most impressive about the $33 K-Touch T619 smartphone: It’s an actual working smartphone. Five or so years ago, this bad boy would have been considered state of the art, with a price to match.

If you’re used to a modern 2014 smartphone, you’ll find the T619 bulky and slow — a fossil, really. But not everyone out there can afford a new iPhone or Galaxy Nexus every two years, particularly in the developing world.

View photos

Chip-maker ARM was showing off the product at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona to demonstrate the lower end of its full range of phone processors. In fact, the tiny chip inside this product is similar to — if not the same as — one the company is producing for wearables like smartwatches.

Geeks would laugh the 1 GHz single-core processor offstage were it to show up inside a phone at a Samsung press conference. But when it comes to $33 smartphones, it does the trick.

You can follow Yahoo Tech on Facebook for all the latest.