We already know the local appetite for tiny, lo-fi digital cameras is real. You can now easily pick up a Kodak Charmera in the Philippines, but if you’re hunting for another piece of micro-hardware to clip to your bag, you might want to look beyond local shelves.
7-Eleven Hong Kong just partnered with New Balance to celebrate the convenience store’s 45th anniversary in the region with a new Rewind to FUN blind-box collection. While the promo includes retro cassette players and sneaker puzzles, the crown jewel for us at REVU is a functioning digital camera simply called Mini Camera that weighs less than a standard AA battery.
Time to geek out on hardware, as this accessory is a dedicated vibe machine. It shoots photos at a 1.6-megapixel resolution, outputting at 1,920 x 1,080, so you’re getting that crunchy, compressed 2004 aesthetic natively. It’s not trying to compete with your smartphone; it exists entirely for the Y2K aesthetic.
Despite being roughly the size of a thumb drive — it measures 5.7 x 2.5 centimeters and weighs a mere 24 grams — the 7-Eleven x New Balance Mini Camera actually packs a surprising amount of functionality. It shoots video, records audio, and thankfully charges via USB-C. The software includes 25 built-in filters that work across both photo and video modes. There is even a motion-detection feature for video that automatically starts recording when it senses movement and stops after 10 seconds of stillness, which is pretty cool for a convenience-store promo item.
To get started, you’ll need to provide your own microSD card, with the 7-Eleven x New Balance Mini Camera supporting capacities from 64GB to 128GB. Aesthetically, the camera shell comes in four colorways: classic gray-orange, bold pink, army green, and a “special” purple-blue. Every blind box includes a silver clasp and a metal chain, so you can wear it as a necklace or attach it to your keys right out of the box.

There’s a catch, though. True to convenience-store promotional tradition, you cannot simply walk into a 7-Eleven on Nathan Road and buy the camera outright. It is locked behind a stamp-collection mechanic and a blind-box system.
Customers earn one stamp for every HK$20 (roughly ₱157 or $3) purchase, with an additional stamp for each HK$10 (₱78 or $1) spent thereafter. Once you collect enough stamps — either eight stamps plus HK$52 (₱408 or $7), or 12 stamps plus HK$88 (₱690 or $11) for a larger set — you can redeem a blind box. Because it is a blind redemption, you’re rolling the dice between the camera, the mini cassette player, or one of the other retro collectibles. More information can be found here.
Hong Kong is practically our backyard, just a two-hour flight from Manila, and with so many overseas Filipinos and tourists passing through, chances are you know someone who can swing by a 7-Eleven. Asking them to hoard stamps for your 7-Eleven x New Balance Mini Camera fund is a perfectly reasonable pasalubong request, especially since those blind boxes won’t sit behind the counter for long once the hype kicks in.



