The best pranks are the ones nobody sees coming

Every summer, someone in the family ends up buying a water gun. Usually it's the same generic squirt toy from the corner store — floppy plastic, weak stream, broken within a week. This time I went looking for something different. Not necessarily better in the traditional sense, just more interesting. What I found costs $3.62 and is genuinely one of the more clever things I've come across on AliExpress in a while.

It's a water gun designed to look exactly like a smartphone.

Price: $3.62 (was $7.70)

What this actually is — and what I found when I looked into it

The concept is simple and it works: the toy is shaped and styled to resemble a smartphone — flat, rectangular, with a fake screen printed on the face. From a normal conversational distance, it reads as a phone. You hand it to someone, they reach for it, and you pull the "trigger" on the side. Water shoots out in a continuous stream that, according to multiple buyers, reaches over a meter.

That range surprised me. For something at this price point, a weak trickle would be forgivable. A meter-plus stream is actually useful for a water fight.

The black and white color variants seem to be the better build, based on buyer feedback. Those versions fill from the top and leak less — one UK buyer specifically noted this and said they were "very pleased." The prank angle is what makes this toy genuinely different from a standard squirt gun: the visual deception is the whole joke, and it lands cleanly with kids and adults alike.

What surprised me most is that the reviews are consistent across different countries — UK, France, Norway, Bulgaria — all reporting the same basic experience: it works, it's fun, and it's cheap enough that you're not upset if it gets left at the park.

Worth noting that one buyer from Italy flagged a real limitation: it leaks a bit. Not catastrophically, but enough that you wouldn't want it loose in a backpack. The leak issue seems tied to certain color variants, with black and white being the better performers. If you pick a different color, manage your expectations accordingly.

What $3.62 normally gets you in water toys

A $3.62 Water Gun That Looks Exactly Like a Smartphone

At this price, you're usually looking at a basic single-piece squirt bottle, a balloon-filling attachment, or the cheapest possible pump-action pistol that snaps after a week of use. None of those have a concept. None of them produce a laugh the moment someone holds them.

This toy has a clear identity — the smartphone disguise is genuinely funny, and that gives it a value-per-laugh ratio that's hard to beat at this price. It's not competing with a proper water blaster that holds a half-liter and soaks someone from ten feet. It's competing with impulse buys, stocking stuffers, and grab-bag gifts — and in that category, it punches well above its price.

Buy it if / Skip it if

Buy it if:

You need a summer gift for a kid between roughly 6 and 12 years old who has a sense of humor.
You want something cheap and genuinely funny for a garden party, family reunion, or beach day — adults included.
You're after a last-minute gift that has an actual prank element, not just another generic toy.
You're ordering the black or white version specifically — those seem to be the better-built variants.

Skip it if:

You need a serious water gun with real range and capacity for an actual water fight.
The recipient is under 5 — the smartphone joke won't land, which is the entire point of this thing.
You're concerned about minor leaking — it's a known issue on some variants and worth taking seriously if the toy is going in a bag.

My honest take: this is a good impulse buy at a price where the risk is basically nothing. It does what it promises — the stream is stronger than expected, the disguise works, and kids find it genuinely funny. It won't last forever and it won't replace a real water gun, but for $3.62 with 53% off, the bar clears comfortably.

You can grab it here: https://www.ali-ex.com/8yrto8