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Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#181

Post by borgel »

JohnFen wrote: post #166
Diederich wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm building my own phone. Can you elaborate? This sounds pretty interesting.

It's essentially simple. What I have breadboarded and working right now is based on a Raspberry Pi (although I won't be using the Pi in the end, as it's too bulky -- I'll be using the functional equivalent on a board I'm designing). I'm using a 4G module to provide the cell functionality (you communicate with it much like with a modem) and a 4" LCD touch panel for the display. It is running Linux as the OS, with some…

Whose 4G modem did you go with?

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#182

Post by plants »

perlgod wrote: post #18

You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. If your "dumbphone" doesn't support VoLTE you'll be frustrated with dropped calls and spotty service everywhere. I know this from experience. I settled on T-Mobile's only "dumbphone" - the Alcatel GoFlip [1].…

I tried using that phone, but I found Kai OS to be pretty awful from a usability perspective. Maps was completely unusable - which was a large reason why I bought the phone in the first place. On top of that, the texting app is extremely laggy to the point where you'd wait a second for a word to show up. I don't know if the problem is with Kai OS or with the apps themselves, but my Samsung A-157 blows that phone out of the water from a texting usability perspective (but does not have GPS)

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#183

Post by plants »

drivers99 wrote: post #136
faitswulff wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These things are designed to be addictive I would blame app designers, but I uninstalled all of them and ended up pissing away most of the day on HackerNews, so I think they're mostly blameless in my case.

HN has many of the same addicting qualities. You never know what you'll get when you reload (after some time has passed) (Random reinforcement.) Also, if you comment, you get random reinforcement in the form of (hopefully nice) replies and upvote points. Ranking stories on the front page based on voting also is intended to draw an audience with similar interests.

Hacker news is addicting, but there is a noprocrast setting that only allows you on the site for maxvisit minutes at a time and doesn't let you back on until minaway minutes have expired. I just turned it on this week and it has changed my browsing habits immensely!

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#184

Post by plants »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #63
perlgod wrote: post #18

You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. If your "dumbphone" doesn't support VoLTE you'll be frustrated with dropped calls and spotty service everywhere. I know this from experience. I settled on T-Mobile's only "dumbphone" - the Alcatel GoFlip [1].…

How's audio (MP3) playback on the GoFlip? I'm disenchanted with my options to replace my aging iPhone 4 (frustrated that old, unsupported 32-bit apps I like aren't going to work on a new iPhone) and I'm contemplating jumping-ship to a "dumb" phone. I would really like to play MP3s on the phone, however.

You can play MP3s, but the user experience for the music app is pretty bad in my limited experience using it

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#185

Post by ip26 »

crazynick4 wrote: post #134
perlgod wrote: post #18

You will be in a tough spot if you're in the USA. All the nice Nokias and decent low-tech phones are rapidly becoming useless as carriers phase out 2g (and even 3g) coverage to free up bands for LTE and now 5g. If your "dumbphone" doesn't support VoLTE you'll be frustrated with dropped calls and spotty service everywhere. I know this from experience. I settled on T-Mobile's only "dumbphone" - the Alcatel GoFlip [1].…

> I tried turning my smartphone into a "dumbphone" and using it less, but I honestly lacked the self-control to put the stupid thing down Did you remove the browsers and app store as well? I got rid of everything except for phone/texting, Slack (for work), and non-bingy convenience apps like Maps/Yelp/etc. On Android, it can be done with the adb shell without rooting, even the 'uninstallable' apps like Google search…

I try that but then I wind up needing Chrome for some legitimate purpose or another.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#186

Post by isignal »

Not a dumb phone, but I would recommend the Unihertz Atom[1]. It packs Android into the same form factor as a flip phone. The advantage is that it supports most carrier bands, including Verizon, and modern standards like VoLTE, Wifi calling (dumb phones are generally carrier specific and rely on 2G/CDMA bands for calling).

The great thing about this form factor is that browsing and extended typing are very difficult, so you end up using your phone to get notified and for utilities like navigation, music playing.

Privacy-wise it does not solve your concern because it runs Android and it does not track the latest security updates as well as the Google branded phones.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Unihertz-Smallest-Smartphone-Android-...

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#187

Post by brokenmachine »

mac01021 wrote: post #11
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #9

Ultraorthodox Jews buy dumbphones only because of religious considerations. These are known as Kosher phones. Here is a shop that sells them https://www.zipy.co.il/s/אליאקספרס/-/-/טלפון/?aspect=:::2000...

What exactly is the nature of those religious considerations? Is it just that you can use a dumb phone on friday night without violating the sabbath (can you?)? Is there a religious doctrine that explicitly prohibits general purpose computing devices in the home?

Fun fact: in some places the lifts in buildings are set to stop at every floor during the sabbath, so people don't have to push the buttons or they'll go to hell or whatever.

Seems to me if you're looking for loopholes and workarounds just so you can do what you need to do on certain days of the week, then the rules might be silly.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#188

Post by faitswulff »

plants wrote: post #183
drivers99 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has many of the same addicting qualities. You never know what you'll get when you reload (after some time has passed) (Random reinforcement.) Also, if you comment, you get random reinforcement in the form of (hopefully nice) replies and upvote points. Ranking stories on the front page based on voting also is intended to draw an audience with similar interests.

Hacker news is addicting, but there is a noprocrast setting that only allows you on the site for maxvisit minutes at a time and doesn't let you back on until minaway minutes have expired. I just turned it on this week and it has changed my browsing habits immensely!

Unfortunately, I use Firefox Focus, meaning I'm not logged in most of the time. However I may use this for my desktop addiction, thank!

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#189

Post by bpye »

dontbenebby wrote: post #138
subway wrote: post #5

Dumbphones effectively no longer exist. Anything with LTE (aside from iDevices) seems to run a Linux kernel with a stripped down Android or FirefoxOS on top. They have simplified UIs if that's what you're looking for, but they also have security holes out the wazoo (you can frequently get a root adb shell via usb with a stock config), and will never see updates. To top that off, the available "dumb" phones with LTE o…

> Dumbphones effectively no longer exist. Anything with LTE (aside from iDevices) seems to run a Linux kernel with a stripped down Android or FirefoxOS on top. They have simplified UIs if that's what you're looking for, but they also have security holes out the wazoo (you can frequently get a root adb shell via usb with a stock config), and will never see updates. This has been a concern of mine, and why instead I've…

Check out OsmAnd. It uses OpenStreetMaps data and all the map data is stored offline. OSM has great footpaths in my experience and it does turn by turn navigation and all that fun stuff to.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?

#190

Post by frosted-flakes »

plants wrote: post #183
drivers99 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has many of the same addicting qualities. You never know what you'll get when you reload (after some time has passed) (Random reinforcement.) Also, if you comment, you get random reinforcement in the form of (hopefully nice) replies and upvote points. Ranking stories on the front page based on voting also is intended to draw an audience with similar interests.

Hacker news is addicting, but there is a noprocrast setting that only allows you on the site for maxvisit minutes at a time and doesn't let you back on until minaway minutes have expired. I just turned it on this week and it has changed my browsing habits immensely!

Yeah, but changing it back is just two clicks away, and I don't have the discipline to not do that.
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