My suggestion is for a Blackberry Q10. It has 4G (so it'll last a long time), swappable batteries (very cheap), a great UI, useful functionality (calendar, notes), and a completely worthless app store.
Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
101–110 of 224 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#102You 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 had forgotten what it was like to be alone with my thoughts. I feel as though I am rediscovering a part of my brain that was suppressed by having a boredom-prevention device at my fingertips all these years.
Right. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Boredom can be a powerful necessity. If it weren't for the crushing boredom of the suburbs in the 80's, I would never have learned to code at the age of 11.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#103You 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].…
> 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.
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.
All of us HN commenters are also engagement designers. If not in our day jobs, then at least in an amateur capacity in text.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#104have you considered going phoneless?
The perspective it will give you on modern life will likely make you want to stay phoneless.
Remember when everyone smoked? I mean everyone. The experience of being phoneless today reminds me of what it was like to be a non smoker 25 years ago. Nauseating.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#105You 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've been doing this using an Apple Watch, and have been for the past 3 months or so. I documented it in this tweet: https://twitter.com/john_lam/status/1074527089569615872
Note that I'm paying more to have this experience, but it's been totally worth it. So far I've been quite happy with it. It's amazing how, in the odd times where I've needed to carry my phone with me, how I instantly reverted to my former (bad) habits.
It's a form of commitment device and it's been very effective for me.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#106Consider taking this a step further and trying no phone at all. But instead of doing something extreme like dumping your smartphone, just turn your current phone off unless you're OK with being reached and at home or at work. Anything in between, the phone stays off. This makes your smartphone a de facto land line for all practical intents, and you get to keep the potential to make exceptions and use it for e.g. GPS…
Another possibility to consider is carrying a pager. That way you'll at least know when you've got a call or a voice mail, and then you can turn your phone on temporarily to call back or check your voice mail, instead of having to periodically turn on your phone to check for missed calls.
Then you can also just go into Airplane mode. But that takes discipline.
Much more liberating is, to have a smartphone where you can put out the batterie ... then it is off. And since putting it back together takes time, the temptation to just check something is way less.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#107You 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].…
Dumb question: Can it run a 2FA app (not over SMS) like Duo or Google Authenticator?
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#108You 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].…
In my last company (ad agency) we were talking to Dopamine Labs[1] (now called boundless.ai[2]) to integrate it into an app we were building. It honestly felt kinda gross but I on the other hand I can understand a company investing thousands (into the hundred thousands) to build an app and wanting people to use it. Does more engagement equal app usefulness and adoption? I don't know. I have a lot of apps on my phone…
> Does more engagement equal app usefulness...
Obviously no. I think it is fairly obvious that there are many apps that are highly engaging that are a huge waste of time for many people.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#109I found an ericsson ga628 looking phone, maybe I should pimp it with a rpi zero
Re: Ask HN: What is the best “dumb” phone?
#110have you considered going phoneless? The perspective it will give you on modern life will likely make you want to stay phoneless. Remember when everyone smoked? I mean everyone. The experience of being phoneless today reminds me of what it was like to be a non smoker 25 years ago. Nauseating.
I've considered that, but times have changed and unlike 25 years ago, there aren't payphones dotting the urban landscape, and people make plans expecting to be able to contact you when you're already out in the world and away from your computer. For the once or twice a month that I need a phone, it's a necessary evil.