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

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121–130 of 224 posts

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

#121
post #56

I was looking into this exact problem last year. I couldn't find a reasonable solution, so I had to take extraordinary steps instead -- I'm building my own phone. There is literally no phone on the market (that I can find) that is acceptable to me anymore.

> I'm building my own phone.

Can you elaborate? This sounds pretty interesting.

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

#122
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 was looking at getting one of those Alcatels. Can it broadcast a wifi hotspot, such that you could tether a laptop or tablet? I couldn't tell from the listed specs.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it can't. I agree it's not obvious from the spec sheet though. It's most likely made for an aging demographic that can't be bothered to even learn how to use a smartphone, so hotspot connectivity probably won't be missed.

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

#123
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that even possible? I thought you had to have an iPhone to set the watch up?

I know enough people with an iPhone that if it's needed for setup only , that'd be fine.

AFAIK, it will link their Apple ID with the watch, which means that if they uninstall an app, you might lose it, and etc. The LTE Apple Watch needs a minimum of an iPhone 6 or something to complete setup vs. the non-LTE that can be setup with a 5s.

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

#124
post #44

I have the original Nokia 3310, which is not being used right now. Daily driver is the reissue 3310 that came out a couple years ago. It's still a little too "modern" for my tastes but something I can live with. The great thing is that the battery lasts forever. Probably close to a few weeks. Well, I don't use it at all, so there's that.

I used my 1st gen 3310 daily for 13 years. Eventually the antenna died and it turned out to be impossible to find reliable batteries. Mom, on the phone: "I can't HEAR you again! Go and GET yourself a DECENT phone! I am going to BUY you one myself! ..." After this, my phone almost always died. An excellent phone, though. Saved me from smartphones (I've never owned one). It also served well as a bottle opener when I wa…

Damn how did I not know about using the 3310 as a bottle opener (being a 20-something when I had one). Anyway here is the proof:

https://metro.co.uk/2015/04/18/this-is-how-you-use-your-old-...

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

#125
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 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.

Loneliness is the same way. It can give people determination to come out of their shell, work up the courage to ask someone out, etc.

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

#126
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].…

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

No, but it equals more ad impressions.

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

#127
post #15

Nothing compares to the Punkt MP01 and MP02 IMO. I've had the MP01 for years and it's fantastic, the only issue has been with service and I imagine that would be resolved with the MP02 and 4g. https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/ There's also the Lightphone and forthcoming Lightphone II. That being said, these won't really address privacy concerns per se. They don't support signal or other encrypted…

The hotspot on the 02 is really interesting to me. I tried the dumb phone thing a couple of years ago, but as somebody who works remote not having my hotspot was a killer.

This is really interesting...

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

#128
post #35
post #15

Nothing compares to the Punkt MP01 and MP02 IMO. I've had the MP01 for years and it's fantastic, the only issue has been with service and I imagine that would be resolved with the MP02 and 4g. https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/ There's also the Lightphone and forthcoming Lightphone II. That being said, these won't really address privacy concerns per se. They don't support signal or other encrypted…

> MP02 I love the look of that phone, except for the huge logo on the front. I wonder if there is a way to strip that off without damaging the plastic.

I stripped the logo off the front of my LG monitor with some acetone, and it only damaged the plastic a little bit...

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

#129
I own a YotaPhone 2 since a little more than a year now, and I am very satisfied with it.

It's a dual screen from 2015 made in Russia: it has an e-ink screen on the back that can display both dedicated widgets and the android OS, like the normal screen.

The OS (Android 4 up to 6) has been adapted for the screen and special care has been taken to make the system consume as few energy as possible if configured so. Think of it as the phone you dumb down when you go on a week-long trek in the Siberian Taiga.

I love it because of the extreme readability of the screen under full sunlight. I don't need to find a shadow or make some with my hands in order to select a song in a playlist, check my position on a map or reply to a text while walking.

There are also some cool features, like mirroring the camera's view on the back screen so that people who are photographed can have a preview of the final result.

The phone can also flash your contact info on the e-ink screen before shutting down (since it's e-ink, the image gets persisted even though the battery is flat), just in case some good samaritan finds your phone.

And now that the YotaPhone 3 is out, you can find it for 150$.

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