Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 224 posts

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

#131

Post by Arnavion »

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].…

>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.

Anecdote: I used to have an LG dumbphone with AT&T (I'd purchased it with prepaid time at the airport). A few years ago they sent me a message to come to their store and have it replaced for free because it would stop working with their planned "network updates".

I did that and got an Alcatel dumb phone. Not sure if it's using LTE or whatever G, but it works well and I'm reasonably happy with it. I do wish it was a flip-phone like the LG, because I've butt-dialed 911 a few times with it.

(They did initially give me what must've been a used phone, since it had over 50 personal contacts from someone else on it, but that's a different story...)

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

#132

Post by dontbenebby »

isoskeles wrote: post #107
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].…

Dumb question: Can it run a 2FA app (not over SMS) like Duo or Google Authenticator?

Almost certainly not. This has been a barrier for me too.

What I've done is started putting the phone in do not disturb and airplane modes when I'm not expecting a call.

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

#133

Post by tanzbaer »

brightball wrote: post #125
stcredzero wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Or it may just crush you...

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

#134

Post by crazynick4 »

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 and the Samsung browser. Not sure about Apple.

I tried this before without getting rid of the Play Store and found that I would just cheat and download FF Focus when I felt like binging and then deleting it again when I was done. Now if I think I need a new app, I actually have to go on my laptop, download the apk, and move it to my phone to install it. It's not foolproof but it's enough extra steps to where I don't act on it on impulse.

It's worked really well and I don't binge like I used to . I still have some compulsive phone-checking habits but it's way less time consuming than compulsive-random-article-reading/scrolling. And I also get to keep the nicer benefits like the good camera and the large screen for when I need a GPS.

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

#135

Post by kwoff »

yurishimo wrote: post #122
checkyoursudo wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Had one of those dumb phones for a decade. Definitely not interested in connecting to your demographic.

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

#136

Post by drivers99 »

faitswulff wrote: post #92
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].…

> 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.

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

#137

Post by perlgod »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #114
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 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.

It can!

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

#138

Post by dontbenebby »

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 moved to simply turning off my wifi and cell service when not using them.

I installed "HereWeGO", a GPS app with great support for offline maps. Between that, podcasts, and music I can go quite long without using any data.

(Or as a middle ground I drop down to wifi with DND on, and check for incoming messages every once in a while)

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

#139

Post by perlgod »

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 should try something like that. Honestly just having the device in eyesight triggers some kind of latent mental FOMO. Removing the option entirely has worked well for me so far.

I still keep an old iPhone for when I know I'll need an Uber or something, but the smartphone isn't a part of my daily life anymore.

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

#140

Post by dontbenebby »

hutzlibu wrote: post #106
pmoriarty wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I just wish there was a better middle ground. iOS's DND is great in letting me whitelist contacts who can punch through, but that only applies to calls and texts, not signal :/
Post reply on HN