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The Light Phone

thelightphone.com

191–200 of 291 posts

Re: The Light Phone

#191
post #184
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For even simpler and smaller, get a Nokia 130[1]. [1] https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-130

> ...nokia-130... 2G 900/1800MHz bands and therefore doesn't work in the US. Got a suggestion that actually works here?

It does work here. Oh, in the US. Got you.

Re: The Light Phone

#192
post #156

Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social c…

I actually really want a stripped down phone - but without some of the popular messenging apps it's effectively a non-starter for daily use, both from a business and a personal perspective.

Re: The Light Phone

#193
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can just buy a feature phone now? There are decent ones from Nokia.

But then people cant see you are disconnected ;) They might think you are cheap or dont like tech.

As long as you don't use the phone much, they won't see you have a cheap phone either. The Light Phone 2 seems like a rather small smartphone. Without the music feature (offline Spotify is OK) it is still not very useful to me though. I used to run around with a walkman. Then I had an iRiver H340 with 40 GB (when everyone was running around with ~4 GB iPods). I'm not going back to no music with me, pre walkman years. I had one with me since elementary school because I was so bored.

Re: The Light Phone

#194
post #174
post #171

Are there any good websites with turn by turn directions that are accessible on dumb phones? I had a Nokia candy bar phone with 4G(!) which was reasonable if you wanted to win an argument using Wikipedia, but Maps was unusable because the ancient Opera browser couldn't cope. All I wanted was the ability to get the text directions between two places without having to load all the intervening javascript. Hacker News wo…

Nokia 800 Tough apparently can do 4G and Google Maps. > I can pair my Huawei FreeBuds 3 with the Nokia 800 Tough, install a bunch of music on it, and jump on my bike. Google Maps navigation provides turn-by-turn instructions at a glance while I’m listening to some good riding music. I’ve got no concerns about the battery running out or the phone falling out of my pocket. I can ask the Google Assistant questions to av…

That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all together. But that thing runs YouTube too??

Dual SIM is nice. If it could tether I'd buy that next time I go on a long holiday (edit - it does!). Non removable battery is a pity too, but I've never actually needed that.

I've been tempted by the CAT S60/61 though.

I wonder, would it be worth making a service that works over voice calls, not the Internet? For example have a phone at home that automatically picks up and relays your call into an Alexa or something, then you can hear the response. Minutes are so cheap it might actually work.

Re: The Light Phone

#195
post #121

I just received my light phone and while I haven't used it much yet I'm mostly a fan. I used the Punkt MP01 for a while and it's still pretty much my favorite phone ever. We'll see how I feel about the E-ink display on this thing after some real use. The blinking and ghosting is kind of annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Honestly though I think the main reason I liked the Punkt phone so much was the buttons. Buttons a…

The Light Phone and Punkt both have a disadvantage: they're not rugged while they are expensive. On the long term I'm interested in a dumbphone for my child (and I am interested in living a disconnected life, on top of that, myself, with an offline e-reader and an offline DAP serving me quite well), but it needs to be rugged. If it is not rugged and not durable, then what is the point of using such? You can't take it for hiking, you have to be super careful with it like an expensive, normal smartphone.

Re: The Light Phone

#197
post #194
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nokia 800 Tough apparently can do 4G and Google Maps. > I can pair my Huawei FreeBuds 3 with the Nokia 800 Tough, install a bunch of music on it, and jump on my bike. Google Maps navigation provides turn-by-turn instructions at a glance while I’m listening to some good riding music. I’ve got no concerns about the battery running out or the phone falling out of my pocket. I can ask the Google Assistant questions to av…

That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all together. But that thing runs YouTube too?? Dual SIM is nice. If it could tether I'd buy that next time I go on a long holiday (edit - it does!). Non removable battery is a pity too, but I've never actually needed that. I've been tempted by the CAT S60/61 though…

There are cheaper CAT (smart|dumb)phones which get less attention and fame, and have less functionality than the S60/S61 but which are also a lot cheaper.

The interesting conceptual design of the Light Phone is that it is a dedicated dumbphone with e-ink, like a Kobo reader is a dedicated e-reader with e-ink. E-ink works if the page stays static, as you read a book. A smartphone, and dumbphone to lesser extend, have higher screen refreshes. The trend on smartphones is that the screen Hz is going up from 60 to 90/120 and higher. Which has battery impact, but as long as the battery is empty each day, it is acceptable for a lot of people. Now, if my device (be it smartphone, smartwatch, whatever) is empty every day then I hook it up every day. If it is empty every week I hook it up weekly (e.g. on Sunday) but every 3 days is kinda inconvenient.

Just sharing some random thoughts...

Re: The Light Phone

#198
post #156

Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social c…

I can see how that seems useless to the average neurotypical, but devices with limited functionality are a huge plus for people that fights against strong compulsions.

I still think $350 is a lot, but when you have ADHD devices with a lot of features can be very detrimental to your productivity and your well-being.

Re: The Light Phone

#199
post #189
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much data is the Nokia 3310 hoarding?

None in the US because it won't work here.

The Nokia 3310 3G definitely works in the US, supporting 850, 900, 1800, 1900 bands. They're readily sold at your local Target and Walmart.

Re: The Light Phone

#200
post #156

Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social c…

I can see how that seems useless to the average neurotypical, but devices with limited functionality are a huge plus for people that fights against strong compulsions. I still think $350 is a lot, but when you have ADHD devices with a lot of features can be very detrimental to your productivity and your well-being.

I don't think you can separate features and price in this case. Looking vaguely iPhone 5-ish is not a feature that should add hundreds of dollars to the price.

My last dumb phone, which I bought to carry while cycling, cost me $30. Sure, it was ugly, but since the point is to not take it out of your pocket and play around with it, who cares?

This phone strikes me as the veganism of dumb phones. You want people to acknowledge the "sacrifice" you're making, so you're going to keep it visible, while you self-consciously don't interact with it.

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