Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard

You've hit it spot on. I got a light phone years ago to help cure my cell phone addiction, but it was too problematic. I still need to use the "tools" of my phone - things like Maps, Uber, authenticator apps, texting, etc., but I just wanted to block the "dopamine dealers" like social media and the browser.

The best I've gotten to so far is to permanently enable "focus mode" on my phone. Of course I can still disable it, but I've noticed the number of times I just automatically start browsing the web or whatever when I'm even just a tad bored, and having those apps blocked is at least just a reminder to me of "Do you really want to do this right now?"

Isn't this literally already built into Android? Extreme Battery Saver effectively turns your phone into a feature phone, disabling every app except Clock, Phone, Messages, Settings, the Play Store, and your camera. And you can add other essential apps to the whitelist (e.g. I have my note taking, ride sharing, banking/wallet, calendar and TOTP apps enabled, and my music player if I'm on the go). It even degrades the phone's performance to match lol, and the added battery life you get from it is fantastic.

Might be a Pixel-only thing now that I think of it...then again I'm pretty sure other OEMs like Samsung would have their own versions

Overall, the device has been far superior to any earlier Android device I've owned for overall readability, usability, battery life, and satisfaction.

For a demonstration of what e-ink displays are capable of, see this video, which starts basic (static signage systems), and progresses through video-capable displays (not, it's true, high quality, but serviceable): https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4>

An Onyx BOOX Note displaying video, similar to my own device: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=XRDJv_-wWBI>.

For e-ink tablets and mobile devices there are typically multiple display modes, which can be set on both a per-app and overall system basis. It's reasonably easy to switch between these where needed (e.g., on a Web browser). Higher-quality rendering comes with slower refresh, and there's a trade-off for visual quality vs. speed, but even basic animation is possible with only very modest quality degradation. "X-mode" for full video sacrifices a lot of quality, but you'd typically use that only for video-intensive apps (or occasional video viewing in a Web browser). The main side-effect is ghosting at higher refresh speeds.

Android devices can use third-party app stores such as F-Droid (VERY strongly recommended), with an independent selection of apps, or the Aurora Store alternative interface to Google Play Store which provides any Android app available through Google Play. I minimise the apps I've installed, and have avoided virtually all authenticated services (one article-managing app excepted), to minimise distractions, but have several installed from both sources.

E-ink itself does have its strengths and weaknesses. I like to say: Persistence is free; pixels are cheap; paints are expensive; refreshes are slow (1-8 Hz rather than 60--120); shades and colours are limited or nonexistent; line-art, dithered images, and half tones render quite well (raster and gradients far less so); paginated navigation is vastly better than scrolling; graphics are reflective rather than emissive; touch/Wacom may exist; and feature-detection capabilities are limited (e.g., CSS @media queries). It's a different medium, and rewards some adaptation of design principles. See: https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...>.

I'd make one further addition: dark-on-light styles are hugely preferable to "dark-mode" (light-on-dark), which is far more difficult to read. Generally, e-ink prefers full black on full white styling.

I'll note that apps which are designed for e-ink, most particularly EinkBro (an adaptation of the FOSS Browser) make for a much superior experience: https://github.com/plateaukao/einkbro>.

And yes, there are full e-ink monitors which are available for desktop systems: https://shop.boox.com/products/mira>

At the moment I use greyscale mode on my Pixel and have uninstalled apps, only using them in the browser if I "need to." It's not much, but adding that small friction helps somewhat.