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

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

#131

Post by MBCook »

electroly wrote: post #51
steelframe wrote: post #25

We need to reverse the trend of most people having a phone that's wired in with Google or Apple. I don't, and I can't tell you how often I try to do something only to be told, "Okay, now download our app and..." It happened just last week when I was buying a car. The sales rep kept insisting that I install the car company's app while I was trying to just write a check, grab the keys, and drive off the lot. "You can u…

I think car salesmen are particularly pushy about it because car manufacturers are starting to sell monthly subscriptions for things in the app. They can't sell it to you if you won't install the app. For instance, my Toyota came with some kind of trial subscription for a remote unlock/lock and GPS location service. Served, of course, through the Toyota app. They have an incentive to get you to install the app that g…

I would not be at all surprised if the salesman got a little bonus for every app that was confirmed installed on a sale.

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

#132

Post by dotancohen »

seam_carver wrote: post #94
dotancohen wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the camera? I don't really care how the photos look on the device, but I would be sending them to family via Telegram and of course later on the desktop. I do have other E-Ink devices (Boox, Nook) and I love them, so I'd love to get an E-Ink phone. But I don't want to carry a separate camera.

It’s not a great camera. Worse than my iPhone 8. Maybe somewhere around my iPhone 4 or 5S quality. So it's usable. I can upload a video later.

Yes, I would love to see, thank you. GSMArena does not have the phone.

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

#133

Post by [deleted] »

bookstore-romeo wrote: post #12

I'm the owner of a Light Phone II [0] and (other than battery life), the biggest downside to the Light Phone I can envision for most people is the absence of apps like Uber, Apple Pay and Spotify. I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing. This phone seems to have a camera, though, and access to Play Store (although it will likely be messy) really sets it apart from most "…

[deleted]

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

#134

Post by lostmsu »

dotancohen wrote: post #86
bengale wrote: post #46

You can do a lot of this on an iPhone if you use focus modes and automations. I have a deep work mode that sets a blank Home Screen, turns off always on display, sets the phone to greyscale and only allows notifications from my wife. It feels like something like this gets you most of the way there and you can then have different focus levels that ramp up potential distractions. All without carrying two devices or giv…

I've been experimenting with greyscale on my Android phone, it is nowhere near the comfort level of real E-Ink.

How did you do that?

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

#135

Post by dredmorbius »

mckn1ght wrote: post #63
fragmede wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your particular flavor of 'real' dev. https://vscode.dev/ and an SSH app and a web browser.

My bar is being able to execute a compiled binary produced with clang/gcc.

Termux + Android gets you here.

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

#136

Post by wkat4242 »

ianburrell wrote: post #80
btbuildem wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe price is a factor? If this thing cost $100 you'd see mass adoption.

My guess is that the people who want minimal phones buy feature phones. They are less of investment for lifestyle change, can be used as secondary phones, and have nostalgia. I bet this phone would be more popular if it looked more like Blackberry.

And they're thin and light, have week long battery life, don't need a case and can often flip to avoid pocket dialing.

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

#137

Post by wkat4242 »

ummonk wrote: post #28

The mentioned price ($400) seems rather low for a new entry phone. I’d rather they charge a little more to give themselves financial to enable faster manufacturing and snag free deliveries.

Don't forget it competes with $50 feature phones. They can't go too crazy. This is already too much imo.

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

#139

Post by toast0 »

al_borland wrote: post #114
toast0 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing. 5G is more than future proofing, at least where I am, 5G is deployed at new lower frequencies (taken from broadcast TV) that provide for more full coverage. With my new 5g phone, I have less dead zones than my old 4g phone.

I've had 5G turned off on my phone since I got it. There is a dead spot near my house that really annoys me any time I go anywhere. You're making me thinking I should try turning 5G on to see if it helps... but I really don't want to take the hit to my battery.

It's probably worth trying. I gather 5g on early phones is rough on batteries, but my phone is a 2023 and battery life seems fine with 5g on. (old phone was 2020 moto g power, new phone 2023 moto g stylus 5g).

If 4g only makes your phone get stuck searching for signal and 5g would find a signal, turning on 5g will help

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

#140

Post by idle76 »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #37
missedthecue wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the Raz Memory phone. $349 and it comes network unlocked.

$349 minimal phone, um no, a minimal phone should be more like $20 ;). https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1661-pictures-2572.php Not really minimal but the above is the type of thing I have in mind.

This one is the same phone type with 4G(my kids have them): https://m.gsmarena.com/nokia_105_4g-10966.php
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