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My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

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Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#21

Post by zephyr9 »

octoberfranklin wrote: post #8
zephyr9 wrote: post #3

I switched from an iPhone to Nokia 515 two years ago and vowed never to go back. If I wrote a blog post like this it would probably just be, "Living smartphone-free in the 2020's is like having a superpower, it's utter joy and freedom and and everyone still with a smartphone is a total sucker." Then a couple of weeks ago I felt the social pressure and lack of a good camera so I bought an iPhone 12 mini. It was awful.…

Does your phone still actually work? You must not be in the US... that is a 3G phone and the 3G networks here are either shut off or in the process of being shut off. https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_515-5663.php

I'm in Australia and I think there's a law that carriers need to keep an amount of 3G coverage. So we will likely lose 4G coverage before 3G. Regulation FTW!

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#23

Post by zephyr9 »

pasdechance wrote: post #16
zephyr9 wrote: post #3

I switched from an iPhone to Nokia 515 two years ago and vowed never to go back. If I wrote a blog post like this it would probably just be, "Living smartphone-free in the 2020's is like having a superpower, it's utter joy and freedom and and everyone still with a smartphone is a total sucker." Then a couple of weeks ago I felt the social pressure and lack of a good camera so I bought an iPhone 12 mini. It was awful.…

The 515 is gorgeous too

Heck yes. Whenever I find myself saying "sorry I can't do that with my phone" and I pull out the Nokia to illustrate, people swoon over it.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#24

Post by brtkdotse »

dijit wrote: post #19
brtkdotse wrote: post #11

I too tried to ditch my smartphone, buying one of the re-released Nokias. The experiment was DOA, since there was no way of transferring my contacts from the iPhone to the Nokia. Furthermore, Sweden runs on BankID (an electronic id service) and it wasn’t available for the Nokia. What did work on the other hand, was buying an Apple Watch with cellular. Now my phone is often in my bag/car/house and I’m still reachable…

Correct me if I’m wrong but you can do BankID with a chip and pin device from the major banks? When I first got BankID it was not tied to my phone and it was a lot of hassle to figure out how to make that the case with Handelsbanken (my bank at the time). Much easier with Nordea, nordea having greater English support (though not amazing) and a much better web interface (bordering amazing when compared with Handelsban…

> Correct me if I’m wrong but you can do BankID with a chip and pin device from the major banks?

You’re right, but there’s no way I’m lugging an additional widget everywhere I go.

Now, the Apple Watch doesn’t have it either (yet) but it’s a good enough compromise where I can take a walk or run an errand without needing to take my phone with me.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#25

Post by beermonster »

brtkdotse wrote: post #11

I too tried to ditch my smartphone, buying one of the re-released Nokias. The experiment was DOA, since there was no way of transferring my contacts from the iPhone to the Nokia. Furthermore, Sweden runs on BankID (an electronic id service) and it wasn’t available for the Nokia. What did work on the other hand, was buying an Apple Watch with cellular. Now my phone is often in my bag/car/house and I’m still reachable…

You can always do what I do. Delete 90% of the pre-installed apps from a Smartphone and disable most notifications. Then be really really discerning about what you then install to that base from its App Store. Effectively turning a smartphone into a dum phone/feature phone.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#26

Post by dijit »

brtkdotse wrote: post #24
dijit wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I’m wrong but you can do BankID with a chip and pin device from the major banks? When I first got BankID it was not tied to my phone and it was a lot of hassle to figure out how to make that the case with Handelsbanken (my bank at the time). Much easier with Nordea, nordea having greater English support (though not amazing) and a much better web interface (bordering amazing when compared with Handelsban…

> Correct me if I’m wrong but you can do BankID with a chip and pin device from the major banks? You’re right, but there’s no way I’m lugging an additional widget everywhere I go. Now, the Apple Watch doesn’t have it either (yet) but it’s a good enough compromise where I can take a walk or run an errand without needing to take my phone with me.

Are you using BankID on the go?

I use it mostly to sign contracts, view kivra (IE; check payslips and official mail from companies), sign automatic payments and check my bank account.

I don’t need to do those things on the go, but maybe I’m missing something, since currently I have an iPhone with BankID and I could be forgetting a time when I use it.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#27

Post by Beltalowda »

gnicholas wrote: post #7
zephyr9 wrote: post #3

I switched from an iPhone to Nokia 515 two years ago and vowed never to go back. If I wrote a blog post like this it would probably just be, "Living smartphone-free in the 2020's is like having a superpower, it's utter joy and freedom and and everyone still with a smartphone is a total sucker." Then a couple of weeks ago I felt the social pressure and lack of a good camera so I bought an iPhone 12 mini. It was awful.…

How do you deal with getting around (public transit timing, driving directions/traffic, uber/lyft) without a smartphone?

I just write things down on a piece of paper; or just "yolo it". It works well enough, although lack of GPS can be inconvenient at times, I find it's not a huge deal – this is how almost everyone got around up to ~10 years ago.

I never used taxi services anyway; bus services are pretty good here, and I cycle.

A bigger issue is that a lot of services are "smartphone-only", and can't be done with a regular computer; sometimes this makes sense, sometimes less so. I partly get around this by running Android emulator on my computer when I really can't avoid it, which works "well enough". This will only get worse in the future.

I dislike telling people I don't have a smartphone; people look at you like you're some sort of freak. Recently someone told me that "I do not belong in modern society" shrug. I guess it's not inaccurate, as I dislike a lot of technology and feel it makes our lives worse in many ways (in spite of working as a programmer, but that's just for the money at this point; very hypocritical, yes).

Right now I have a "true" dumb phone (or at least, as dumb as you can get), which can just call and SMS and that's it. Oh, it also has snake, of course, and curiously it also has some other games you need to "buy" for €5 or so. IIRC the EU will switch off 2G in 2024 or so, so I guess I'll have to buy a slightly less "dumb phone" by then. We'll see.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#28

Post by MrJagil »

Just a tip -- I use my apple watch and leave my phone at home. I can listen to podcasts and music, call and read emails and texts, use maps and the fitness app. I save up all my emails and texts for when I'm sitting down and with my ipad. Turns out, when I'm with friends or my girlfriend or commuting i don't need a phone. And when I'm at work or home or in a cafe I have my ipad or computer.

It's not for everyone, just saying there exists devices between dumb and smart phone for those of us who wants to tune out a little bit.

Edit: Re battery, I’d say 12 hours. If i use it a whole lot, which i rarely do, i’d say 6 hours. Whenever i come home, i put it on the charger by the door, next to my keys.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#29

Post by octoberfranklin »

zephyr9 wrote: post #21
octoberfranklin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your phone still actually work? You must not be in the US... that is a 3G phone and the 3G networks here are either shut off or in the process of being shut off. https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_515-5663.php

I'm in Australia and I think there's a law that carriers need to keep an amount of 3G coverage. So we will likely lose 4G coverage before 3G. Regulation FTW!

Government-granted spectrum monopolies... two wrongs make a right I guess.

Re: My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver

#30

Post by hughrr »

I tried moving to a proper dumb phone, a Nokia 105, a few years back. I found out that it’s a massive social disadvantage, very isolating and means you have to carry more crap around all the time and keep more context in your head. It’s ten times more difficult to adapt to changes without information at hand. Experiment ended after three months and I’m glad it did.

I get the ideological thing here but realistically smart phones are a really really good bit of tech and I adore mine.

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