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The Light Phone III

thelightphone.com

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Re: The Light Phone III

#41

Post by jauntywundrkind »

It's be interesting to know what's under the hood, software and spec wise. I'd speculate it's probably fairly lightly modified Android, alike the Rabbit.

There's already a Hisense A9 Pro for e-ink phones. $500 and Android 11 are two huge turn-offs though. Trustability is also up there.

This phone looks a bit boxy but overall dimensions seem maybe a bit shorter than most? I keep thinking of the reading experience; when I read on my phone, I turn off the bottom 1/2 of my screen, since I don't need my eyes to be looking down as much. I keep thinking it'd be very neat to have a very small screen device that still has good e-reading. But you'd likely need a companion device for navigation, if you need to jump around or take notes.

Re: The Light Phone III

#42

Post by Rumudiez »

I really want to make the switch, but I still need a web browser for a minimum viable replacement. I don’t want to manage 2 phones just for the occasional restaurant that makes you order from a QR code or parking meter with a busted display

Re: The Light Phone III

#43

Post by therein »

harryvederci wrote: post #2

Are these hackable? If I recall correctly v1 and 2 were completely closed, not sure though.

I had the same thoughts. Hardware potentially looks great. I don't buy into using their software at all. Would be nice to develop for it.

Re: The Light Phone III

#44

Post by seam_carver »

discardedrefuse wrote: post #15
cynosure_north wrote: post #9

As others have said, by the time it's flexible enough to have all the apps I need, it's flexible enough to have all the apps I don't want. It's a shame they got rid of the eink display, that was one of the key selling points of the previous model for me.

If you prefer a more tradition Android experience in e-ink, maybe check out Hisense's line. https://hisenseeink.com/products/hisense-a9-pro-e-ink-smartp...

You shouldn’t link a website that pretends to be an official Hisense website.

https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/s/JEEY4sRbn2

Re: The Light Phone III

#45

Post by SahAssar »

If it's not eink and it's not smaller than other small-ish phones then I don't really see the point of using this besides skinning an existing phone and just not installing apps you don't need.

Get an iphone mini, don't install any apps, turn on greyscale mode. There you have a cheaper version of this, and if you have any apps that you actually need for identification or banks or similar you can actually still use them without needing a second phone.

Re: The Light Phone III

#46

Post by LanternLight83 »

islewis wrote: post #35
sockbot wrote: post #22

So many services now, including government, are requiring phones for "two step" authentication. There are technically alternatives like receiving a phone call or a secret word lookup table, but those are so impractical to use that I need my phone to be a TOTP device. I was close to putting in a preorder but I will need to see TOTP supported before I can drop my regular smart phone.

Could a hardware authenticator (Yubikey) be a workaround for this? Or are there services which don't support this?

> are there services which don't support [non-TOTP MFA]?

Yes, there are many which still only support SMS MFA -- and if you meant TOTP-On-Yubi, that's its own can of worms (limited size, [intentionally?] hard to sync or backup, vender lock-in?). I hope passkeys lead to brouder FIDO/U2F support.

Re: The Light Phone III

#47

Post by thatguymike »

It's very attractive, but even as a 100% distraction-pilled person, my phone really needs Whatsapp, Signal and Spotify to be viable. Much of a phone is unhealthy mind garbage but not all of it.

Re: The Light Phone III

#48

Post by sjducb »

Johnny555 wrote: post #34
sjducb wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An alternative is a really slow and old android phone. One that has a visible lag as it logs in and you have to wait for a minute or so before the apps open.

Doesn't "old android phone" also mean one that's no longer getting security updates? Probably not what you want on a phone that hosts your TOTP tokens.

Good point.

Re: The Light Phone III

#49

Post by etrautmann »

teitoklien wrote: post #38
abdullahkhalids wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, my phone is just a tool to use WhatsApp/Signal. 95% of the people I contact via call or message, I do so via WhatsApp/Signal. The remaining 5% are banks or businesses. I understand the appeal for a simple phone, but this one won't work for people like me.

This is tbh, not for people like you. It’s for people who face severe smartphone addiction and social media and youtube usage, and cannot help themselves curb the habit of doom scrolling away their entire day on Phone. The fact that you, already just use your phone for bare essentials and nothing else. Means, normal smartphones are the best for you. Think of this more like a re-hab pill for addicts :) , normal people…

I think there are an enormous number of people who would differentiate between social media like Instagram and messaging apps like WhatsApp. It seems reasonable to me for a minimalism focused phone to still support messaging but not X, Insta, LinkedIn, Threads, etc.

Re: The Light Phone III

#50

Post by soganess »

I know everyone and their mom is doing it now, but I still love the teenage engineering design proportions (assuming this isn't straight up designed by TE) + razer phone cues this is taking. Also, screws are cool and no one can convince me otherwise.

I would totally just buy it for the shape and hope-to-gosh I can install Lineage on it.

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