Dumbphone 2

I've been searching for a decent dumbphone for the better part of a decade. Unfortunately, I cannot really say I've succeeded. In that time I've tried the following phones: Nokia 225, Punkt. MP02, Mudita Pure, Doro 7030 and now a Nokia 2660.

My list of requirements isn't long: 1) should make/receive phone calls, 2) should make/receive text messages, 3) have physical buttons and 4) preferably use 4G and be able to create hotspots (the last requirement, I have deviated on occasionally, like with my current phone). A requirement 0, if you will, is that it needs to do these things at high quality. But in one way or another, they suffer wildly in either hardware or software, or both. Often to the point, where I wonder if the creators themselves use them.

The two Nokias unfortunately have quite a few ad programs (like Facebook of all things), that just clutter up its menu (but which I can thankfully just ignore), its T9 dictionary is weak (though this will be a recurring theme, they are all bad at doing T9 dictionary typing), and its text message storage is severely limited. The Punkt. MP02 had high quality hardware, but again its T9 typing was frustrating, and eventually mine just bricked. The Mudita Pure was probably the worst one, though: it only supported characters A-Z, despite being developed in Poland, which is frustrating when living in a country, that regularly uses characters beyond that. The Doro 7030 had bad buttons, that often wouldn't properly click, leading to missed characters while typing, and it had an annoying behaviour, where sometimes it would just miss calls, and its T9 typing was abysmal.

I still have all the phones (except the Mudita Pure, which I sold to someone in Greece, even though I explicitly warned them it would not work at all with Greek letters, which they later confirmed, as it was just showing squares), and I am generally sad, that it feels like a bit of an electronic waste.

And why not a dumbed down smartphone, then? My requirement 3 isn't debatable, I loath touch screens; they are - for me at least - the bane of modern existence. I cannot avoid them entirely, but I can lower my own exposure. For example, when I bought an induction stove top, I made sure to get one with knobs.

Maybe when I feel ready again, I will try my hand at another[0]...

[0] https://dumbwireless.com/collections/phones

The maximum battery save mode on Samsung (or maybe on all android devices?) does just that - you can set the limit on which apps can be opend. Turn the display to greyscale. Homescreen only shows like 8 apps.

I think for most people, just putting an extra step between you and whatever toxic app(s) you have can be enough. It mostly works for me, and as an added bonus you get insane battery life. I would try that before buying a new phone.

A subscription dumbphone? Sounds dumb, I can just buy a better dumbphone

I bought a cheap Android "dumbphone" specifically for going to the gym. I was constantly getting distracted responding to messages / browsing the internet while working out, so on this phone I only have my workout tracker and Spotify installed. I disabled the Chrome browser though an app restriction tool. The phone has a cheap data-only SIM. My regular phone stays in the car.

I noticed this made a huge difference, I'm much more focused on training and my gym sessions finish a lot faster.

I love the idea and wish I could get something like this in Europe. The main reason I "need" a smartphone over here is that EU banking regulations make it nearly impossible to do online banking without one. Anyone know of similar projects over here that would satisfy that need?

Like all dumbphones, it suffers from the same problem. Specifically, your set of dumb apps isn’t my set of dumb apps. Idgaf about uber, but i need Signal and Slack. You dgaf about those, but you need facebook messenger and google maps. Etc.

A hardware solution to a personal behavioral problem.

I've seen people use Screen Time on iOS to help them 'adjust' their behavior. There was a thread on this just the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48312443

I broke the website with 3 clicks, wow.

Modified TCL Flip running KaiOS?

I don’t see why it ships with a SIM + a forced plan.

That limits the ability to use it (or buy it) in any «unsupported» country.

> we made the intentional decision to not include email on the dumbphone 2 to stay aligned with our values. we created a communication device with essentials that help guide you off your smartphone screen, while still being able to operate in the modern world.

I'm looking for a dumb phone and this looked promising until no email. Email is underrated as a time saver, if you aren't getting hundreds of emails daily which is a choice. Email is not as urgent as text or phone calls and its main advantage is that it separates the sender/receiver schedule or timezone.

People need to learn to guard their time and schedule like a hawk and not operate in chronic reaction mode, i.e. someone else setting your priorities for the day.