Every single time one of these new "minimal", "dumb", "lightweight" phones comes up today it's just marketing wrapped around a kneecapped Android device. I am in the market for something simpler that does nothing more or little else than play local media/audio, read common document/text formats, ordinary SMS, current standard of telephony, and a different OS than Android. I have not seen anything like this yet.
So it still requires a user to have self-control. If people had that, they could just uninstall the problematic apps from the phone they already have.
… if you have root access with adb (assuming android, I don’t know much about iOS)
Why do we even need 12 GB RAM for distraction free phone? Why there is no microSD port?
Maybe swipe typing isn't as popular as I first thought.
Previous spotlight on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40609095
It's an Android phone, with pretty decent specs. Nothing is stopping you from installing social media apps and doomscrolling all day and night, and chances are you will do that if that's what you do with your phone, just as you can just delete social media apps from your current phone.
The custom UI and physical keyboard are innovative though, I don't think I've seen a physical keyboard with touch support before, and I wish them the best.
Though you can probably just install Aurora Store or F-Droid and install from there. Some apps don't work (you'll notice they didn't show Uber in the examples) and recently I've been having issues with Aurora and suspect its days are numbered so I'd be concerned about the future of that before buying something like this.
I’m not a fan of the physical keyboard, the broad shape(they say one handed use immediately followed by a video of someone using both hands to type). I’m okay with the candy bar all screen phones of today. The UX is pretty cool if I can have it on my “regular” phone..
Anybody have an idea if it is doable on an iPhone or an android phone?
If you set up a swipe to launch another launcher, you can have all your widgets there, as sometimes that's nice for a multi-app overview of Stuff™ at a glance.
Sadly for now they’re too expensive to buy just as an experiment.
-Phone/texting -Messengers like WhatsApp/Telegram/etc. -Maps -Music/podcasts
Ideally with e-ink.
I want something that doesn't compete with a full-fledged smartphone (which I'd still keep for travel and stuff). I want something to take to the office, hanging out with friends, etc, where bringing the smartphone becomes a decision.
For some anything after SMS is not dumb enough (ok, this still exists), others would be ok with just a browser, and you said Maps and WA/etc/.
I am not even sure I could give you a good enough definition, I'm kinda happy enough with Android and just ignore any dumb/minimal angle, because if I only take a phone with me I generally want to potentially use it as a computer replacement. There are really only 2 people I call regularly.
Yes, but I think anyone interested in this would know what they don't want: TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, or any other app that wants you to spend maximum time in their app.
Unless we're talking about complete purists who basically want a 2003 level phone that only does call/text, there's lots of flexibility.
Someone who wants a less addicting phone but doesn't necessarily require maps is unlikely to not buy because of a maps app. It's not like they'd spend 3 hours a day getting directions.
And HN is arguably better than doomscrolling TikTok or Facebook, even with the current LLM/Rust/LLM in Rust spam.
If it natively plugged into the Apple ecosystem, now that would be difficult to refuse.
Some still disagree.
Creating a minimal phone is almost impossible, because it means different things to different people. Mine could be a Nokia style candy bar design, because I don't need a large screen or a camera, but it does require completely custom applications.
I hate switching phones and I am not buying short-lived devices anymore if I can help it.
as for the rest, I fail to see why pay extra for this niche nonsense when you can achieve exactly same thing with whatever Android launcher you prefer, only differentiator of this device is physical keyboard
crap specs with only 90Hz display and MediaTek Dimensity 8300 for 600+ USD and it is not even released yet, but maybe in few months when these specs will look even worse than they already are
I'm typing on my pixel 6 Pro and it still feels satisfying.
Gimmick?