Can these dumbphone evangelists convince you to dump smartphones?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/may/28/dumb-flip-phone

by rorylawless • 2 months ago

4 4 2 months ago

Bender2• 2 months ago

There are not many choices for actual dumbphones meaning not running Android. Most of the flip phones I see advertised as dumbphones are still running Android, still have all the Google cruft, still have distractions just much harder to see the screen. The two models of actual dumbphones I have seen are targeting senior citizens and are 4G which is fine provided 4G does not get deprecated any time soon. T-Mobile will start phasing out 4G in 2028 and that will be completed by 2035.

tocs3• 2 months ago

Yes, I would like to see a phone that is almost nothing but a phone and the ability to lock unused feature from easy access. My mother cannot use a smart phone (the all screen and no buttons is too much). The dumb phone she has is almost too much. She keeps pushing the wrong buttons and ending up with an unusable web browser, camera mode, or some other state that keeps her from making the phone call she would like to make.

Bender2• 2 months ago

This one has big buttons and their own OS. [1] No idea how good it is. Not many reviews. T9 texting would be painful. All the good phones that slide open and have a full qwerty keyboard are gone AFAIK. My favorite was the SideKick II. Good phones will never make a come-back as the distraction is what they want people to have. That and the ability to run tracking software.

If she does not leave the house much a landline phone with big buttons might be easier if voice calls are an option along with a big pad of paper with names and numbers.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Easyfone-Elderly-Compatible-Flashligh...

dredmorbius• 2 months ago

There does seem to be some degree of variety.

There's Android, including de-Googled Android.

KaiOS, based on Android Open Source Programme (AOSP) and the former Firefox OS usually further simplified. May or may not include crapware on devices. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KaiOS>.

GrapheneOS, also based on AOSP, but fully Open Source: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GrapheneOS>.

LightOS, used on Lite Phone, is an Android fork. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightOS>

Series 30+ OS (S30+), an Nokia / HMD branded mobile OS based on earlier Nokia operating systems, confusingly Series 30 (2001--2014) and Series 40 (2002--2014). Systems are preloaded with the Opera browser and Facebook app. (Latter is a dealbreaker for me.) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_30%2B>.

Linux: Used by Pinephone (as SailfishOS) and Purism (as PureOS). <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PureOS>.

For those looking for a minimised attack surface, this is disheartening.

I'm ... torn by multiple apathies.

- Many of the phones are expensive particularly for specs. Given low production volumes, sales friction, and lack of co-branding / data mining, this is somewhat understandable.

- For those seeking privacy and distraction-free experiences, devices are often compromised in frustrating ways. I'd prefer a monochrome display, for example, and highly robust call-screening / curtailing features (there are very few people who should be able to contact me). I don't want social media and app preloads, outside a very limited set.

- Devices often have frustrating technical limitations. The Punkt mp02 for example, fails to support most North American mobile networks. Punkt's most recent release is far more a full-featured smartphone, which suggests an abandonment of the firm's earlier ethos.

- Phones with features I find more appealing are often straight out of China, which raises its own host of concerns. Of course, pretty much all phones are built in China, or source Chinese-made parts, so that may well be a moot point. Even given that, compatibility of those devices with other country's mobile networks is a concern.

On call management: I'm pretty convinced I don't want to be be generally reachable by World+Dog, and expect to have quite robust features for limiting / rejecting calls. Ultimately this might best be done by having a full-featured VOIP relay which is my primary number, with select calls forwarded to my mobile. The latter would only accept calls from the first system. The VOIP system would have its own ruleset for accepting, rejecting, directing to voicemail/messaging, or in very rare cases, forwarding, calls.

Pretty much all other smartphone features I'd prefer accessing on a small-form-factor, flexible, full-function laptop. Framework Laptop 12 seems to be the best choice for this.

For dedicated image / video / audio capture, dedicated devices. I've had an e-book reader and find that this, dedicated to that and directly-related tasks alone is preferable to a smartphone. I still have many frustrations with extant e-book reader offerings (most fail abysmally at organising a significant library), but that's another story.

HN has quite a trove of submissions on the dumbphone phenomenenon (<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...>), dating back fourteen years: "The dumbphone strikes back" (2012) <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3533120>. Interestingly, the first comment on that thread reflects my philosophy stated above: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3533428>.

A 2019 "best dumbphone" submission has a number of suggestions, few of which have changed much: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19423434>.

There's a Dumbphone Finder: <https://josebriones.org/dumbphone-finder>, though I can't get the page to work....

And whilst I strongly avoid Reddit these days, there is an /r/dumbphone sub.

Can these dumbphone evangelists convince you to dump smartphones?

Related Stories