Why I Still Use a Dumb Phone

http://greatist.com/happiness/smartphone-dumbphone-why-off-grid

by acav • 13 years ago

42 60 13 years ago

fsck--off• 13 years ago

I'm surprised the author didn't mention battery life. My dumb phone can go several days without needed a recharge, it isn't unusual for the battery to last one week or more if I'm in an area with good reception.

eksith• 13 years ago

Indeed. I bought a "dumb" GSM Nokia before flying to Sri Lanka and * gasp * not only was I able to have 2 lines, even two different carriers on the same phone, without too much hassle (something nearly unheard of the U.S.) I just drop a bit of cash at any ol' cell shop and I'm good to go.

Furthermore, I actually own my bloody phone!

marcosdumay4• 13 years ago

My smart phone's battery lasts for more than a week if I don't connect to a data network, and it's in the low end of battery sizes out there.

jdludlow• 13 years ago

I still use a dumb phone. The front screen doesn't work, and I just added a piece of duct tape to keep the battery cover on. One of the biggest reasons that I haven't switched is that when I'm walking across campus at work 95% of the people have their face buried in a screen. There is zero eye contact.

A desperate plea to phone manufacturers, even though I realize I'm in the extreme minority. I would snap-purchase a dumb phone that had the following feature list and a $200 price tag:

1. Crystal clear voice quality.

2. There is no 2.

I don't want a camera. I don't want a voice recorder. I don't want an mp3 player. I don't want a web browser. I don't want a flashlight. I don't want text messaging or email. This might sound insane, but I actually just want a phone.

nicksergeant• 13 years ago

The thing is, most people don't use their "phones" for talking, anymore. And "phone" manufacturers realize that. They're putting their money into smartphones, which is where the market demand is. I'd be shocked to see any improvements in "dumb" phones.

bergie• 13 years ago

I'd go even further and claim that there are no "smartphones" anymore either, just pocket-sized tablets: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/no-smartphones/

Dylan16807• 13 years ago

Do you want an address book? Once you have a screen capable of displaying a couple lines of text it's basically zero cost or effort to implement mp3 playing and text messaging, so you're probably stuck with those features. Oh, and a clock too.

Also, I completely understand you not wanting most features, but why would you not want a flashlight? Flashlight mode is very convenient 1% of the time, trivially ignored the other 99%.

pcl• 13 years ago

Oh, and a clock too.

This brings to mind an unrelated product design gripe of mine. Two things that I hate about my kitchen are the clock on my microwave and the clock on my stovetop. I've got a perfectly serviceable clock on the wall in my kitchen; I neither need nor want clocks on those displays.

Sadly, it seems as though every manufacturer of anything with an LCD takes this same approach: we can put a clock on our widget, so of course we should put one on it. In the case of my microwave, this leads to dedicated buttons for configuring the clock. And naturally, every time the power cuts out, these clocks end up blinking at me in anger. Naturally, neither appliance provides a means to disable the clocks. And a piece of tape doesn't do the job, since the same LCD is used for all other cooking metrics.

A plea to product designers everywhere: please don't add mandatory features just because you can.

fixxer2• 13 years ago

No camera?! But how do you get arrested for taping a cop?!

Serious note: I have the dumbest phone possible with a camera for purpose of emergency documentation. Think car accidents, property damage, lost kid, etc.

fidz2• 13 years ago

Buy a pocket camera. Those are really cheap right now, with far better image quality, including taking a photo in a very low light environment. Those things are also very fast to get started. Press power button, aim, shoot. (instead of turn on the phone, tap the camera button, aim, pinch to zoom, then tap camera button)

Ilmesnkie_Jones• 13 years ago

I would take a dumb phone that didn't call anyone but only texted if it had the advantages of my last dumb phone: week long batter life, drop-ability, and the ability for me to leave it in cabs and have it returned because no one wants it.

I get/make a vanishingly small number of actual voice calls these days.

sbierwagen• 13 years ago

Sounds like you want a Motorola T900, essentially a two way pager. It runs on a single AA.

http://www.superpager.net/

Amadou• 13 years ago

Too bad they essentially closed their doors, the Peek was great.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_%28mobile_Internet_device...

mirsadm• 13 years ago

It is not difficult to find a phone that fulfils those requirements. Nokia 301 sells for <$100 and makes phone calls.

ckrailo• 13 years ago

Voice quality isn't a manufacturer problem but a carrier technology problem. It's easy to get $200 good microphones (see podcasting). (My electrical engineering friend works in the cellular tech industry and tells me such.)

That said, I think we're getting there. LTE dumbphones that transmit using VOIP instead of standard voice tech could work, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were rules about 911 connectivity or something similar that prevent them from coming out.

stephengillie7• 13 years ago

The blog post is a type of hipster humble-brag about the non-disadvantages of old tech. It's like posting about how physical books are superior because they don't require power sources and are easy to trade between friends without DRM.

My phone is nearly indestructible.

I've had my HTC Incredible for at least 3 years. I have an ugly case on the back and the same scratch guard over the screen as almost everyone else. And I built a cardholder on the back of it, so the phone is also my wallet.

I will drop it from waist height onto concrete at will, as a demonstration. I'm clumsy and I've dropped it at least 30 times, but it's still 100% functional. No screen cracks or case issues.

(Except for the LED melting the back a bit because I had the flashlight on High Intensity and it turned on in my pocket)

(ps: Why are there icons and a login box covering part of the text of the blog post? The blog was difficult to read because UI elements were in the way.)

fidz2• 13 years ago

My smartphone was stolen, then i decide to buy a dumb phone. Then i felt a better life. No waiting for notification, focus on my work. I can forget everything and focus on what i am doing. Email, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instant Message notification on smartphone isn't a good thing for me.

I think my stolen smartphone nearly ruin my life. Previously i really attached to that phone, waiting for "not-yet-known" notification. Thanks God i aware about that thing, and i am really grateful with my dumbphone.

webwanderings• 13 years ago

I don't have smart phone mainly because I think their recurring costs are a rip off. Besides, I have no need to carry computer in my pocket for just a few hours when I'm away from the desk computer.

zanny• 13 years ago

I have a tablet and a dumb phone. One is for media consumption on the go, I have a keyword in case I want to do something on it, and if I want to make a phone call I use the dumb phone.

The tradeoffs to get a good interactive experience in your pocket (screen size, mainly) negatively impact the functional behavior of a smartphone as an earpiece (for phone calls). I think my preferred all in one device would be a tablet with a headset jack. Keeping the screen on the thing that goes next to the ear makes one end of the deal suffer.

pure_narcotic• 13 years ago

I have a dumb phone, it was the cheapest phone I could buy. I sit behind a computer all day for work; I program at home as a hobby. The ability to contact people is essential, however I don't see the need to insert yet another computer into my life in order to do so.

taeric• 13 years ago

Just because you have a smart phone, does not mean you automatically have to hook it up to all of your email or "hangouts." It is quite possible to have a phone and use it for your own purposes. To think that the only way to "get lost" is to avoid a smart phone is akin to saying you refuse to ever buy a map of where you are going because that would be too easy.

That said, we avoided them for a time simply because of the cost. Paying upwards of $100 a month is insane for a phone bill. We are currently trying out republic wireless. They've been rather nice so far.

kephra• 13 years ago

I own two android devices, a Defy+ and a Nexus 7, and I have no use for them, and instead use an old gray screen Nokia dumb phone.

The main reasons are:

- Battery life. My Nokia holds 7-14 days, depending on how much I actively use it.

- Industrial customers: I can not enter factories with a phone that has a camera.

I thought about using the Defy+ as a navigation aid for sailing, but:

- The GPS is unable to get a lock, if there is no cell phone connection.

- The display is not readable in sunlight.

- The compass is a bad joke.

So the only use case remaining is: A water proof camera that shows only noise in dim light with a display that is not readable in bright light.

I have unpacked, loaded, booted the Nexus 7 once. Since then its collecting dust in the shelf.

ryanobjc• 13 years ago

I can't get lost, too good sense of direction.

So I carry a smart phone anyways.

lightcatcher3• 13 years ago

I also still use a dumb phone (flip phone, no internet, no apps). Here's my logic for not getting a smartphone:

1. similar to the author of the blog post, I appreciate the idealistic benefits of not having a smartphone. I already spend too much time on the internet, and I feel no desire to spend more time online. Additionally, I've somewhat come to enjoy asking people for directions in cities when I'm lost (particularly when I don't speak the language of the city).

2. Cost. As of now, the only times when I think "A smartphone would be convenient" is when I'm in a new city and I don't know my way around. I figure this only happens for a couple of weeks per year for me, and the small amount of convenience a smartphone would add is not worth the cost of a phone. I recognize that I would probably get more hooked on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/whatever and that I might view that as utility if I owned a smartphone, but right now I view that as a time/productivity cost to avoid.

3. Shit like http://www.beneaththewaves.net/Projects/Motorola_Is_Listenin... . I have much less idea what sort of things are happening on a smartphone compared to a desktop/laptop, and I don't think I'm satisfied with the current state of mobile security. Also, having a smart phone is essentially moving the sensors closer to yourself (front facing camera, GPS, accelerometer, etc) and leads to a much more intimate form of computing. This just makes the eventual privacy violations even more damaging.

On the other hand, here are some things that made me wish I had a smartphone:

1. Currently, I wish I could use Simple (formerly Bank Simple) for my banking. However, "to be eligible (for Simple), you must: Own an iOS device with iOS 5.0 or higher, or an Android phone running Android OS 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) or higher.". :(

2. I'm in the process of writing an application that needs to know if I've completely tasks (real world offline tasks) at given times. Without a smartphone, I can push requests no further than email, which I only see when I check my laptop. Being able to push requests into my pocket would be very useful.

3. I'm somewhat interested in gathering personal data throughout the day (such as heart rate, how many steps I've walked, etc). A smartphone is pretty much necessary to use any products like Jawbone UP that allow this.

I realize some of my reasons against getting a smartphone directly contradict some of my reasons for wanting a smartphone, but I think that's actually very representative of the mixed bag smartphones are.

marcosdumay4• 13 years ago

Don't thing your phone is not spying on you just because you can't program it. A dumb phone is still a computer, it just lacks a touchscreen and a different OS.

lightcatcher3• 13 years ago

And all of my Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc passwords and traffic... As well as a front facing camera, which could be used for eye tracking.

jeffasinger• 13 years ago

What about pushing them to your pocket via text message?

lightcatcher3• 13 years ago

That's the current plan. My application requires me to respond to these text messages, but a richer interaction through some sort of GUI (either web app or native smartphone app) would be much more practical here.

toble• 13 years ago

I seem to be giving up on modern technology after being totally enveloped in it for the past decade. Fountain pen, vinyl, feature phone, automatic watch etc.

Maybe it's a side effect of the recession, maybe I don't like what the internet/technology is becoming, but I'm realising that these older products are in many ways better.

A watch that doesn't run on a battery and is a work of art; an album that's collectable and real; a phone that lasts weeks on the same charge; a pen that feels more like I'm using some sort of artistic tool and so on.

danneu• 13 years ago

As usual, it's an enumeration of things that have nothing to do with your phone.

The author paints a picture of a life of serendipity, surprise, getting lost in a quaint cobblestone village, giggling with strangers, discovering a hidden coffee shop, like your life suddenly becomes a romantic comedy on the streets of Prague because your smartphone has been keeping you from bumping into Hugh Grant.

Transcend your phone.

Vivtek• 13 years ago

I've often wondered why I keep bumping into Hugh Grant.

(I keep the dumb phone for the low cost and, so help me, flip phones still make me feel like Captain Kirk asking to be beamed up.)

jpatokal• 13 years ago

Unfortunately voice quality is almost entirely a function of the network you're on, which is obviously outside the phone's control. Regardless of how awesome the phone is, call quality will be terrible if it can only suck bits through a straw one at a time.

Scaevolus• 13 years ago

Phone (and network) support for wideband audio (marketed as HD Audio) improves call quality dramatically.

ddoolin• 13 years ago

I honestly don't like articles like these anymore. It's pretty much the same things regurgitated over and over, and typically comes off as holier-than-thou, at least a big portion of the time. Especially once you meet someone like this in person. By "someone like this", I don't mean your grandparents (or parents?) or relatives living out in the woods...

Being poor is about the only good reason, and another $10 - $30 a month wouldn't really break the bank for most people...

If you can't keep a smartphone for ideological reasons, that has nearly nothing to do with the phone, and almost everything to do with you and your personality.

Someone mentioned "owning" their dumb phone as a pro. Pretty sure I own my smartphones. All of them that I've ever had have been mine. I can do whatever I want with it, no questions asked. I don't even have to pay for it if I don't feel like it, with no repercussions other than having my service turned off and a credit ding, just like any other phone. Technologically, I own it even more, as I can do much more with a smartphone in regards to customization than I can with a dumb phone.

coolnow• 13 years ago

I hope you don't "own" an iPhone (after Jan 2013) because aren't they supposed to be illegal to unlock unless with carrier permission?

marcosdumay4• 13 years ago

Just because you phone does email, instant messaging, facebook, twitter, or whatever, you are not required to use them. You can even go out and let the phone home if you want.

PavlovsCat• 13 years ago

You know what I miss? Landlines. For a lot of reasons, probably most of them nostalgia.. still, when I'm rich I will only be reachable by landline or letter, that's kind of my goal in life.

jeza• 13 years ago

Sometimed I wish I still had a dumb phone. I used to charge my phone once or twice a week, when it was just a basic GSM phone with voice and SMS. Now I have to charge my iPhone pretty much every night. I could probably get away with charging it every 1.5-2 days though running out of battery on the second day could be rather inconvenient. The biggest challenge is when I'm away from electricity for a few days. The irony is that I sometimes have to keep my phone switched off when I'm away on camping trips, so I end up being less connected than in the past.

free652• 13 years ago

Smart phones can go days without recharge if you disable the data (edge or 3g/4g). I was traveling with my iphone 3gs in France without data and didnt have to recharge for over a week. Only light SMS usage, may be 1 txt a day.

I use my smartphone as an iPod/Audio Books reader, occasional snap of whiteboarding/documents.

mkhalil• 13 years ago

Or you could get a smart phone, and not suscribe to social networks on it. If you like getting lost, maybe you should just a) not check your GPS on the phone b) take trips to go to places you've never heard of. The internet can help, but doesn't need to me your source. I respect your decision, but at the end it's all a matter of self-discipline. In H.S. people were face in dumb phones as well...

graycat4• 13 years ago

His phone is "dumb" but mobile. So, I'm more old fashioned than he is because my phone is "dumb" but a wire-line desk set and not mobile.

Why? Because when I use the phone, I want the rest of my relevant stuff handy -- paper and pen for notes, various papers, and relevant data on my computer.

But I can't make or receive mobile calls? Right.

To receive a call while I am traveling, my voice phone provider, also my ISP, has a message recorder, and then I can get the message via e-mail and download it. Really, for most calls, I would not want to receive a call while traveling because then I would not have materials, desk, etc. to be able to handle the call well. E.g., maybe I'm walking down an isle at a grocery store looking for a one quart or larger jar of sweet pickle relish and get a phone call about something important where I have no desk to take notes, note pad, background info, privacy, etc. No thanks.

For making calls while traveling, mostly I don't want to do that either. My work is to write my software, and I don't travel much. So, when traveling, I would only call for car emergencies, and those are too rare to be worth having a mobile phone, data plan, keeping batteries charged, etc.

And now I'm concerned about privacy: As it is, there is no way the NSA or FBI can track me via my smartphone signal because I have no smartphone! So, the NSA and FBI can't use a smartphone to track me to my local convenience store to buy gas for my car and lawn mower, milk, French vanilla ice cream, and wheat bread, to a local pizza shop for a pickup for dinner, to Sam's Club, Wal-Mart, and A&P for groceries, cat food, etc., to a coin laundry (until I get my Maytag fixed), to Chinese carry-out, to a hardware store to get epoxy resin glue to fix loose joints in wooden furniture, two cycle oil for my grass trimmer, wet-dry sand paper to use for sharpening my French chef's kitchen knife -- really top national security stuff like that!

Mostly my information, especially that relevant to phone calls, is on my computer which is in a mid-tower case on a table at home and usually in front of me and, thus, also not mobile. E.g., for a phone number, that's on my computer with other relevant info and easy to find with some of my software. And I have a little very simple software to dial phone numbers -- just write some characters to a COM port starting with AT and have the phone wires going into and out of an old FAX modem (also good for sending letters via FAX to my reps in Congress).

For a mobile phone to have my collection of phone numbers, I would have to copy over the data and, in the future, sync the two locations of my data. Also a smart phone, with maybe something from Microsoft an exception, won't run my most heavily used piece of software that, in particular I use for managing information relevant to phone calls, my favorite text editor. If my favorite editor were emacs, then maybe it would also run on a Linux based smartphone. But, as it is a smartphone is a computer but a pain to use instead of my main computer and, then, a sync issue.

If Microsoft wants to do something to get ahead, then they should make much more clear how to do syncs, backups, restores, including of options on software, and the boot partition, and how to use a home computer as a server for mobile devices, e.g., give good explanations of VPNs and other security issues of opening my main computer to access from mobile devices.

Finally, if I had a smartphone, then it might get stolen, and the data on it might be confidential.

Even worse, if the smartphone had an easy way to get a VPN connection back to my main computer as a server, then maybe all of the data on my main computer -- e.g., my software which should be treated as a trade secret -- could be stolen.

Also, now police seem to like to take smartphones and look through all the data, photographs, etc. there and strain to find excuses to start big legal cases. Also, with my smartphone in their hands and a VPN connection back to my main computer, they would also have my trade secret software.

If I have no smartphone, then police can't grab it and violate my Fourth Amendment rights.

If I had a smartphone and had it visible and if there were some police doing something or other, then the police could go wacko (they basically don't like citizens recording or even watching what they do and know that in practice they can get away with a lot of bullying of citizens they don't like), accuse me of taking their pictures, rough me up, arrest me, search my car, plant drugs in my car and then charge me with possession of drugs, take my smartphone, etc. They could take my car. In searching my car, they could find excuses to trash my car, e.g., cut open the seats. If I had a dog, then they could find an excuse to shoot my dog. Just having a smartphone could trigger some not very nice police to get me into a lot of legal trouble for no more reason than my just having a smartphone. Indeed, likely police are afraid of smartphones.

With no smartphone, police have fewer excuses to bully me around, get their sadistic enjoys, and get me into a lot of legal trouble for no reason at all.

stephengillie7• 13 years ago

1. Go wifi-only. (Turn on airplane mode and also wifi). This doubled my battery life.

2. Text-editor app (I like TED) and Dropbox/Drobo/Async to sync it.

3. Who still uses paper? That's such an edge-case :p

graycat4• 13 years ago

My favorite editor is KEdit. Mostly at my computer, I'm looking at a Web page in Firefox or a text file in KEdit. I use KEdit for notes of wide variety, phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc., any high quality word processing via TeX, typing in source code for software, looking at the log files from my Web site development, etc. Since I use KEdit on Windows XP (hope it works on Windows 7 and Windows Server when I convert to them), maybe it would work on Windows phone.

3. Who still uses paper? That's such an edge-case :p

During a phone call, that's the only way I know to capture info quickly. E.g., if the call is for me to get some info, say, a name, phone-number, or e-mail address, then I write it quickly on paper. Maybe I should type in the info, but I don't use a head set on my phone so only have one hand available for capturing the info.

clarky07• 13 years ago

These articles seem like bizarre humble brags to me. You want to get lost? Really? That seems absurd, but you can totally just not use the map feature if you want.

Battery life. My phone lasts all day easily. Is it really hard to plug it in next to the bed at night? Not something I have trouble with.

My dumb phone helps me know myself because I don't have angry birds? What does that even mean? Just don't play angry birds?

Waiting for not yet known notification? Really, you just stop living your life and stare at your phone waiting for it to buzz? Sounds like you have bigger issues than your phone.

PaulHoule• 13 years ago

I just bought a prepaid phone and service for about $10 a month.

I can't see how people afford data plans that cost $100+ a month.

Why I Still Use a Dumb Phone

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