I dropped a comment there where I said that while I spent hours researching the "perfect dumb phone", there's certain features that are nearly exclusive to a smartphone or just plain work better on a smartphone, including having a decent camera and GPS/map with me at all times.
IMO, I think it's easier to simply dumb down your existing smartphone by stripping it of all apps except for just the bare essentials. For example, my phone only handles calls, SMS, maps, camera, books, etc. No web browser, social media, fancy messaging app, or even an app store. Though this may change sometimes and I'll sideload F-Droid or some other app depending on my needs (like traveling). https://chuck.is/phone
This only seems applicable if the form factor itself is not a concern for you. If I was to change to a dumbphone, I'd want a long (multiple days) battery life even with moderate usage, physical keys and robustness as a start. Similarly, a good camera or GPS would be features I would expect and hope are excluded from the dumbphones. There's no way to achieve these by taking a smartphone and stripping out software -- there are hardware changes needed.
What you've described seems to me more a 'locked down smartphone' rather than a dumbphone, and the two are not synonyms imho.
Correct. My phone isn't a "dumb phone", but it is certainly "dumbed down". I think that the people partially adopting or experimenting with using dumb phones are doing so to curb habits or escape something. Oftentimes, I think this can be done by simply dumbing down their existing smartphone, or "locking down" as you put it.
This is exactly it. I of course have a web browser on my laptop. If I'm running errand, going to the grocery store, or going for a walk, I have never had a need for it other than wanting to satisfy some random curiosity. Not having a web browser on my phone for the last 4-5 months, I haven't run into any issues. If I'm simply bored, I have koreader installed which is synced to my ereader at home. If I do have that random curiosity pop up, I'll take a note and research it later.
Dumb phone cut you out of the majority of communication protocols, no whatsapp, imessage, facetime, or discord. Gen Z is one of the first hyperconnected generations that grew up using social media since they were born. Dumb phones are not on the rise, this is a terrible article. In the US, it's actually hard to get a dumb phone for certain carriers since 3g/gsm bands were turned off making VoLTE a required feature. I personally can't see myself ever choosing to get a phone with a bad digital camera.
It does appear that they are -- at least, I'm seeing them with increasing frequency. I'll be getting one myself once my current smartphone dies.
> I personally can't see myself ever choosing to get a phone with a bad digital camera.
That's fair, but not everyone has the same need. Personally, I would be perfectly fine with a phone that had no camera whatsoever. I almost never use the cameras on my smartphone anyway.
I'm not trying to convince you of anything, and I certainly haven't done anything like a study on this. I'm just reporting what I personally see around me.
I'm a zoomer, I used a Nokia C2-01 for the better part of 2019 to 2023 (I also gave the Pinephone a shot, but found it too finicky and fragile). The main reason I switched to a One Plus is because 3G is being shut down soon in my country.
I had alot of fun figuring out how to transcode movies & netflix shows for it, as well as writing J2ME apps. If there was a modern J2ME feature phone with 4G I'd probably use that. Who needs more than 100Mhz on a mobile device, honestly?
Some dumb phones support Whatsapp, but who knows how long that platforms will be supported and good luck typing on that keyboard. Maybe it will be cool once whisper like tools will be able to run in realtime on it.
Just get a point and shoot camera. If you also need a GPS, you can get one of those TomTom devices they used to put in cars.
Dedicated MP3 players are also still a thing if you want a soundtrack for your life.
Now all you need is that sweet candy bar phone, throw all this in a large fanny pack and off you go.
PS: an old school wallet would also be useful, Symbian OS doesn’t have Apple Pay yet.
> Dumb phone cut you out of the majority of communication protocols, no whatsapp, imessage, facetime, or discord
If you have a Mac, you can access all of these on your mac. If you have any other desktop computer I believe you can still use any except FaceTime and iMessage.
A friend of mine has a dumb phone but is still a part of group chats via his computer.
I had one of the last Windows Phones before they were discontinued (Nokia Lumina 950). Loved it. It died in 2018 on a camping trip when I let it trickle-charge on a Solar Panel. (Don't do that people!). I took the opportunity to get back to basics and replaced it with a 3G Nokia 3310. I used that for nearly 2 years...until my phone provider sunset 3G support.
It was actually quite refreshing. It's nice to be back on a Smart Phone, but it was great to break the bad habits and when I picked up a Smart Phone again, I knew what traps I was hoping to avoid falling into and could be much more deliberate in my usage of the tool.
Trickle Charging it caused something do go really wrong with the display circuitry and over half of the screen was randomized color-static looking garbage. The phone itself seemed to operate fine, but the display issues rendered it useless.
I later learned that if you use a portable solar panel battery pack, let the pack charge and then plug in your phone. Don't plug a near-dead solar panel battery pack into your phone and let. There's something about the low-voltage trickle-charge that can be terrible for electronics. I'm not an EE, so I don't understand the details. Perhaps someone else can explain it better.
> I later learned that if you use a portable solar panel battery pack, let the pack charge and then plug in your phone. Don't plug a near-dead solar panel battery pack into your phone and let. There's something about the low-voltage trickle-charge that can be terrible for electronics. I'm not an EE, so I don't understand the details. Perhaps someone else can explain it better.
I'm interested in learning more about this. I recently got a USB solar panel (with no battery). I wonder if it has anything to do with voltage dropping way below USB spec (which I've seen when the panel can't provide the current the device wants, which seems to be pretty easy when the panel is small and/or not in full sun).
Lots of throwback tech is in vogue with younger people, wired headphones being the most obvious. Not sure about dumb phones. r/dumbphones does have 17k subs.
I think the desire is there for a less connected life experience, but some of the utility of smartphones is undeniable, as is the collective action problem around disconnecting from social media, which unless everyone in your social circle does it is tantamount to voluntary social isolation for teens.
Re: wired headphones: I am so sick of wireless controllers on consoles. The switch controllers are a nightmare - constantly disconnecting, nearly impossible to reconnect. I got my first-ever xbox last month and the wireless controllers are also a pain. I would play both consoles much more if I had wired controllers - and probably also buy more games. (edit: I'm mid-30s)
I grew up on wired controllers—my only wireless controller before I got a PS3 some time in my mid-20s was the wireless version of the NES Four Score (which is, technically, a wireless adapter) and I rarely used it. IR-based, just like a TV remote, LOL.
Nonetheless, despite repeatedly setting them up, my ("hacked" to have a ton more games, so the content available is extensive and excellent) NES and SNES classics have seen perhaps twenty hours of play between them in (IIRC) about four years, purely because corded controllers are so annoying that every time I think of playing them, I change my mind when I think about untangling the cords and having to adjust where I sit in the room and all that.
I've had nearly zero problems with any 1st-party wireless controllers since they became standard; they've been nothing but an improvement—but, I've lived in detached houses that whole time, so maybe it's just because I've been in relatively low-EM-noise environments.
I do recall friends complaining about reliability on e.g. the Wavebird and other non-standard wireless controllers, on earlier consoles, but I only ever used wired controllers for those generations.
I'll never give up my wired studio headphones. I've only started using wireless ear buds for sporty type things, but for everything else, I want my wired connection without whatever it takes to get it to me wirelessly.
When did wireless headphones become the default? While I have planned to eventually move to wireless, a decent pair without much latency is relatively new, no?
These days there's lots of gen z influencer types who could very easily afford airpods or beats or pixel buds or whatever and choose to use the basic white wired headphones. Airpods have been around since 2016, so some kind of low latency earbuds have been around nearly 7 years
switching to a dumb phone does not equal voluntary social isolation.
It's perfectly possible to have a dumb phone and with it time-box your screen time to when you are in front of a laptop (that doesn't fit into your pocket). For me it's still 2 hours a day after a long day at work. But that's a lot better than looking at life through the screen nearly every waking hour of a normal day.
I've been doing it for years. And it saved my life metaphorically and also literally.
I actually miss Twitter + SMS on a dumb phone. It was a really weird time 2009/2010 where I would only use a dumb phone + SMS + Twitter to keep followers up to date concerning parties and events.
I have not used either for a couple of years by now but am tied to my "smart" phone because of various services not even offering websites at times.
I don't even check my mails every day... Time to ponder where I took the wrong turn I guess.
My life is too complex for a dumb phone. I want TWO phones! One smart and fully featured (iPhone) and one dumb with just essential communication (phone/text). One telephone number, rings on both - is that so hard? I guess maybe with a "virtual" telephone this might be possible but those are increasingly not allowed IRL.
I actually find the smaller sized Apple Watch fills this exact need nicely. Screen is too small to leverage much beyond phone and text. Can leave the phone at home and still use the same number. Lightweight maps there if you need it in a pinch.
Not sure why this is downvoted it's a common opinion and one I've also thought about a lot.
I am actually about to do it, I think it's actually trivially easy if you give up on the phone number being the same for voice calls. If you have two iPhones then you can still get iMessage on both. And like who needs voice calls. If you really care you could forward one to the other.
The "dumb" one you set up MDM on and disable the browser if you want to really mean it. Just have text messaging, Kindle, spotify/music, and google maps. Seems like a decent compromise.
I remember seeing articles with this same title 4 years ago. "Digital detoxes" are definitely a thing, but probably aren't indicative of any sort of long term trend. Kids will buy a dumbphone, use it for a few weeks and then go back to their real phone so they can look at imessage and discord.
I just got rid of the phone entirely. Humans did fine without them for uh, checks notes, all recorded history. I have a VoIP to use as a MFA bucket (doesn't always work). There are plenty of reasons not to go this route, which I'm sure will be in any replies I get. Yet it works for me.
> Humans did fine without them for uh, checks notes, all recorded history.
This really isn't the zing people think it is. Not having a smartphone isn't just hard because you can't look at memes all day, it's hard because society all but requires us to have them to participate.
If anything, if you are able to live in today's world with just a dumb phone, it is a luxury.
If you actually define the terms "society" "require" and "participate" in a way that refers to real things, it's very likely that the majority are luxuries themselves and for those that are absolutely necessary to existence, there are workarounds that don't require you have an internet connected device on your person 24/7. Exceptions do exist, I'm certain, but the majority of people aren't part of that group.
While its not possible to live these days without a smart phone, one thing I try to do (in Android Lineage) is to have the default user profile as dumb as possible. I install different apps in different profiles. This way it becomes harder to switch from one app to another. This also hrlps to leave apps you don't want to frequently use stowed away and a little harder to reach (that requires different pin etc). So far it has helped me to reduce my mobile screen consumption quiet a bit.
I've messed around with using a dumb phone + a tablet because I didn't want to totally lose access to things like whatsapp.
I liked the fact that I could be unplugged most of the time but still had access to all the apps I needed but occasionally ran into random pain points where a smart-phone was expected. Such as: QR code menus, having to use a phone to check out a propane tank. Weird stuff like that. Google maps was also horrendous on it.
I tried to go to a dumb phone in the past, but I quickly realized that modern life is way too dependent on a smartphone.
Between using your phone gps to drive around, ordering food, unlocking doors, and check-in out kids from daycare, while not impossible, it would be very inconvenient to not have a smartphone
When I was using a dumbphone I just took photos of Google Maps on my computer before I headed out, this once resulted in me going in totally the wrong direction for hours, not that I'm complaining since it was an interesting adventure.
It might be a good idea to try the dumb phone to gradually reduce smartphone dependency. After your habits have changed, you can re-evaluate your app usage and only reinstall the essential ones.
This article contains no actual demographics of the dumbphone users/buyers. I know when my kids are old enough, I'll be giving them a dumb phone to take to school. They can buy their own iPhone if they have money or when they graduate.
I've had one of these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Consumer-Cellular-Link-II-8GB-Red... since my previous 3G ZTE dumb phone became useless when 3G stopped being supported in my area. It's running a neutered version of android that to the best of my knowledge can't run apps or access the internet but the interface looks and feels very similar to the old Java one running on my ZTE so I think the manufacturer just ported the old ZTE gui to android and slapped it on this one. It's about as dumb (and cheap) as I could find.
This is why no one makes these obscure hardware products. Because the people who want to buy them have a never ending list of hard requirements that you’ll never satisfy.
They are dumb. You can't go very wrong with any of them. I use a Nokia 225 4G. But not because of any scientific reason. That's what the store had in stock when I popped up. It's okay. If your store has it in stock, get it. Otherwise get whatever they have.
I tried the Nokia 225 4G. Unfortunately, it saves the SMS and MMS to the SIM card, not internal storage, so you quickly run out of storage for SMS/MMS, and you'll need to constantly delete SMS.
So I switched to the Punkt MP02. It has a lot of other problems, though, but at least those are more passable.
I did also try the Mudita Pure. But it froze on the second day I had it, so I switched back. Edit: My plan is to give the Mudita Pure a fair shot in the future.
I'm generally disappointed in the phone market, smartphone and dumb phone. Maybe I should abandon it entirely and get a landline.
Not an inaccurate statement, particularly considering all its flaws, but price isn't my primary concern. Indeed, I am willing to pay a premium for a phone that just does calls and text messages, without using the SIM card as storage and has physical buttons.
Key point here being, if you try to do your own research and get a model that should work with your cell provider, there's no guarantees; they often have weird aspects of vendor or implementation lock built in.
I suspect this is US specific, and I guess your post might be a valuable heads up about this.
(I'm in the EU, and I haven't seen a phone sold here (in a shop) that wasn't compatible with all available providers - to be honest, this problem has never crossed my mind when I bought a phone.)
Dumbphones are 4G. 4G voice service requires VoLTE but mobile operators have to whitelist phone models, the phone has to have the IMS in the internal database... all in all don't expect VoLTE to work. So voice downgrades to 3G. But 3G is being shut down by many operators and more to come. So voice downgrades to 2G, but 2G has a very low limit of concurrent calls, let's say a few dozen. So it's possible that your dumbphone won't work at all.
> But 3G is being shut down by many operators and more to come. So voice downgrades to 2G, but 2G has a very low limit of concurrent calls, let's say a few dozen. So it's possible that your dumbphone won't work at all.
2G is being shutdown too (IIRC, I had a 2G pay-as-you-go phone that stopped working years ago), and it would be surprising to me that a carrier would shutdown 3G before 2G.
It makes sense because many specialised IoT appliances are 2G-only. At least that's the way it's happening in the EU. For example in Spain 3G will be phased out in 2025 while 2G will be phased out in 2030.
There's more to it than that. I had a model where voice would work on both networks but SMS would only work on one. The only contacts app you could use also relied on a proprietary gateway, and took a minute to open on the other network.
Also, updates to SMS implementations eventually broke SMS on the good network.
I'm using Nokia 105 for a few years as my only phone with SIM card and can't complain, except that the claimed 27 days of battery life is bogus, it never lasted more than 2 weeks on a single charge.
Recommending the Sonim XP3 or XP5 for anyone looking for a dumb phone to try out. Good models and great form factor. New(upgraded/"Plus") models were released recently if you fancy a try
hence you not being an influencer. as much as i can't stand the concept of influencer as they are today (we've always had them), i do have to give props to how some of them have found their market and made it happen. doesn't mean i give a crap about what they are doing, but i can at least admit they did something.
or they could just disable mobile data and wifi without changing the phone, pretty much all appeal of smartphone is lost without internet connection and you are left mostly just with practical features
this is just a hipster affectation for a few elite kids in drama club...they just pull them out alongside their Bauhaus vinyl, walkmans, ironic parachute pants etc to look cool but they probably own iPhones too
don't think for a minute that dumb phones are actually a happening thing for gen z, on a whole they are likely the most zombified generation
I dropped a comment there where I said that while I spent hours researching the "perfect dumb phone", there's certain features that are nearly exclusive to a smartphone or just plain work better on a smartphone, including having a decent camera and GPS/map with me at all times.
IMO, I think it's easier to simply dumb down your existing smartphone by stripping it of all apps except for just the bare essentials. For example, my phone only handles calls, SMS, maps, camera, books, etc. No web browser, social media, fancy messaging app, or even an app store. Though this may change sometimes and I'll sideload F-Droid or some other app depending on my needs (like traveling). https://chuck.is/phone