Ditching my smartphone: what dumb phone is best?
January 22, 2020 4:10 PM Subscribe
I'm planning to ditch my iPhone and switch to a phone that has no internet capability. What phone should I get?
I recently spent a period of time without my phone, and my life was better. I'd like to make this permanent by officially trading in my iphone for a dumb phone. I am looking for specific product suggestions for a non-smart-phone. Thank you! (Preemptively: I am *not* looking for suggestions about how to make my iphone less addictive. I have tried all the things, believe me.)
I recently spent a period of time without my phone, and my life was better. I'd like to make this permanent by officially trading in my iphone for a dumb phone. I am looking for specific product suggestions for a non-smart-phone. Thank you! (Preemptively: I am *not* looking for suggestions about how to make my iphone less addictive. I have tried all the things, believe me.)
The cool folks are getting light phones.
posted by homesickness at 7:55 PM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by homesickness at 7:55 PM on January 22, 2020 [3 favorites]
One thing to help direct your search: Be careful with recommendations of older phones—many carriers in the short term, and all carriers in the medium term, are permanently converting their legacy networks (2G, 3G) to LTE and 5G. This will affect phones as new as the Nokia 3310 but, most painfully for your purposes, is going to wipe out basically every phone made during the golden age of the dumbphone. (Verizon has, I think, already stopped activating new phones that aren't LTE-capable.) Depending on your carrier you might be limited to the two or three that they'll sell you if you want something that's going to work for more than a year or two. (If you're on Verizon here's a Reddit thread that goes over some options.)
On my network, AT&T, the only flip phone that's even on the website anymore is the Alcatel Smartflip, which is part of a new breed of kind-of-dumbphones. It uses LTE (so it's future-proofed) and runs a stripped-down OS called "KaiOS" that has apps and allows you to do some low-bore internet-like things (maps, etc.). Nokia's feature phones also use KaiOS, I think. This is probably another obstacle in your way if you're looking for a truly dumb phone, though it's probably worth using one in the store and seeing if it "feels" smart enough to distract you with its very limited input methods.
If you're buying a phone from someplace other than your carrier, I strongly recommend looking for some reports from other users on your carrier about how well it works—when I looked into this a while ago I saw lots of people talking about how the phone they bought was technically compatible but in practice only used one of the X numbers of LTE bands their carrier had, and reception was always terrible.
posted by Polycarp at 11:25 PM on January 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
On my network, AT&T, the only flip phone that's even on the website anymore is the Alcatel Smartflip, which is part of a new breed of kind-of-dumbphones. It uses LTE (so it's future-proofed) and runs a stripped-down OS called "KaiOS" that has apps and allows you to do some low-bore internet-like things (maps, etc.). Nokia's feature phones also use KaiOS, I think. This is probably another obstacle in your way if you're looking for a truly dumb phone, though it's probably worth using one in the store and seeing if it "feels" smart enough to distract you with its very limited input methods.
If you're buying a phone from someplace other than your carrier, I strongly recommend looking for some reports from other users on your carrier about how well it works—when I looked into this a while ago I saw lots of people talking about how the phone they bought was technically compatible but in practice only used one of the X numbers of LTE bands their carrier had, and reception was always terrible.
posted by Polycarp at 11:25 PM on January 22, 2020 [1 favorite]
My niece has an Alcatel smartflip, and it's a nice phone. If you don't have data, it doesn't have any features other than talk, text and remembering your contacts. It's a nice shape, with a clear screen and nice big buttons.
posted by jb at 6:00 AM on January 23, 2020
posted by jb at 6:00 AM on January 23, 2020
I pursued the same objective--it's weirdly harder than it should be to find a dumb phone that works well over modern networks. Heck, they're even going to be phasing out 3G, never mind 2G. I know you said no iPhone solutions, but this is what I settled with to make Android super-dumb (if you de-Google an Android phone, it can get pretty dumb as far as these things go).
1) Get a cheap/old Android phone that you can flash with a ROM like Lineage OS (an old OnePlus or Galaxy are great options). Do not add "Gapps" during installation. Disable wi-fi and location etc. Your battery life jumps up quite a bit, and you're out of anyone's "ecosystem". You will not be tempted to install a bunch of apps, because you won't have the Play Store (there are workarounds but you will not be pursuing those).
2) Get yourself one of the several launchers that mimic the Light phone, like Slim Launcher. You can get it here. Real Light phones are pretty pricey and good luck getting one anyway.
3) You'll now have a black screen in the spirit the Light phone. Presto, a phone you can use for calls and sms, and take some pictures with. That's pretty dumb. And even if you try to get sneaky, there's not going to be much there to get sneaky with.
Anecdotal evidence that this works: I just left my phone somewhere over the weekend and felt zero anxiety about it.
posted by quarterframer at 10:19 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
1) Get a cheap/old Android phone that you can flash with a ROM like Lineage OS (an old OnePlus or Galaxy are great options). Do not add "Gapps" during installation. Disable wi-fi and location etc. Your battery life jumps up quite a bit, and you're out of anyone's "ecosystem". You will not be tempted to install a bunch of apps, because you won't have the Play Store (there are workarounds but you will not be pursuing those).
2) Get yourself one of the several launchers that mimic the Light phone, like Slim Launcher. You can get it here. Real Light phones are pretty pricey and good luck getting one anyway.
3) You'll now have a black screen in the spirit the Light phone. Presto, a phone you can use for calls and sms, and take some pictures with. That's pretty dumb. And even if you try to get sneaky, there's not going to be much there to get sneaky with.
Anecdotal evidence that this works: I just left my phone somewhere over the weekend and felt zero anxiety about it.
posted by quarterframer at 10:19 AM on January 23, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Carrier is T-mobile, FWIW. Not married to staying with T-mobile, but i would like to keep my phone number.
posted by Mystical Listicle at 3:45 PM on January 23, 2020
posted by Mystical Listicle at 3:45 PM on January 23, 2020
Looking into T-Mobile specifically, I think your only choice that's not going to require a lot of fiddling and potentially not work on the bands that T-Mobile has in your area is the Alcatel Smartflip—here's a Reddit post with more info. (The GoFlip the post mentions is a previous version of the Smartflip, which you might find refurbished or used; note also that this comment on the thread suggests a couple more options you can look into.)
You might, if you call around, be able to get an older phone activated on a network in the US for now, but that won't be a long-term solution with the 2G/3G network shutdown on the way. Probably better off finding one of these LTE-enabled flip phones that you like, since it's not clear to me that this market is going to exist for a lot longer as the developing countries these are built for (KaiOS, which runs on the SmartFlip and some other phones in this segment, is very popular in India right now) make the same smartphone transition we already have. At that point you'll be stuck with really expensive "minimalist" dumbphones like the Punkt MP02 made for niche audiences in the US/Europe, which some people on T-Mobile report having a lot of trouble with.
posted by Polycarp at 9:29 PM on January 23, 2020
You might, if you call around, be able to get an older phone activated on a network in the US for now, but that won't be a long-term solution with the 2G/3G network shutdown on the way. Probably better off finding one of these LTE-enabled flip phones that you like, since it's not clear to me that this market is going to exist for a lot longer as the developing countries these are built for (KaiOS, which runs on the SmartFlip and some other phones in this segment, is very popular in India right now) make the same smartphone transition we already have. At that point you'll be stuck with really expensive "minimalist" dumbphones like the Punkt MP02 made for niche audiences in the US/Europe, which some people on T-Mobile report having a lot of trouble with.
posted by Polycarp at 9:29 PM on January 23, 2020
I have T-Mobile and used a Sharp Sidekick till November 2018. I finally succumbed to pressure from family and friends and got a Smartphone.
But as a barebones, basic, text/call phone; it was great. Especially the keyboard part.
But you have to remember to get a SIM card compatible for the phone. All the new phones have a Micro-SIM that may not be compatible with older phones.
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:07 AM on January 24, 2020
But as a barebones, basic, text/call phone; it was great. Especially the keyboard part.
But you have to remember to get a SIM card compatible for the phone. All the new phones have a Micro-SIM that may not be compatible with older phones.
posted by indianbadger1 at 10:07 AM on January 24, 2020
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