It's also hard to supplement this with a Garmin or similar, because Google/Apple maps are perpetually up to date. And their UX doesn't completely suck.
It has texting. They are developing a "taxi" feature, which I think they'd be dumb not to integrate Uber into. And they have a screenshot of a "directions" app.
I wonder where this is heading. The original light phone (version 1 if I remember correctly) was simply for calling and very minimalistic.
To that I am a bit disappointed that they are adding more features instead of cutting prices.
There were some background articles explaining they had to. The first version was too minimalist, not even the phone makers ended up using them. The set of the absolutely necessary services for a phone is bigger than one would think and it differs more - does it include maps? taxi services? texting? Answer will vary a lot, and by making it too minimalist they would end up satisfying no one.
It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it".
> It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it".
The classic response of anyone not financially invested in a product. Hopefully they follow through with their intention not to throw in the kitchen sink rather than burn all their resources trying to attract a picky customer base that has no intention of ever actually buying the phone.
More and more, the voice calling feature is becoming obsolete. With the exception of hands free use in the car while driving, I essentially never use my phone to make calls.
Text is asynchronous and thus the other party can respond when it's convenient. I resent voice calls as an intrusion and rarely answer them.
The next killer app for me is in the network and it's the SHAKEN/STIR validation helping to show some UI indicator of a "verified caller ID". Luckily it looks like mobile carriers will be there first and when they are it's game over for spam.
I'm curious to see what would happen if someone made a simple phone that behaved as an access point. Hook up my watch, my tablet, bluetooth headphones, let it stay in my pocket most of the time.
A little google voice magic, or any number of other SIP providers and apps will have you making calls to POTS numbers over just a data connection very easily.
I think an Apple Watch with cellular accomplishes a lot of what light phone does. Leave your phone behind and just keep all the social apps off the watch (they’re not really usable anyway).
You can still accomplish a lot of what you need from a phone, and pair some AirPods and you have music, podcasts, easy hands free calling
I think that going out with an Apple Watch instead of a phone will become popular as a way of (partially) unplugging. It will also signal that the wearer is not an ordinary worker bee (who need to keep a phone around to respond to emails) but instead a member of upper management (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length).
> (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length).
iWatch + Airpods + dictation, my friend. It is amazing.
If only the apple watch could play audiobooks (on Audible) and music (on Spotify) without a phone nearby, it would be the perfect minimalist phone. Alas until that happens I have to continue to lug my phone around when sportsing.
You can download books to the Audible watch app but I've never gotten it to work. The connection just isn't stable enough.
The new WatchOS supposedly enables the API that Apple Music has been using to stream via LTE (from what I've heard), but it smells like Spotify has decided it's no longer worth the bother.
Do you just deal with having typos in a long reply? You can’t edit watch dictation, so a lot of my replies including some form of “damned apple watch” so people I’m replying to know what’s up.
That said I quite like the combo in general. A big reason I went with apple music is the streaming. It is baffling to me that spotify hasn’t enabled lte streaming on the watch now that watchos 6 lets them.
I am a spelling perfectionist too but oddly enough I'm starting to notice I don't respect people who write perfect messages as much as those who let an occasional error through. Maybe it's because I know they waste time, or that they are not confident enough to skip the editing - and related, that they are probably low on the totem pole. It's a weird effect, and yet I still can't bring myself not to overedit.
You misunderstand: apple watch dictation doesn’t merely make typos. It mangles things. So you might have a message like:
“Can you get broccoli from the store? Oh also we need kill thompson’s party. I mean we need kale for the party. Damned apple watch”
You can either abandon the whole message, or repeat what you said to get it right. And include a disclaimer to show you didn’t mean the insane thing Siri wrote. On long messages it can get quite annoying to start over, as I find it hard to finish a long message without at least one oddly mangles phrase.
I tried this when I noticed that I was overusing my phone, and it worked very well. I have kids so can’t completely unplug, but a watch+cellular meant I was contactable for short messages and emergencies but couldn’t sit there mindlessly scrolling.
It was amazing how easily I made friends in bars and cafes like this, simply by looking up and being alert to my environment.
I know this is crazy but one can also just not install social apps on one’s phone, and continue to use all the functions that still provide a great deal of utility without compromises.
The problem is that it’s an addiction — I was addicted, so I would still access those apps via the browser. Until I permanently deleted all of my accounts, I would still be looking at them for hours a day. Even now, I waste my time with Reddit or even HN. :)
The root problem is much deeper and I think it’s difficult to address without behavior change (which is hard). Making it very difficult to do is a good compromise while you’re also working on building self control. These phones take that difficulty to a new level so long as you’re away from your other devices.
I’m with you - I had to ask my wife to change my Twitter password and not tell me. Facebook was easier. When I have to access for local community things I use Firefox Focus. It’s still addictive, but my sessions are fewer. That said, I’m still on here and a few other places (craigslist for sale stream, anyone?) as placeholders. I wouldn’t say it is hours per day, but it was more time than I wanted.
I’ve found productive addictions include things like ear training, Duolingo, etc - they replace the tactile sensation and give you that quieter time to yourself but at least you’re learning.
You don't really have that choice. Many social apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) aren't possible to uninstall unless you use a custom ROM. You can only "disable" the apps.
It's still perfectly possible to just not open them/log in, obviously.
Unfortunately it's complicated. There are many OEMs, and each configures things to their liking. Then there are carrier branding deals which (often) result in per-carrier customizations on top of that.
Typically, "uninstallable" apps can be disabled via adb commands if you don't want to (or can't) flash a custom ROM. Sometimes they can't however - for example, Amazon sells subsidized phones that display advertisements on the lock screen.
Sadly, it depends. Many manufacturers have deals in place with Facebook, etc to prevent the un-installation of these apps. At best you can "disable" them completely, achieving the same effective result. Any downloaded updates to the app will be removed and it will be _supposedly_ incapable of running in the background. I suspect however that there are also other e.g. Facebook services running in the background that need to be explicitly disabled with Android running in developer mode.
This isn't a problem if you have a rooted device, but root is difficult/impossible to obtain on certain devices (like Samsung's Galaxy 8 onward) due to enterprise level tamper-proofing.
Having said all that, I just got an unlocked Pixel 4 and it has zero of that bloat. If you happen to consider the Google services themselves bloat/tracking (they often are), rooting is fully supported which allows you to install an Android distribution without any Google services.
Watch series 540mm, sports band, gps + cellular: $659
AirPods and regular charging case: $219
Combo = $878
iPhone 11 = $979
You could pick different models to make either case true (eg. iPhone XR is $799, watch series 3 cellular is $429). But nonetheless watch + AirPods is pretty close to the price of a phone it seems!
The xr starts at $600. It’s a rich person fantasy that you’d go for two fallible devices which work poorly for basic things like texting, ride hailing, looking up menus rather than one device that does more.
I'd love to a have a small limited device, but I'd rather not wear an Apple Watch as I prefer analog watches for aesthetic reasons. I suppose I could keep it in my pocket, but that's a little weird.
I get this is supposed to be minimalist but the texting interaction looks really rough. You read threaded conversations in portrait mode but to reply it switches you to landscape mode where you can’t see the conversation and can only see the reply you’re typing. Nokia candy bar phones from the mid 90s let me type a reply while looking at what I was replying to.
Possibly that's the point of such a phone. Because if it was up to one's choice then I believe one doesn't need any special phone for lesser usage of (smart)phones or use it the way one wants. No?
Which does kinda make you wonder many things, more so, that price. Everything else seems to of been already covered in past discussions over the many many years.
It's still very low even given the battery size. The updated Nokia 3310 has a traditional display with a 1200 mAh battery and is rated for a standby battery life of 31 days.
At 950 mAh that would be just over 24 days. I would expect an improvement in battery life with E-ink.
I'm curious why you take the battery life claim about the Light Phone at face value. My assumption is that most every company tests in optimal conditions that users won't achieve in real life, so I think it's generally fair enough to compare between two manufacturer claims given that we don't have side-by-side comparisons yet.
I don't really care about the price of the phone, because I'm sure it's more expensive to produce on a smaller scale than mainstream manufacturers, but the plan is $30 for unlimited texting and calling? Really?
You can get unlimited minutes/SMS and several GB for $10-20/mo from various MVNOs nowadays. Why they would bother marketing a plan that is $30/mo with no data is beyond me.
Why not just get the bottom of the line unlocked Android phone from Walmart for $39?[1] Delete the Google crap, install F_Droid and some basic apps. That's basically what I have, on a Caterpillar Tractor ruggedized phone. No "social" anything. Base email, Fennic browser, ZANavi maps, Mozilla location info provider.
Someone could compete with these guys by buying low-end phones in bulk and reconfiguring them that way. Sell it for $49.
You're confusing "people who want to get rich" with "people who want useful products".
"People who want to get rich" are a significant subset of the HN population, and they are downvoting you because they remember Dropbox. You'll recall that Dropbox was met by "people who want useful products" saying "oh, I can do 90% of that with rsync".
Your solution is probably excellent for someone who knows what they are doing, but it won't make a lot of money, and it won't sell to the kind of status-conscious fanatic minimalist who always needs a new toy to prove their minimalism.
In fact, there are lots of caution signs around this product's website indicating that they aren't actually very good at the technical parts. I wouldn't be at all surprised to read a teardown showing that this is a low-end Android phone with an e-Ink display running a single shell program around the underlying dialer, SMS and alarm functions.
I get the mindset, but this is round 2 for the "light phone", round 1 having flopped.
I could see a low-end product which shares the phone number of the bigger phone. Something carriers could offer as a promotional item and a backup. "What do you do when your iPhone is in the shop for a broken screen?"
The amazing thing is that you can get 4 processors, a screen, 8GB, and a camera for $49.
- Get a phone in its no Google account state.
- When it demands that you log into Google, choose "Later".
- Delete Google First time app. This prevents the registration thing from coming up again.
- Download F-Droid.
- Use F-Droid to download Fennic, which is a version of Firestorm.
- Deactivae most Google apps, Play Store, etc. Play Store Services may have to stay.
- Use F-Droid to download other stuff as required.
You now have a useful Android phone with no Google account.
1. Needs a bigger screen so that texting in portrait is possible / texting in landscape allows you to see the convo.
2. Needs data and basic data-driven apps - google maps, spotify. Any apps that aren't addictive and are used every day seem like they should be in any modern phone, even those intended to be minimalist.
I "need" things like banking on my phone, as well as email realistically.
Sounds like you aren't the target market. If I hadn't just last week finally deactivated my dumb phone from 2011 and bought a cheap Motorola, I'd seriously consider this.
Literally all I want from a phone is the ability to call / text for coordinating near-term meetups with people, and the ability to receive / send calls in emergency situations.
Unfortunately, they don't make phones like that anymore.
I have my new phone set in battery saver mode with everything deactivated except the calling app, the texting app, and Facebook Messenger. The battery can last four or five days with this configuration, which pleasantly surprised me. Still can't match the two weeks I'd get out of my old dumb phone though.
Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do ("it'll never have social media!"). Furthermore, it's not even gonna have a better battery life than your jerryrigged phone since it apparently only does about a week on standby due to its tiny battery. And they expect you to pay $350 for this.
Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. Costs like 20% of what the Light Phone costs, does phone calls, text messages (and probably Facebook Messenger since it has a Facebook app) and has a 3-4 week standby battery life.
> Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310.
As others have mentioned, most of the phones that do fit the criteria of a modern dumb phone don't work on Verizon. I had plans to buy the 3310 if they ever released a 4g version.
> Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do
I would happily go without Facebook Messenger, but since my phone supports it, it's a convenient thing to have access to. But you are right, I am probably not the target market for this phone.
My sister lost her phone a few christmases ago. As we wandered around NYC, going to bars and looking around, she said, "It's actually liberating to not have a phone." I think we forget how our attention is enslaved by them. Including myself, typing this out.
ITT? This isn't Reddit. Of course people are going to talk about missing features.
If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, I can think of a hundred other options that don't cost $350. I think that's what you meant.
I think this phone is the perfect device for someone like my grandmother that can't even answer the phone on her smartphone because she can't slide the answer button. Smartphones nowadays are very complicated machines with hundreds of UX concepts that are not understandable by a increasingly higher proportion of the population. And you can never disable every function ("apps" in iMessage, really?!).
My grandmother uses an Android phone I've very heavily customised (deleted apps with adb, put a Windows Phone-like launcher with flashing icons for notifications, compiled custom versions of OSS apps for SMS and calls, etc.). This Light Phone seems perfect for her.
> If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option.
Not even close. You can get a basic phone plus sim card for like $40 or less and then pay a few dollars (or less) a month on prepay to keep it connected to the network.
This is a toy secondary phone for those with disposable income, not a valid low-income alternative.
>If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option.
$350 is not a reasonable option to be reachable by a loved one when a brand new Nokia 3310 is like $60 and can do standby for like 3-4 weeks with a single charge.
This isn't much in terms of value or functionality. You can buy a low end iPhone and just not install any apps and get more functionality and utility. I guess if you are on the road and need multi-week battery life??? Even then, it's easy enough to plug into your car outlet.
"It looks like a new thermostat." - my girlfriend when I showed it to her.
I'm the perfect customer for this phone (had a Nokia 3310 3g recently) but this is perhaps a little too minimal for even me. Still looking for a replacement for my iPhone SE someday.
I got mine still in the box in a drawer somewhere. The main selling point for me were the additional features compared to the original. From the FAQ:
> These tools are currently being developed and will be released in the coming few months
These tools being the promised features of Music / Notes / Calculator / Directions / Ride hailing, and "coming months" being the end of 2019.
It's been almost two years since the launch, and the original light phone will soon celebrate it's 5th anniversary so I'm not sure I should hold my breath. If anybody from the team is reading this, I'd love to hear what's blocking the software development side.
My three year old and I actually had a lot of fun with the Calculator app on my phone just a couple hours ago. He thought that me reading off large numbers was hilarious.
So, yeah, Calculator is a pretty important feature.
I read that Nintendo invented the "Game & Watch" games (pre-dating the GameBoy) after an engineer watched a businessman on a train entertaining himself by playing with a calculator.
For the original, maybe. This second edition was supposed to hit a sweet spot of no distractions, but enough features to live a normal modern life (ex: maps), and have a shot at being your main phone.
Any reason why the screen is so small? If it were larger and offered one handed access to keyboard that would be a huge plus instead of having to rotate the phone to type.
How do you type numbers you have to call? Do you rotate them phone and type the numbers?
What about music? The thing that people use the phones most for other than calls and messages would be music, considering the fact that there aren’t that many dedicated music players around a phone without a music player makes a lot less sense
Based on one of the pictures of the phone on the homepage, it appears that there is a numeric keyboard in portrait mode. It is shown setting the time for an alarm, but I imagine it is also used to type phone numbers.
Agreed. Sadly the latency on eInk is still way too high. Smooth animations, scrolling and transitions are a large part of what makes touch screen based smart phones so easy to use and compelling. There are, perhaps, alternatives to the design patterns used for touch screens, but the light phone does not really do much in this area.
Feels like a solution looking for a problem to me. Not only are phones trending away from being "phones" (rather portable internet terminals) but I'd wager the largest portion of smartphone use is content consumption, rather than content creation/collaboration. Both of which would suggest this device is a long, long way from product-market fit.
I can see this phone being a great fit for certain markets, such as senior citizens who like to talk on the phone, but who get baffled by the complexity of modern smartphones.
Be careful with this. AT&T shut down its GSM network 3 years ago. The ~only unlocked LTE feature phone I could find a year or two ago for my grandma (who wouldn't be able to learn how to use a smartphone) was an Alcatel Flip 2.
I can't see any fit for any person outside of bragging rights. A senior citizen would be better served by a Nokia 3310, which actually has physical buttons.
It's pretty much bragging rights. Or, put another way, it's an aesthetically pleasing signal to those around you that you're part of a movement trying to reduce screen consumption.
The organic foods industry has these sorts of seemingly niche products which are more expensive but become quite trendy because of what they represent for the customer and their peers. Not sure how well it applies here though.
I think it's in the zeitgeist a bit now. Some people (I'm certainly one) are looking to unhook from their phones - get away from convenience and immediacy and... the internet in general (typing this from Emacs, so it seems more forgivable!).
I know at least 5 people - a large percentage of my close network ;) - who would be interested in this device. I'm sure there's a big enough market for it if the execution is right. Though I'm personally waiting for Librem for the security/privacy aspects.
Here's the main problem: I am the target market and I can easily just make my Android phone behave in this manner. I rarely touch it except to read on the Kindle app and cast to the TVs.
I don't think you're the target market in that case. This phone would be for people who desperately want to reduce their phone usage but lack the willpower.
Not saying that's a large market, but I do think it exists. At the 350$ price point though it seems more like it would be for wealthier people looking to signal that they're part of a sort of "offline" movement.
You significantly overestimate people’s level of self control and also the amount of money time and effort companies put in to make these technologies addictive.
Your network isn't representative of the broader market. Only a tiny niche are actively looking to unhook. Sure plenty of people will claim they want to do so because they think they ought to. But they're not willing to pay actual money for it.
As long as you don't use the phone much, they won't see you have a cheap phone either. The Light Phone 2 seems like a rather small smartphone. Without the music feature (offline Spotify is OK) it is still not very useful to me though. I used to run around with a walkman. Then I had an iRiver H340 with 40 GB (when everyone was running around with ~4 GB iPods). I'm not going back to no music with me, pre walkman years. I had one with me since elementary school because I was so bored.
You can do exactly that kind of things with your regular smartphone by not installing tons of apps that disturb you all the time. As far as I know the user is pretty much in control of what apps they choose to add.
In that case, Putting the phone in DND mode 24x7 and only using it only when we need it exponentially limits phone usage and interruptions.
But, not many can afford having their phone in DND mode all the time due to their job/family requirements(I do it and I've read few others on HN doing it). Then again, there are jobs which require you to install apps on your personal device or at-least communication apps like Slack, Teams etc.; In those case even Light Phone cannot be used.
We usually pick up right where we left off. Most big news are communicated directly through WhatsApp. I obviously check my messages every once in a while.
You can, but, IMO, smartphones are starting to feel like a money pit, too, not just a time pit. You spend $500 - $1500 on a device that can't be expected to last more than 4 years (presumably a fair bit less if you cut too close to the $500 end of the range), and will have an annoyingly short battery life in 2 years. You have to constantly be careful with it, because if you drop it or it gets scratched by a key or something, there's a good chance that that enormous, fragile screen will shatter and need replacement. etc. etc.
I am considering switching back to a dumbphone because I miss being able to buy a phone for $100 and have it work, without fuss, more-or-less indefinitely. Throw a hotspot feature in there so I can get my $200 iPod Touch connected when I need to, and I've still got a decent enough way to listen to podcasts or catch up on my Instapaper feed while I'm waiting for the bus, or whatever, while saving a fair bit of money. It also theoretically lets me have all the apps and suchlike while still being able to mitigate distraction.
I like this phone in principle, but I'm afraid $350 price point is a bit tough to swallow. I assume that a big part of the price is the eInk display, which is a bit of a shame since it looks like it doesn't actually have any features that wouldn't also work just fine with a cheapo monochrome LCD.
My current device, the moto e5 play, retailed for $120. It still works just fine for me for use cases like web browsing, 720p video, remote desktop, etc. Prior to that I had the e4 which worked great until I dropped it down 5 flights of stairs.
Regarding the battery health issue, I have found the biggest factor to be not recharging soon enough. Don't let your battery drop too low and you will have substantially better battery health.
The camera’s the main thing keeping me on smartphones. My iPhone 7 Plus is a better camera (for me) than anything but maybe a newer iPhone, and also entirely replaces a document scanner. May drop the data plan though, go WiFi-only.
And cut its expected lifespan, already only 2-4 years, by 2 years.
No more software updates isn't such a big deal on dumbphones with limited capabilities, but, on a smartphone, I really do want to be getting those security patches.
The use case for this is people who want to take it to a social occasion and show it off, while using a regular phone with email, music, podcasts, maps, uber, and social media for most of their daily lives.
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine.
Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
Your comment seems insightful to me. Not sure if you’re being down voted.
I agree there’s definitely some virtue signaling by having a high-cost secondary device like this. There’s chatter upthread with a comparison to other forms of virtue signaling that some people do.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 288 ms ] threadMaybe still too early to rule it out entirely.
It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it".
The classic response of anyone not financially invested in a product. Hopefully they follow through with their intention not to throw in the kitchen sink rather than burn all their resources trying to attract a picky customer base that has no intention of ever actually buying the phone.
Text is asynchronous and thus the other party can respond when it's convenient. I resent voice calls as an intrusion and rarely answer them.
There's a reason Linux is not ruling the desktop, and that there is it.
Though to your point it did take me a bit of ducking to figure this out. Seems extremely straightforward once you know it exists.
You can still accomplish a lot of what you need from a phone, and pair some AirPods and you have music, podcasts, easy hands free calling
iWatch + Airpods + dictation, my friend. It is amazing.
If only the apple watch could play audiobooks (on Audible) and music (on Spotify) without a phone nearby, it would be the perfect minimalist phone. Alas until that happens I have to continue to lug my phone around when sportsing.
You can download books to the Audible watch app but I've never gotten it to work. The connection just isn't stable enough.
The new WatchOS supposedly enables the API that Apple Music has been using to stream via LTE (from what I've heard), but it smells like Spotify has decided it's no longer worth the bother.
That said I quite like the combo in general. A big reason I went with apple music is the streaming. It is baffling to me that spotify hasn’t enabled lte streaming on the watch now that watchos 6 lets them.
“Can you get broccoli from the store? Oh also we need kill thompson’s party. I mean we need kale for the party. Damned apple watch”
You can either abandon the whole message, or repeat what you said to get it right. And include a disclaimer to show you didn’t mean the insane thing Siri wrote. On long messages it can get quite annoying to start over, as I find it hard to finish a long message without at least one oddly mangles phrase.
I've actually subscribed to Apple Music solely because Spotify (for which I have a subscription too) does not let me go running with only my watch...
It was amazing how easily I made friends in bars and cafes like this, simply by looking up and being alert to my environment.
The root problem is much deeper and I think it’s difficult to address without behavior change (which is hard). Making it very difficult to do is a good compromise while you’re also working on building self control. These phones take that difficulty to a new level so long as you’re away from your other devices.
I’ve found productive addictions include things like ear training, Duolingo, etc - they replace the tactile sensation and give you that quieter time to yourself but at least you’re learning.
It's still perfectly possible to just not open them/log in, obviously.
Typically, "uninstallable" apps can be disabled via adb commands if you don't want to (or can't) flash a custom ROM. Sometimes they can't however - for example, Amazon sells subsidized phones that display advertisements on the lock screen.
This isn't a problem if you have a rooted device, but root is difficult/impossible to obtain on certain devices (like Samsung's Galaxy 8 onward) due to enterprise level tamper-proofing.
Having said all that, I just got an unlocked Pixel 4 and it has zero of that bloat. If you happen to consider the Google services themselves bloat/tracking (they often are), rooting is fully supported which allows you to install an Android distribution without any Google services.
Watch series 540mm, sports band, gps + cellular: $659 AirPods and regular charging case: $219 Combo = $878
iPhone 11 = $979
You could pick different models to make either case true (eg. iPhone XR is $799, watch series 3 cellular is $429). But nonetheless watch + AirPods is pretty close to the price of a phone it seems!
This seems like an oversight
Then there is this aspect: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=thelightphone.com
Which does kinda make you wonder many things, more so, that price. Everything else seems to of been already covered in past discussions over the many many years.
At 950 mAh that would be just over 24 days. I would expect an improvement in battery life with E-ink.
https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310#details
You can get unlimited minutes/SMS and several GB for $10-20/mo from various MVNOs nowadays. Why they would bother marketing a plan that is $30/mo with no data is beyond me.
Someone could compete with these guys by buying low-end phones in bulk and reconfiguring them that way. Sell it for $49.
[1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Compass-Unlocked-4G-GSM-Smar...
"People who want to get rich" are a significant subset of the HN population, and they are downvoting you because they remember Dropbox. You'll recall that Dropbox was met by "people who want useful products" saying "oh, I can do 90% of that with rsync".
Your solution is probably excellent for someone who knows what they are doing, but it won't make a lot of money, and it won't sell to the kind of status-conscious fanatic minimalist who always needs a new toy to prove their minimalism.
In fact, there are lots of caution signs around this product's website indicating that they aren't actually very good at the technical parts. I wouldn't be at all surprised to read a teardown showing that this is a low-end Android phone with an e-Ink display running a single shell program around the underlying dialer, SMS and alarm functions.
I could see a low-end product which shares the phone number of the bigger phone. Something carriers could offer as a promotional item and a backup. "What do you do when your iPhone is in the shop for a broken screen?"
The amazing thing is that you can get 4 processors, a screen, 8GB, and a camera for $49.
Can you please elaborate on what/how to do this? I'd love to spend 49 bucks for a basic phone + maps, without crapware.
- Get a phone in its no Google account state. - When it demands that you log into Google, choose "Later". - Delete Google First time app. This prevents the registration thing from coming up again. - Download F-Droid. - Use F-Droid to download Fennic, which is a version of Firestorm. - Deactivae most Google apps, Play Store, etc. Play Store Services may have to stay. - Use F-Droid to download other stuff as required.
You now have a useful Android phone with no Google account.
1. Needs a bigger screen so that texting in portrait is possible / texting in landscape allows you to see the convo. 2. Needs data and basic data-driven apps - google maps, spotify. Any apps that aren't addictive and are used every day seem like they should be in any modern phone, even those intended to be minimalist.
I "need" things like banking on my phone, as well as email realistically.
Literally all I want from a phone is the ability to call / text for coordinating near-term meetups with people, and the ability to receive / send calls in emergency situations.
Unfortunately, they don't make phones like that anymore.
I have my new phone set in battery saver mode with everything deactivated except the calling app, the texting app, and Facebook Messenger. The battery can last four or five days with this configuration, which pleasantly surprised me. Still can't match the two weeks I'd get out of my old dumb phone though.
Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. Costs like 20% of what the Light Phone costs, does phone calls, text messages (and probably Facebook Messenger since it has a Facebook app) and has a 3-4 week standby battery life.
As others have mentioned, most of the phones that do fit the criteria of a modern dumb phone don't work on Verizon. I had plans to buy the 3310 if they ever released a 4g version.
> Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do
I would happily go without Facebook Messenger, but since my phone supports it, it's a convenient thing to have access to. But you are right, I am probably not the target market for this phone.
There's the Nokia 8110 4G (€49), the Nokia 800 Tough (€119) and the Nokia 2720 Flip (€99).
If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option.
If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, I can think of a hundred other options that don't cost $350. I think that's what you meant.
My grandmother uses an Android phone I've very heavily customised (deleted apps with adb, put a Windows Phone-like launcher with flashing icons for notifications, compiled custom versions of OSS apps for SMS and calls, etc.). This Light Phone seems perfect for her.
Not even close. You can get a basic phone plus sim card for like $40 or less and then pay a few dollars (or less) a month on prepay to keep it connected to the network.
This is a toy secondary phone for those with disposable income, not a valid low-income alternative.
$350 is not a reasonable option to be reachable by a loved one when a brand new Nokia 3310 is like $60 and can do standby for like 3-4 weeks with a single charge.
I'm the perfect customer for this phone (had a Nokia 3310 3g recently) but this is perhaps a little too minimal for even me. Still looking for a replacement for my iPhone SE someday.
> These tools are currently being developed and will be released in the coming few months
These tools being the promised features of Music / Notes / Calculator / Directions / Ride hailing, and "coming months" being the end of 2019.
It's been almost two years since the launch, and the original light phone will soon celebrate it's 5th anniversary so I'm not sure I should hold my breath. If anybody from the team is reading this, I'd love to hear what's blocking the software development side.
So, yeah, Calculator is a pretty important feature.
Homepage requires multiple 3rd party JS libraries to work.
Helloooooo hypocrisy!
How do you type numbers you have to call? Do you rotate them phone and type the numbers?
What about music? The thing that people use the phones most for other than calls and messages would be music, considering the fact that there aren’t that many dedicated music players around a phone without a music player makes a lot less sense
The organic foods industry has these sorts of seemingly niche products which are more expensive but become quite trendy because of what they represent for the customer and their peers. Not sure how well it applies here though.
I know at least 5 people - a large percentage of my close network ;) - who would be interested in this device. I'm sure there's a big enough market for it if the execution is right. Though I'm personally waiting for Librem for the security/privacy aspects.
Not saying that's a large market, but I do think it exists. At the 350$ price point though it seems more like it would be for wealthier people looking to signal that they're part of a sort of "offline" movement.
you can treat your smart phone as old boring phone by using it like a old boring phone.
But, not many can afford having their phone in DND mode all the time due to their job/family requirements(I do it and I've read few others on HN doing it). Then again, there are jobs which require you to install apps on your personal device or at-least communication apps like Slack, Teams etc.; In those case even Light Phone cannot be used.
P.S. Please don't mind the bland nature of my question.
I am considering switching back to a dumbphone because I miss being able to buy a phone for $100 and have it work, without fuss, more-or-less indefinitely. Throw a hotspot feature in there so I can get my $200 iPod Touch connected when I need to, and I've still got a decent enough way to listen to podcasts or catch up on my Instapaper feed while I'm waiting for the bus, or whatever, while saving a fair bit of money. It also theoretically lets me have all the apps and suchlike while still being able to mitigate distraction.
I like this phone in principle, but I'm afraid $350 price point is a bit tough to swallow. I assume that a big part of the price is the eInk display, which is a bit of a shame since it looks like it doesn't actually have any features that wouldn't also work just fine with a cheapo monochrome LCD.
Regarding the battery health issue, I have found the biggest factor to be not recharging soon enough. Don't let your battery drop too low and you will have substantially better battery health.
EDIT: The moto e6 retails for $99.
Updates? No.
Unlocked bootloader? No,it's Lenovo.
Security in chinese phone? LOL, I even not started talking about company who sold laptops with crapware in BIOS.
> Updates?
Motorola usually provides 2 Android updates beyond the year each model was released. Not always a rule but you can see for yourself here: https://www.getdroidtips.com/list-of-android-10-q-supported-...
no, you just buy a model 2 years after its on the market and you pay a fraction of the initial price.
No more software updates isn't such a big deal on dumbphones with limited capabilities, but, on a smartphone, I really do want to be getting those security patches.
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
I agree there’s definitely some virtue signaling by having a high-cost secondary device like this. There’s chatter upthread with a comparison to other forms of virtue signaling that some people do.