"Dumbphone"/flip phone users? (+EDC)

[ialu]

Hi, all! Considering this is a forum for techies and retro nerds, I figured I'd ask if anyone here uses a "dumbphone" (which basically just means "flip phone", or, more broadly, any phone which intentionally has less functionality than your average smartphone) as a daily driver. Personally, I have a pretty basic black Kyocera 902KC, but I still need to get it a SIM card; in the mean time, I've just been using a generic Android smartphone, so I suppose I don't count.

Beyond that, I know many fans of dumbphones tend to use other somewhat outdated technological devices either to diversify how they accomplish daily tasks (as opposed to having them all be centralized in one device) or simply to compensate for what their phone can't accomplish. Examples include things like Walkmans/iPods/MP3 players, digicams, et cetera. How many of you do this as well? Do you think it beats out using a smartphone for most things?

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I never had a smartphone as a private person, but I'm required to have one as service telephone in my job for a few years now - but I use it only this I'm on duty.

After using an very simple Samsung-Flipphone for many years, it eventually broke. Two models that I had in between didn't last long - they were utterly crappy, one basically died after a few months, the other after around 2 years - I went on using a CAT B26, and it is in use for ~4.5 years now. I love it, but it is rather torn by now as well - I'm a clumsy guy, and had to repair it with duct tape. The battery is also getting weak. I don't plan to switch over to a smartphone when it breaks, but I'll need to find a new sturdy phone then; the CATs aren't produced anymore. Not using a smartphone got more difficult over the last years - it happened to me that restaurants don't have menus but only QR-codes (but I always got a device from them up until now), and some of the public authorities here also stopped to give out schedules but over a QR-gated portal (again, they give you the link when you complain...), and when cheap tickets for the railway where introduced some time ago, they were at first also smartphone only - I made screenshots on the deviced of others, and printed them out (which sometimes caused trouble) - eventually, the local distributors began to offer plastic cards. For now, it still works.

When I'm on vacation, I got used to have friends with smartphones with me - this year, I traveled Italy alone, and it was crazy to wander through the streets of Bologna trying to find an address, while around you children sat in their buggies handling smartphones that gave them theoretically access to nearly every possible information :D. Later on the trip I met my friend Francesco, who is also a non-smartphone-human - he sported a map and a tiny compass that he had attached to his digital watch - seeing him operate this was quite a sight.

I use a chinese brand MP3-Player that supports flac and weapon-grade studio headphones to listen to music while riding the train to work; I also have a laptop running Debian Linux, but I only take it along while traveling.

[grubbyfox]

I'm so confused as to why a lot of people call a dumbphone a flip phone xD A flip phone is a phone where you flip half of it. A lot of dumbphones are indeed not flip phones. I see people call the Nokia 3210 a flip phone....Or they'll say "just get a flip phone", but there are smart phones that are flip phones too, lol.

Anyway, yeah I'm in the works of getting one.

I'm getting either the Nokia 3210 or a TCL OneTouch 5044, but there's virtually no info on the 5044 anywhere so I dont want to go in blindly with it.

There is a few TCL phones I'd consider as they are fairly cheap - but they seem to have only a very few sparse reviews, so I have no idea if they are worth it or not.

The Nokia 3210 is still kinda overpriced here, and it's not been on any sale or anything in like, literal years.

[shapezncolourz]

not a dumbphone, but i do use the alt mive folder 2 as my daily driver!

i need to get better with actually using the buttons though, it has an option to use touchscreen and i find that easier - i did try to download a cursor but it required touchscreen being on so i just ended up using the touchscreen again

'd aif anyone here has good cursor apps that don't require touchscreen then i'd appreciate it! the one i tried is c9 for reference

[fuwaka]

not a dumbphone, but i do use the alt mive folder 2 as my daily driver!

i need to get better with actually using the buttons though, it has an option to use touchscreen and i find that easier - i did try to download a cursor but it required touchscreen being on so i just ended up using the touchscreen again

'd aif anyone here has good cursor apps that don't require touchscreen then i'd appreciate it! the one i tried is c9 for reference

oooh I use this phone! (* ´_ゝ`) other than that application requiring touchscreen being on, was there anything else wrong with it? I love this phone and do find myself wishing the cursor/tactile buttons worked on more than a couple of games and apps. 

me personally, there was a time where my ALT MIVE was my main daily device. but since being back in college it’s just been easier using a modern iPhone in order to access two authentication and textbook applications. I’d personally recommend it to someone wanting to use a modernized flip phone (*´∀`)♪

[nvalk1]

I used a dumbphone I bought on Amazon for like $30 (iirc anyway). Brand was called AGM Mobile and I remember specifically searching for phones marketed towards seniors because that's exactly the level of technology I was looking for. I used the phone for about a year until biting the bullet and opting for a Pixel 6a with GrapheneOS instead. I was Richard Stallman-level anti-phone (not just smartphones, all phones) because I just see all of the horrible effects of them today and it genuinely upset me.

Eventually though, I realized that it wasn't the world I had a problem with, but my own personal smartphone usage in general. The year I used that dumbphone was essentially a long form detox and now with my Pixel, I use it for maybe 30 minutes a day, if that. At the end of the day, smartphone usage aids in systemic problems, but I understand now that I can choose to not be a part of that problem and not participate in those systemically damaging practices.

Progress isn't made overnight, but one day at a time.

[xwindows]

I have not used smartphone for more than half-decade now.

I figured I'd ask if anyone here uses a "dumbphone" (which basically just means "flip phone", or, more broadly, any phone which intentionally has less functionality than your average smartphone)

Note that a proper (and more pretty-sounding) neologism for this device is "feature phone".

Flip phone is just a specific type of feature phone, which I don't like much in term of longevity: it relies on hinge and ribbon cable which run through that hinge, which are the first things to get damaged in such phone and toast the whole thing.

I'm more of a bar phone guy, and my current daily-drive GSM bar phone has already passed its 17 years old birthday. While I wouldn't say that bar phone is nigh-"indestructible" like many people would, it's pretty damn close; especially when we're speaking of consumer electronics.

many fans of dumbphones tend to use other somewhat outdated technological devices either to diversify how they accomplish daily tasks (as opposed to having them all be centralized in one device) or simply to compensate for what their phone can't accomplish.

• For payments: I use cash.
• For (alarm)clock, calendar, voice recording: I use my dumbphone. (At home, I use real analog clock and paper calendar)
• For flashlight: outside, I use my dumbphone; but when I'm home, I use my own "specialized" submarine-red LED DIY-modded flashlight.
• For taking photos and videos: I use a DSLR. (1) (While my current dumbphone could do that, quality is best described as "poop")
• For navigation: other than my noggin', I myself use paper map printout. I sometime got curious stares when I brought it out on a bus to look and mark things on it with my plastic fountain pen; but I don't mind.
• For taking notes: I use (surprise!) pen and paper; sometimes my laptop.
• For literature: I read real printed books.
• For radio: I use either a boombox at home, or my dumbphone when I'm on the go.
• For music, movies, and everything else: I use my laptop.

Do you think it beats out using a smartphone for most things?

The main reason I use feature phone + manythings instead of a smartphone, is not because they inherently function better (1) or more convenient; but because doing so allows me to have specific somethings that smartphone these days do not allow me to have:

And that is privacy and control over technologies I use (instead of the reverse).

I could write Android software (2) and I have been basically carrying a computer with a fully-functional Android SDK installed on it with me every day in the last decade; but I don't use smartphone, because I know how it works, including which and how it collect and transmits my sensitive personal information (worse: sometimes including information of other people I'm with) to external party behind my back by default, in ways I couldn't reliably disable or block.

I would rather just call smartphone an "espionage slab" these days.


(1) Well, DSLR does have better picture quality than phones, as well as better form factor for capturing it, and I don't have to deal with some bundled Artificial Idiocy misfeature threatening to fabricate parts of my hard-earned reality snapshot to make it "Instagram-ready".

(2) And have one software released on F-Droid. There were plans to release few more (despite not using smartphone myself) with one already written and partially-polished for publishing; but that plan is no more-- because the next year, running off-store applications from developers who're not willing to give Google personally-identifying information (which I will not) is going to be verboten.

^ Basically, the do-more-evil!Google's first step toward forbidding programs from outside of their Google Play monopoly-shop.

If you care, I suggest that you find a way to turn off your phone's automatic firmware update, and turn it off, now; before your device would become just another causality of OtherOS-like debacle.

[warlock]

While I haven't fully committed, I'm planning on buying a Sunbeam F1 Horizon when I get my next paycheck :D It has all the features I want/need (gps, mobile hotspot) and none of what I don't. Plus, since it runs its own locked down version of Android (I think? It may be totally custom!) it doesn't run into a lot of the same issues that a lot of modern feature phones that run KaiOS have. Built in trash apps? No thanks!

At present, I'm currently running an aging iPhone that's been debloated to the point of just being a text/call device with a web browser. The only time it does anything else is for stuff like concert/movie tickets, which are expected to be used via an app. I recently went to a concert at Fenway park (MCR, eeee!!!!!!) and there were a bunch of signs that said all tickets must be through their own custom app to be accepted.

Since I'm already pretty close to having a minimal digital device, I've had to structure some of my life around the limitations of a feature phone. I carry around a notebook, sketchbook, and paper planner around with me at all times, along with a book and PSP for downtime.

There's a really good video about the benefits of this sort of digital minimalism. He promotes having a flip phone and keeping a smartphone with you without any mobile data for things that you simply cannot do without one. This is where the F1 Horizon (which he shouts out) shines, since you can link up a mobile hotspot for the few minutes you need to use your smartphone, and then shut it off when you're done.

[IndigoGolem]

I wanted to stop using a phone with Google's Android for a long time but i also tend to use things until they break rather than upgrading my technology earlier. All my phones (except the last two*) have lasted years and i'm currently using the second computer i've ever owned.

When my last smartphone finally did break† i decided to take that as an opportunity to get further from Google and get a phone that could run a different operating system like e/os or some others i don't now remember. The best option i could find was the Fairphone, which would be hard to get and use and fix because i live in the USA and not in Europe.

I looked at some other phones and decided i just wanted something simple that i wouldn't have to think about it. So instead i got a cheap flip phone. It wasn't good. It broke‡ before the prepaid phone plan ran out. There's a review on my blog if anyone wants more details.‡*

Now what i use is a Light Phone II. It's fine. Good enough for calling and texting, and i also use it to set alarms and listen to podcasts, but that's about it. It does have some other features. Calculator, timer, GPS, notes, and music player, but they're mostly not great because they're not related to its main function as a phone. A few times i've had to explain to people that my phone can't display images ("because it's not a videophone") and that i can't open Google maps links, and only once that i can't scan QR codes.

As for everyday carry (EDC), i actually don't have a whole lot. I carry a pen and paper in case i want to write anything down, since i can no longer take notes digitally (at least not comfortably, my phone is too small to type quickly on with any accuracy) or search the internet for anything and everything i want to know on a whim. If i had a bag for EDC i'd probably take my camera (Kodak something-or-other), ereader (Sony PRS-505), playing cards, and more paper with me everywhere. Maybe my laptop too. But as yet i haven't taken to wearing a backpack or carrying a purse.

I've looked at music players and come to the conclusion that there's not one that will do just what i want and most of them are also expensive, so i should design and make my own that actually does what i want. It'll be expensive, but so will any decent one that someone else made. Progress on that is slow.

The calendar i use is a paper one on my wall. The clock i use is an analogue self-winding wristwatch‡‡, but it's being repaired at the moment so i am reliant on my phone for that. I have a GPS that i keep in my car. It's not perfect (for reasons beyond my comprehension the screen is unreadable in sunlight) but it's the best one i've ever used that isn't Google Maps.

I get most of my books from the local library, and mostly only read digitally when the library doesn't have something and Project Gutenberg does.‡* When i need a computer, i use my computer. I actually don't have a flashlight, but i live close enough to the city that i can see at night by light pollution. I don't listen to the radio so nothing changed there. Some (now all) of my music collection is digital and i've been burning albums and mixes onto CDs to play while driving. I used to use Spotify but it doesn't play nice with my browser's adblock and i don't care enough to fix it, so no more streaming except when i want to hear a particular song i can find on YouTube.

The company i work for wants me to download 3 or so apps for my job but nobody who's directly my boss cares enough to still try to make that happen. I did try to set them up in an Android emulator on my computer but that didn't work.
* The flip phone was one. My current phone is the other and it still works, i just haven't had it for very long yet.
† The battery stopped charging. I feel this is more reasonable than when the flip phone did it, because this one was actually pretty old for a smartphone and not brand new.
‡ The battery stopped charging in favor of just overheating when plugged in. Customer support never emailed me back.
‡* https://indigogolem.neocities.org/blag/25-4-10
‡† A weight in the back swings around as my arm moves and winds it just like turning the stem would do.
‡‡ If neither place has something i'll just buy a copy, but that doesn't come up often.

[haumeaGeth]

I'm planning on buying a Sunbeam F1 Horizon when I get my next paycheck :D

That's the phone I'm looking to get! Did you end up buying it? If so, how do you feel about it so far?


I, too, have decided to begin the "dumb-ification" process, if you will. I'm looking to get my first dumb phone, although I am going to keep my smartphone. I use it at home for the most part, particularly when I'm having a bad flare-up and can't summon the energy to do anything other than watch dumb Youtube videos in bed. Even my laptop is too heavy for me to drag onto my lap when I'm in that state.

For notes, I already carry a notepad, particularly for doctor's appointments - I already find it more convenient than using my phone.

For music, I'm in the process of refining my first mix to burn! I just have to find a CD player and/or discman that I can carry around my house. I don't really listen to music when I'm out and about, except when I'm driving, and my car has a CD slot.

I'd also really like to get a watch, though admittedly mostly out of irony, because every time I ask my husband what time it is, he says, "Time for you to get a watch :]"

Finally, for photos, I'd like to get a little point-and-shoot camera, mostly for the vibe of it.

I want to detach from my smartphone not just for health, but also because it makes tech feel fun again! I get to personalize, and hunting for devices in thrift stores or on Facebook Marketplace feels like a treasure hunt! I also can't wait to give a friend a personalized mix disc, I just think that's such a fun and intimate concept. Hooray for dumb tech!

[warlock]

That's the phone I'm looking to get! Did you end up buying it? If so, how do you feel about it so far?

Yes, I received it last week and I've been loving it! It's very well built and comfortable in the hand, and the OS/setup is very easy to understand. The T9 engine is good, and the voice to text is fantastic, but I've still been using the old familiar "press the button three times to get the right letter" method. Calling sounds excellent!

I appreciate all the little bits and pieces about it - the buttons are well laid out and very clicky, the screen is comfortably big enough to show a big text without an issue, file transfer is easy, and the camera is passable enough for quick snaps. I think the only thing that's a bit of a pain is that it messed up my group chats, but that's not the phone's fault. Ah, the faults of being an iOS/MacOS user trying to move away from their walled garden :v The best part is definitely flipping it shut to end a call, it always feels so awesome lololol.

If you're thinking about it, totally get it!

[shapezncolourz]

oooh I use this phone! (* ´_ゝ`) other than that application requiring touchscreen being on, was there anything else wrong with it?

nothing else really wrong with it! from what i can remember you do have to go through the hassle of finding and putting on developer mode, or else the os won't let you use it </3 (...to be fair that's from a safety standpoint, i'm pretty sure accessibility tools like these need to be able to see your screen to be able to function so there could be concern when using apps in which you'd want a bit more privacy e.g. banking). i might download it again and just try willpower in terms of not using the touchscreen...

me personally, there was a time where my ALT MIVE was my main daily device. but since being back in college it’s just been easier using a modern iPhone in order to access two authentication and textbook applications.

i'm in a similar boat, my uni made me download a BUNCH of apps and my phone has slowed to a crawl :( i want to keep using it but it can take over a minute just for youtube or a messaging app to boot, and i think having too many apps is my issue. i still haven't gone through with something like universal android debloater because i'm scared of getting rid of something necessary, but do i really need two phone apps, one of which can't be used outside of south korea ??