Flip-phones!

[PurpleHello98]

Update: I'm about to pull the trigger! I was browsing at a Wal-Mart in my new city recently (I moved away for college) and found out they sell unlocked flip phones! The only problem now is that I need to find a way to get my friends to text instead of Instagram DM---for whatever reason, at least on my college campus, the main way of communication is via Instagram DMs and it's mainly what people give you when you ask to talk to them. At this point, I'm considering using my iPhone's weird Instagram notification bug as an excuse. :| Any ideas, y'all?

[zawieja]

That is SUCH a gorg phone i hope i get the opportunity to get it one day,,,im hoping to visit some secondhand shops in japan (if) my family continues with the plans to go there for the winter 

That sounds like a pretty good idea. For one, you can probably get it for cheaper than you would online, and also - it might have proper updates, since it seems impossible to update it without a japanese sim card 

Update: I'm about to pull the trigger! I was browsing at a Wal-Mart in my new city recently (I moved away for college) and found out they sell unlocked flip phones! The only problem now is that I need to find a way to get my friends to text instead of Instagram DM---for whatever reason, at least on my college campus, the main way of communication is via Instagram DMs and it's mainly what people give you when you ask to talk to them. At this point, I'm considering using my iPhone's weird Instagram notification bug as an excuse. :| Any ideas, y'all?

In my experience, people who want to stay in touch with you - close friends and family - will adjust without a problem. But for other people it might be an annoyance and they might forget to contact you when, let's say, some important organisational thing happens at your college  I don't think anyone should have to make excuses for wanting to use other manners of communications, though, we are free to do whatever we want with our lives and our phones :P

[shapezncolourz]

i recently saw a video (in the shorts format, sorry X{) that featured a flip phone natively running android (not the most recent version, but still very cool!) and after looking through this person's videos i found that smart flip phones seem to be a whole thing!

if i had a flip phone i'd likely get one of those, there are smartphone apps that i need to have (public transport, messaging, etc) but they said that they were less active on their phones as the form factor slowed them down, i think it'd be perfect for me! :D

[larvapuppy]

I don't own a regular slab-type smartphone- my flip phone is my only mobile phone, and it works great. I only use it for calling and texting, but it runs Android so theoretically I could download apps on it, I just choose not to.

The model is CAT S22. It's nothing fancy but I do like that it has a little screen that lets you check the time and whether you have any messages/missed calls when it's closed.

I love the look of these cute ones everyone is sharing. Maybe I'll look into one of them once this one wears out. 

[halcybutton]

i miss my first phone a lot, i don't remember exactly what model or make it was but it had a sliding keyboard which i would mess with alllllll the time lol. i also had a windows phone when those were coming out, it was not a flip phone but it definitely was a unique phone. anyways, in the current day, i've been eyeing the cat s22, kyocera 903kc, and kyocera ky-42c! mainly the later two due to aesthetic preferences when i am in a better place financially maybe i'll finally get myself one

[BlazingCobaltX]

I've actually never used a flip phone myself. I was addicted to using my mom's Motorola Razr, but by the time it was my turn to get a phone I got some Sony Ericsson phone that you shove slide upward. I remember it taking an hour to send a song from one phone to another with Bluetooth-- don't exactly miss that.

Recently I looked at a lot of dumbphones (including flip phones). The problem for me isn't social media (I've been weaning off of it for a while now), but that I can turn everything into a compulsion. I have that same worry with flip phones, especially with all the BUTTONS, but I am willing to give it a shot. However, the only flip phone I'd really want is the Sunbeam F1... Which isn't available in Europe.

It's very important for me to have certain apps available to me. That, and I actually care a lot about having a headphone jack (I struggle to find this specified for a lot of flip phones!), otherwise I need to carry more than 1 device and I'm not a fan of that. For now, I will stick with making my smartphone dumber and wait until I can find a really nice flip phone locally.

[candycanearter07]

I'd personally be somewhat fine with a fliphone, as long as it had like at least 20GB and could play mp4 files, tho I would probably miss some apps specifically...

It's very important for me to have certain apps available to me. That, and I actually care a lot about having a headphone jack (I struggle to find this specified for a lot of flip phones!)

What kinds of apps? I know for me in particular, it would probably be a maps app (i get lost easily if its not a path i take daily) and discord

I also really really miss having a headphone jack on my phone, one of those things you take for granted until your bluetooth runs out of power or you have to go thru the tedium of switching it to another device.

[BlazingCobaltX]

What kinds of apps? I know for me in particular, it would probably be a maps app (i get lost easily if its not a path i take daily) and discord

Just looking at the things I use daily:

• WhatsApp
• Maps/navigation
• Email
• Banking app
• Browser

Everything else I can imagine a workaround for, but if switched to a flip phone without these settings I would still have to carry my smartphone.

[candycanearter07]

Ah yeah, I'd also need e-mail, too. I think there are some flip-phones that can use imap3, though?

[BlazingCobaltX]

Ah yeah, I'd also need e-mail, too. I think there are some flip-phones that can use imap3, though?

For sure there are. I just haven't been able to find the sweet spot combination of functions I need in a flip phone. At this point I'd just be getting one for the novelty and for days where I want to not carry a smart device. Though honestly, putting my phone on focus mode has already done a lot for my screen time.

I'm aware this thread isn't necessarily about dumbphones, but I do wanna recommend the resources by Jose Briones, namely his YouTube channel and his website where you can find a dumbphone that suits your needs. I think his website is mainly accurate for North America, though.

[GarbCat]

Hi, I own one of the modern smart-flip phones! I got it as a gift from my parents after having been complaining about the average smartphone's more cumbersome and wrist-killing qualities. I have a few pictures below but beware- literally my only other camera besides my phone is my 3DS, so the images are wonderfully low res and a little bad

Spoiler

[close]

This is a Motorola Razr 2024, iirc. As you can see it has a second screen on the back referred to officially as an "external display." It kind of goes against one of the pros of a flip phone- being that dropping it wont risk breaking the screen- but other models feature no 2nd screen or a much smaller one that only provides the time & caller info. I actually really like this model and its second screen, though. It's a fully functioning second screen and can display most apps with surprising competence. When it's in what I lovingly refer to as "PDA form" it's battery consumption goes down quite a bit and fits pretty nicely in a single hand. Typing in PDA form is quite fine, the digital keyboard is as big as when displayed on the primary screen and critically doesn't make my hands feel like they're falling off because I'm trying to type while holding an absurd longboard of a phone.

I've never been too fond of using a smartphone in the first place, so most functions I use a smartphone for can be completed on this external screen tbh. It's much easier to hold in a single hand so using it as a flashlight or to check the time feels a little better than with a smartphone, it excels in use cases in which you're on your phone for maybe 5 or 10 minutes so when you mostly use a smartphone for texting, checking banking apps, and light browsing, you really can just use it in PDA form and enjoy the lighter load on the battery while protecting that oh-so fragile primary screen that's still necessary since some critical apps (such as settings) can only be accessed on said screen. Of course since this is a smartphone it still has the problem of weighing down looser-fitting pants when in your pocket but it nevertheless fits in the average pocket much better than a non-flip smartphone and, importantly, doesn't poke out of your pocket and threaten to fall out and shatter for the lulz

I'm sure PDA form is excellent for those who listen to music or watch videos on their phone but the Moto Razr 2024 doesn't have a damn headphone jack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Can't someone just go back in time and point an industrial magnet towards Steve Jobs' garage already? Apple's poisoning the water supply and I fear it's irreversible

[PurpleHello98]

Just looking at the things I use daily:

• WhatsApp
• Maps/navigation
• Email
• Banking app
• Browser

Everything else I can imagine a workaround for, but if switched to a flip phone without these settings I would still have to carry my smartphone.

I know there are some Android-based flip phones so if you bought one of those, you could probably side-load those apps off your computer!

[JINSBEK]

I have a flip phone! It's not my solo daily driver because I need certain apps (e.g. transit, 2FA, secure package room access), but I'm still GRATEFUL I got it because it's excised my compulsive smartphone usage completely and I have it on my person every day, where eve I am. It's a Fujitsu Arrows F-05G from 2015, running Android 4.4 KitKat natively, so you can install older/compatible Android apps via USB. Surprisingly, I can actually still get 2G service on this through T-Mobile, but I just haven't bothered.

The sound design/experience is great; the phone makes cute tinkling sounds whenever you open or close it, and the key presses have nice sound effects, too. There's a quick-open button on the left side of the hinge (it's that light pink circular part in the photo) that lets you open your phone instantly, and the right side of the phone has a manner button (pink rectangular button on the side) that lets you instantly set the phone to mute/vibrate if you hold it down, or quickly pressed to check the time, date, battery, signal, and new text message indicator. The front of the clamshell is actually covered in a curved glass that makes the golden bar of the time/date look even nicer. On the right side of the bar is an LED light that flashes blue when the phone rings or you have a new message. If you're playing music, the golden bar will display the track name and what number it is in the album. The time in my photo looks funny because the light refresh rate was too low to be reliably caught by my camera, but it looks perfectly normal to human eyes.

The backlit keypad has a Japanese T9 keyboard and predictive dictionary for both Japanese and English. There are shortcut keys to quickly open the menu, Internet browser, camera, address book, text messages and so on. The * key with a car on it actually offers a really cool feature! Hold it down and you enter distraction-free mode, where the phone gives ZERO notifications of calls and messages. It's actually called public safety mode--don't you wish modern smartphones came with that? Last, but not least, are the programmable feature keys [1] [2] [3] at the bottom, with both short press and long press functions. You can assign those to any app you've installed on your phone, or a setting like "max screen brightness", "Bluetooth", "App notification list", etc. Handily enough you can also program the manner button, too! So that's 8 different key shortcuts you can customise yourself. You don't have to scroll through anything to access your 8 favourite features/apps, it's really nice. Sometimes I do snap photos with this thing! It's a lot of fun and easier to handle, rather than a giant depression rectangle that's too big for your hand.

One other thing, the underside of the clamshell has two tiny "feet" to keep the phone raised off any surfaces. (You can see one foot clearly next to the black camera square, and the other foot is at the same height on the other side.) This helps protect the camera lens and rest of the case from being scuffed when you put your phone down, and I suppose also safeguards it from dangerously overheating (though I can't imagine the phone ever getting that hot). Everything about the Fujitsu Arrows F-05G is really thoughtfully designed, I'm eternally impressed.

Living in the US, I unfortunately can't use a lot of clamshell phone models, including new ones, like the Android 13 Mode 1 RetroII from Japan. But I'm very happy with what I have and couldn't ask for more. I've decked my phone out with nail art stickers and charms, too. I'm really happy not having to deal with nagware anymore.

[splashy]

for me, flip phones are just too stripped back to practical for long term use. being able to swiftly browse the web and utilize a GPS basically no matter where you are is absurdly useful. plus the mountain of free (many of which are even open source) apps that are out there. and good luck finding cameras with unmatched computational photography on anything BUT a smartphone.
despite that, i do find older fliphones pretty charming. one of my favourites is my Samsung GT-S5511T. it's got a snappy ui (which has custom theme support) with cute ui sounds and is really compact for what it is. it's a shame i can't use the damn thing since those bluddy bogans down under in australia didn't want to keep tossing in goldies to keep the fucken 3G network up...

[xolta]

No longer own a flip phone sadly. But lately I been trying to dumb down my phone. Getting rid of unnecessary apps and fluff from my life. Saw a video on youtube about how a person dumbed down there smart phone and used more specialized tech. It greatly improved his life.  Going to try and do the same.