Hund GoToSocial Actor feed
I'm considering a featurephone. Any recommendations? My only requirements would be:
Not required, but nice to have:
rl_dane@polymaths.social 1 week ago I'm going to get flayed alive for saying this, but...
#Commodore #Callback, all the way.
paul@notnull.space@notnull.space 1 week ago @hund I've got my eye on one of these:
It's actually just an already available phone with custom android firmware, but I like the premise.
Not ready yet from what I can tell
joe@toot.works 1 week ago @hund I think that https://www.punkt.ch/products/punkt-mp02-4g-minimalist-phone-refurbished-us would hit all of those requirements. I don't know if it will ever be in stock again, but it looks like you can get one on eBay for around $200 USD.
dredmorbius@toot.cat 1 week ago @hund Jose Briones's Dumbphone Finder is a pretty good search / winnowing tool:
https://josebriones.org/dumbphone-finder[
Briones also tries and reviews a bunch of phones on YouTube (as do numerous others).
I'd suggest a few additional considerations / search constraints:
Budget. What do you want to spend?
What carrier(s) are you considering? What phones work with them?
Many features of a phone are effectively those of the underlying OS. "Dumbphones" range from custom Android reskinnings (e.g., Light Phone II/III) to AOSP (usually KaiOS), to System30+ (Nokia), to ... a few others.
Consider a second device for apps. I'm a fan of e-ink tablets, most of which offer handwritten note-taking. Onyx BOOX, Remarkable, Kobo Reader, and others.
Look at vendor support policies. I pretty much locked in my preferred device when I found that the OS is supported for 5 years from last sale date, and hardware (batteries and a few other items) for fully 7 years.
Protocol support. There were two very-nearly identical devices, but one offers 5G, the other only 3G. For the phone itself that's not a huge issue, but as a hotspot, 5G wins bigly.
There's more app support than you might think, but it's mostly utilities. My view is to keep the phone as limited as possible and offload other tasks to a small laptop, or dedicated capture devices (audio, camera, etc.).
dredmorbius@toot.cat 1 week ago @hund For specific recommendations:
Sonim XP3+ 5G: KaiOS, rugged A.F., 5G, hotspot, Support: 7 yrs HW / 5 yrs OS, hard keys, USB, removable battery, some apps (including voice recorder and notes), bluetooth, physical SIM, MicroSD to 500 GB. Weeks of standby time. My own 1st choice. T-Mobile and AT&T in the US.
Kyocera DuraXV Extreme+: Sonim's brother from another mother, but no 5G, 16 GB vs. 32 GB storage, 4 GB vs. 8 GB RAM, smaller battery (1700 vs. 3000 mAh). Verizon in the US. I'm pretty sure Kyocera will be updating the device this year (roughly a 2--3 year release cadence), presumably with 5G support and expanded specs, though no annoucements yet.
(Both Sonim and Kyocera make other rugged phones, including candybar / slab Android devices.)
CAT S22 Flip is similar to both but far cheaper at $70 vs. $250 for the others. Runs true Android rather than KaiOS / AOSP. Much shorter battery life.
If you're sold on the flip phone form but not the $250 price, there are other offerings from TCL, AGM, Blu Tank, Vortex, Unnecto, and Plum, all under $100, some < $50.
For premium phone / low distraction, the Light Phone II or III have solid reviews. Both are based on a limited Android rather than AOSP / KaiOS, but seem pretty solid options. Light also makes a flip.
My gripe on the Punkt MP02 is that it's 3G only, which is on its way to being phased out. Oddly, 2G, relied on by emergency services, might actually have a longer life... Reports of SW issues with the Punkt.
There are several e-ink devices (Light Phone being one), with Briones listing a couple from Mudita (Pure and Kompact).
For a full QWERTY physical keyboard: Sidephone, Keyphone, Connecto Snap, and HIT K1.
Max security: Google Pixel running GrapheneOS.
I believe all these devices have Bluetooth and hotspot, though you might want to verify this.
A lot of the options revolve around:
OS: Android, KaiOS, System30+ (Nokia), and a few others.
App support. KaiOS actually does manage quite a few decent utilities (note-takers, voice recorder, podcast, Internet radio, maps, and some texting / VOIP / SIP utilities).
Spam blocking. Pretty much essential on any comms platform today. The best capabilities are offered by your carrier directly, and most don't come near sufficiency. App-based blocking tools are very OS-dependent, and here AOSP/KaiOS lags badly.
Physical characteristics: rugged, headphone jack, USB port, physical SIM, microSD, keyboard (touch / T9 / QWERTY), display (OLED, e-ink, LCD), and repairability / maintainability (usually: replaceable battery), external displays, speakers, battery capacity/life, programmable keys.
Form factor: slab, candybar, flip, and a few sliders.
Network support: 5G, 4G/LTE, 3G. I'd strongly recommend 5G, and wouldn't go less than 4G presently.
Hackability / extensibility.
Vendor support. Both HW and SW/OS.
Price. Factor in phone lifetime. Some of the rugged devices should last 2--4x longer than other options, though at a cost.