Step 1: Reformat your Android phone
Step 2: Turn on ultra power saving mode (this disables everything in the system except a few apps such as phone and messaging)
Step 3: Never connect to the internet
Et voila. You have a dumb phone.
People want 'dumbphones'. Will companies make them?
Submitted 5 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240515-the-dumbphones-people-want-are-hard-to-find
Comments
simple@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Now that I’ve seen this… Most of the things people want out of a dumb phone can be accomplished by putting an android on ultra power saving mode. Except physical keyboards.
schwim@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I don’t think major manufacturers ever will make them. We’ll continue to get one-off kickstarter-esque fringe phones that’ll keep the most devout Luddite happy and the rest of us will buy what we are offered whether we want a dumb phone or not.
Beaver@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
There is Fairphone,Volla and Pine64.
schwim@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I know and consider those to be squarely on the fringe.
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Prepaid flip phones still exist.
520@kbin.social 5 months ago
Uh, they DO still make dumb phones. And people still buy them.
Vaggumon@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Yep, 79 year old father in law has a brand new dumb phone with a t-9 keypad, made by TCL. Works perfectly fine.
applepie@kbin.social 5 months ago
Yeah but this type of story doesn't generate click bait headline.
Glowstick@lemmy.world 5 months ago
As the actual headline itself says, this is a niche. The editorialized lemmy headline makes it sound like much more than that. Dumb phones still exist, but not many people choose to buy them
SaltySalamander@kbin.social 5 months ago
Not very many people want dumb phones, actually. Certainly not enough for anyone to mass produce the things.
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 5 months ago
They exist
I think people say they want them by don’t really want them.
nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 5 months ago
Some of the other comments show that off pretty well. When people say they want a dumb phone they usually want a “dumb” phone that also has X, where X may be their favorite messaging app but it can also be anything else really, like a good camera or support for NFC payments.
chirospasm@lemmy.ml 5 months ago
+1 For the Light Phone. Owned both their Kickstarter edition and their latest generation, and makes travel, camping, and more easy when I forward my calls/texts. Great battery life with still some creature comforts we have all gotten used to, smart phone wise.
riplin@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I want a “dumb” phone that can run signal. Just text, calls and signal. No camera, no other apps. It’s time we split the data honeypot back up in to smaller pieces.
grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Not gonna lie, I do miss phones with tactile keyboard buttons. My last dumb phone had a mini qwerty keyboard and I loved that thing.
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Absolutely. Sometimes I consider getting a separate Bluetooth keyboard, but I seriously doubt it would be similar enough to scratch the itch. I really miss knowing exactly where all the keys are by feel and typing without looking.
Juice64@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I got the Apple Watch Ultra 2 several months ago and to my surprise I’ve been leaving my phone home about half the time I leave the house. I can still text and answer a call, got my favorite playlists and albums downloaded to it and my Apple Pay setup. Having a dumb phone alone is probably still a step too far back for me but it’s nice having a simpler device that covers all the basics as well as this watch does. I can definitely see the appeal.
peskywarrior@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Sigh I miss my BlackBerry
return2ozma@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I miss my T-Mobile Sidekick 3.
mbirth@lemmy.mbirth.uk 5 months ago
I miss my SonyEricsson P910i
Beaver@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
If you want to eliminate distractions try installing one of the linux phone distros: Sailfish Mobian,Ubuntu Touch,PostmarketOs,Plasma Mobile.
themadcodger@kbin.earth 5 months ago
I would love to, but it seems they only work in very specific phones. And even then with questionable functionality. It kinda feels like trying to use Linux as a daily driver twenty years ago.
tangycitrus@lemmy.world 5 months ago
This is why I want a Raspberry PI based PDA and a Tablet. Nothing fancy, even if its somewhat thick and not water proof, etc… It should be modular and repairable. Put a flavour of Linux on it and configure it to be secure. Then have a dumb phone which I can use as a modem if I want but otherwise call and text and turn off when I don’t want it.
user224@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
Definitely wouldn’t want a dumbphone. Rather the opposite, like a super-smartphone, something like Raspberry Pi inside my pocket (PinePhone may be getting there).
This post got me to try installing Jellyfin server in Termux under proot, only to realize it’s fairly useless for random videos and then wipe it 5 minutes later, but anyway that’s the kind of things I do/want to do with my phone.
And hell, I’d definitely want a keyboard attachment like the PinePhone has.TheDeepState@lemmy.world 5 months ago
No
eran_morad@lemmy.world 5 months ago
lol no
MacGuffin94@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t want a dumb phone. I want a circa 2014 smart phone that is not expected to replace my laptop and serve as a constant data stream for corporations. I want to be able to visit a website on my phone and not have it try to get me to download an app, be ads on 70% of the screen, or just be unreadable formatting. Let me call, text, do a basic online search, play a stupid flash game, and take my money. Stop being greedy and trying to make everything I do monetizable
randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
There is something about the Palm Pre or Jolla Sailfish OS that was so endearing back then. Devices that support it just don’t exist.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Sad thing is, WebOS still exists.
But it’s running on LG televisions
OpenStars@discuss.online 5 months ago
Is fair phone (review) that? Its camera and battery are sub-par for the money, but it says that it makes up for it in many ways, like longevity and ability to swap out components that in other phones can mean almost getting a new one. It sounds kinda perfect for my use case but I’ve never owned one so can’t be positive. When my current phone dies, this is something I’ll heavily look into.
klisurovi4@midwest.social 5 months ago
I have a fairphone 5 and it’s… ok. It’s definitely overpriced for its specs but you can’t really expect a cheap phone while cutting down on slave labour at the same time. It’s also quite buggy. Not unusably so, but coming from a Galaxy S9 (yes, Samsung bad, that’s why I switched), it’s a bit jarring. For example, sometimes I’ll pull it out of my pocket and it’s off for some reason. I turn it back on and there doesn’t appear to be a cause for it, and it works fine. A few times I’ve had the battery drain insanely fast for some reason, despite the phone reporting no apps having high battery usage. Some apps also have issues on occasion, Discord for example tends to get stuck in the gallery view after you send a picture and it doesn’t allow you to open the keyboard again. It’s also missing some minor, but neat things, like the ability to snooze alarms by turning over the phone (there is probably an alarm app that does that, but I haven’t looked) and the fingerprint reader is nowhere near as reliable as the one in my Galaxy S9.
The majority of the time it works just fine and if you don’t expect the polish you’ll get out of a Samsung flagship, you’ll probably be ok with it. But you are very much paying a premium for the sustainability and repairability, not the overall experience. I don’t regret supporting Fairphone, vote with your wallet and all that, but I definitely recognise the device itself has issues and when looked at purely on specs and software quality, it isn’t really worth the money.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
Personally I’m very happy with my fairphone. Knowing I can replace parts when they break is nice. And idgaf about camera as long as it can take a halfway decent picture, so a phone that skimps on camera for less cost is a win in my book
Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I want to be able to pull up an 80% version of a website on my phone, and have a button to open the full website on my computer for when I get home.
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
If you use Firefox, you can transfer tabs between your phone and computer.
Resol@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I’m starting to miss my iPhone 4
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 5 months ago
As long as you didn’t hold it wrong.
MacGuffin94@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I loved my LG v10 and galaxy s5. Those phones just worked and worked great for a long time.