Kendrick Lamar's company just dropped a limited-edition 'dumb' phone. It's already sold out.

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• Fisk400@feddit.nu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  They all sold out and they are all packed in one dudes garage. The actual sale of them will take place over the next year over a series of ebay auction, as is tradition for limited edition things.

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• FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s $299, which isn’t ridiculous for a phone, but this is kind of gimmicky with its Magic 8-Ball thing and, of course, its celebrity backing. I don’t know, I guess it’s not the worst price point, but considering you can get low-end Android phones for that with more functionality, I’m also guessing the people buying it are not really worried about the price.

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  • designatedhacker@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why not get a phone that can take, send, and receive pictures and video. It would also have maps, GPS, encrypted messaging, streaming music, audiobooks, e-books, home automation apps, ride hailing, food ordering, decent browser, etc.

    Then, stay with me here, don’t install social media apps. The lengths people go to so they can avoid social media when it is extremely avoidable is crazy to me.

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    • Ferrous@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      What you’re doing here is subtly shifting the burden of phone addiction from software companies and phone manufacturers back onto end users.

      You’re glossing right over the fact that these teams have the very best software engineers, mechanical engineers, marketers, ad people, psychologists, and doctors for the purpose of making these endlessly scrolling apps as addictive and hard to avoid as possible.

      I read your comment and think about the people who say “why are you depressed? Just go lift some weights. It all comes down to you”

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    • rifugee@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      But what am I going to do while I’m pooping!? Read the news!?

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    • helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The point is that it cannot do those things.

      It’s smaller, it’s lighter, the battery will last way longer, and it doesn’t run spyware.

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    • slurpeesoforion@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Facebook is baked into everything. Everything passes through Google. The only way to avoid them is to stay off the web.

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    • applejacks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      kind of like telling a heroin addict to just stop doing heroin.

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  • Afghaniscran@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Shit, you can buy a phone for £15 and I bet it’s got snake on it

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    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Make 100,000 of that phone and it will cost a lot closer to £15.

      The bulk discounts on components and the PCB itself are pretty huge once you get up into the 10,000 qty. I’ve never had that pleasure. Only thing I’ve been involved with was a few hundred units.

      Do a run in the 100k range and I imagine you’re calling chip makers directly and making some insane deals.

      But at only 250 units your PCB and expensive components like display and shell will still be quite expensive.

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  • sab@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I mean, you're quite clearly paying for the lack of features here.
    Which makes the 8 ball even dumber.

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    • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yeah, the 8 ball bothers me, as does the ‘it’s a dumb phone, but you can add a bunch of apps,’ which is… a regular smartphone with no apps installed for the most part. The e-ink screen is unusual and interesting for a phone and I can see the appeal there, but the rest is kind of odd.

      I’m guessing the majority of the phones were bought by people who are big fans of Kendrick Lamar. I sort of understand. An (impossible) equivalent to me would be if Stanley Kubrick came out with some piece of tech. I’d be sorely tempted to buy it just because I love Stanley Kubrick.

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• khlinxchaos@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  There’s only 250 made, that’s why it sold out.

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  • ZeroCool@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Hence “limited edition”

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    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Extra limited. Dang.

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• doublejay1999@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  It’s 30 dollars of technology.

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  • alvvayson@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It is. Which is why it is so stupid that a company like Nokia or Motorola doesn’t spend a little more on market research to totally own this market.

    Or, maybe they did and partnered with Kendrick Lamar behind the scenes.

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    • AbidanYre@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      maybe they did and partnered with Kendrick Lamar behind the scenes.

      Litephone has been around for a while.

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  • harry315@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    more like 6 dollars on the BOM, would sell for 30 doll hairs to the consumer, tho

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• lea@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I hate minimalism! This is a dumb phone that got rid of everything that made dumb phones charming.

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  • PancakeLegend@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I love minimalism, but dumbphones are not functionally minimal. They do less and seem “simple”, but you’re offsetting necessary utility elsewhere. Mostly they require making compromises that don’t need to be made if not for a little self-control.

    A simple black rectangle is perfectly minimal. How you set them up is everything.

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• mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Considered this phone but couldn’t commit to something like that, nor can I justify such a price tag for that. Instead I’m attempting to dumb down my phone. Moving to GrapheneOS and starting from the basics is definitely a good way to go.

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• chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Who?

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  • mojo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    One of the greatest rappers.

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  • avrachan@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Kendrik Lamar

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  • Parabola@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Mike jones

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• Senex@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Let’s be honest, he could sell poop in a ziploc bag and his fans would buy it.

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• small44@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Ridiculous price for a dumb phone

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  • agent_flounder@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Not for a run of only 250.

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    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Yeah it is. A rare stupid thing is as worthless as a common stupid thing if you’re not an idiot about it.

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    • Cornpop@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      It’s an existing product. The only thing “limited” about it is it says phalange on the back. It’s a fucking stupid marketing gimmick. You can go buy a regular one right now, they are in stock

      www.thelightphone.com/…/light-phone-ii-black

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    • small44@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I expect something really special for special editions not a blandly designed phone endorsed by a celebrity

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• Uglyhead@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  [deleted]

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  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    How/what are you going to sideload? It doesn’t run android from what I can tell, so anything you would want to install would need to be developed first

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  • doublejay1999@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    They’ve been available forever .

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  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Why does color matter? My dumb phone in the 90s had a color screen.

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    • LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Uses more battery, i’ma guess.

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• helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Since when is Light Phone “Kendrick Lamar’s company”?

  That explains why they’re so damn expensive

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• TomMasz@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I hardly text and your call is going to voice mail. Phone things are not the reason I have a smartphone. I'd be happy with an updated Palm Pilot with connectivity.

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  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Oh, how I miss my Treo. If only they made a next Gen, with a new OS that had backwards compatibility for Palm apps, which were tiny and used little power.

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• Cornpop@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  You can go buy one right now. These have been out for years. www.thelightphone.com/…/light-phone-ii-black

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• Llamajockey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Jitterbug 2

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  • pseudorandom@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The Electric Boogaloo

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    • BruceTwarzen@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Reddit moment

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• onlinepersona@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Not so dumb if it has voice recognition…

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  • Nilz@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The Nokia 3310 had voice recognition…

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  • Moneo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Possibly for accessibility reasons? No point in shafting blind people just for a gag.

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• Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I can only imagine what kind of profit this company is making by selling a phone literally purpose built to be as lightweight as possible physically and on features for $299.

  I'd be willing to bet they could sell that for half the price and still make a reasonably-sized profit - so I might just take out my popcorn and see if somebody does.

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• SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Missing lte band 71. Hope the buyers don’t have T-Mobile in an area that’s b71 only.

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• BlackSkinnedJew@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Just bought a Poco M3 Pro 5G for 75 bucks at AliExpress if they can beat with with their Dumb Phone I’m in.

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  The Light Phone 2 is getting some particularly strong star power courtesy of rapper Kendrick Lamar’s creative agency pgLang.

  His company, which he runs alongside childhood friend Dave Free, has released a limited edition version of the “dumb” phone.

  The minimalistic phone has no web browser and its screen is paper-like similar to that of some e-readers.

  In its simplest form, you can call, text, set an alarm, and use it as a hotspot, but there are add-on tools that include a music player, notes, a calculator, directions, and more.

  Users are invited to ask the phone a question and shake it to find out an answer.

  It’s not clear if Lamar himself is an avid user of the pared-down device, but more people are turning to “dumb” phones to cut down distractions and screen time.

  ---

  The original article contains 257 words, the summary contains 136 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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