5 ms·

I still want a small, lightweight smartphone with an e-ink display. Phone, text, navigation, and email are my only must-have features, and an e-ink screen woul

by jcadam 9y ago

I still want a small, lightweight smartphone with an e-ink display. Phone, text, navigation, and email are my only must-have features, and an e-ink screen would be fine for those -- in fact, it would be superior to an LCD. All-day battery life, I could use it comfortably in direct sunlight (at the beach, in the car on a sunny day, etc). EDIT: it occurs to me that such a phone would be a great device for camping, hiking, etc. -- anywhere where you're going to be unable to charge your device for a while and/or outdoors.

ra88it 9y ago
Me too. What if a company made this? And made it repairable, with a removable battery, so that you could buy one and keep it forever if you wanted? And a little cottage industry could form around it for 3rd party accessories (which also would continue to work as long as you kept them repaired)? Are we not at the point where this seems like a novel idea and actually has a chance of "disrupting" the smart phone industry? edit: sorry, I just took a very specific thing that I want, and pretended you want it too, when the only thing we both necessarily want is an efficient, e-ink display on a small, lightweight phone.
- jcadam 9y ago
  Yep, maybe not a big enough market for one of the established mass-market phone mfgrs to care, but possibly enough to support a decent niche (a la Pebble, etc.)
- sifar 9y ago
  What would be the price you and the GP be willing to pay for this ? What screen size do you expect ? I have been thinking about this lately - about building one for myself. I don't like andriod/ios smartphones and every time my phone breaks down for some non-replaceable component, I have to hunt for a new phone which isn't either. Something similar to this - http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartphone/ http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartph... Make it product worthy, with a browser and a simpler os which users can understand and modify. Which doesn't cripple the hw, exposes it to the user to exploit it, is modular so the parts can be swapped. But then I realize not using a smartphone would be a simpler solution.
  - jcadam 9y ago
    Screen size - something the size of the iPhone SE or Xperia Compact would be about right. I could see paying ~$200 for something like this, depending on feature set (I don't imagine you need particularly high-end specs considering you aren't going to be driving FMV or 3D games).
patchorang 9y ago
If it also included music streaming, I would buy one.
- jcadam 9y ago
  Oh, yea -- and a headphone jack. Apparently that's a killer feature now.
petra 9y ago
Could be also interesting for people who care about their focus .
abawany 9y ago
Onyx, the (IMO) dominant maker of non-Kindle e-ink devices, did: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273936 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273936 . It was received well initially but as I understand it, quality issues (e.g. IMEI duplication) proved to be its downfall. I love Onyx devices (had a T68 reader a while ago and still look for the Max* devices) but their quality strangeness keeps me away.
lambda_lover 9y ago
I think there's enough of an audience for a small (4-4.5"), high battery life (5-7 days... or more), simple (email, SMS, messaging apps, basic navigation), open source phone, based on the general sentiment I've seen here on HN. No need to release 5 new versions a year and expect users to upgrade every year -- I'd happily shell out $1000 every 5 years, and only expect version updates every 2-3 years for this kind of phone.
hphu 9y ago
There is the light phone which is almost what you describe. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-... I wish it would get maps and email though..
- surajrmal 9y ago
  Seems to not have superior battery life according to the specs. Interesting concept though.
- borgel 9y ago
  Wish they had a prototype to show off. It will be interesting to hear what users think of it.
- jcadam 9y ago
  Yea, the lack of email absolutely kills it for me. The turn-by-turn directions might be a decent enough substitute for maps. But having an actual maps app would be nice (though it couldn't be as interactive as we're used to with an e-ink display so I'm not sure how that would work). I like the basic idea - I definitely can do without social media, netflix, games, etc. But basic business communication (email!) needs to be there.

by jcadam 9y ago

ra88it 9y ago

Me too. What if a company made this? And made it repairable, with a removable battery, so that you could buy one and keep it forever if you wanted? And a little cottage industry could form around it for 3rd party accessories (which also would continue to work as long as you kept them repaired)? Are we not at the point where this seems like a novel idea and actually has a chance of "disrupting" the smart phone industry? edit: sorry, I just took a very specific thing that I want, and pretended you want it too, when the only thing we both necessarily want is an efficient, e-ink display on a small, lightweight phone.

jcadam 9y ago
Yep, maybe not a big enough market for one of the established mass-market phone mfgrs to care, but possibly enough to support a decent niche (a la Pebble, etc.)
sifar 9y ago
What would be the price you and the GP be willing to pay for this ? What screen size do you expect ? I have been thinking about this lately - about building one for myself. I don't like andriod/ios smartphones and every time my phone breaks down for some non-replaceable component, I have to hunt for a new phone which isn't either. Something similar to this - http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartphone/ http://www.davidhunt.ie/piphone-a-raspberry-pi-based-smartph... Make it product worthy, with a browser and a simpler os which users can understand and modify. Which doesn't cripple the hw, exposes it to the user to exploit it, is modular so the parts can be swapped. But then I realize not using a smartphone would be a simpler solution.
- jcadam 9y ago
  Screen size - something the size of the iPhone SE or Xperia Compact would be about right. I could see paying ~$200 for something like this, depending on feature set (I don't imagine you need particularly high-end specs considering you aren't going to be driving FMV or 3D games).

patchorang 9y ago

If it also included music streaming, I would buy one.

jcadam 9y ago
Oh, yea -- and a headphone jack. Apparently that's a killer feature now.

petra 9y ago

Could be also interesting for people who care about their focus .

abawany 9y ago

Onyx, the (IMO) dominant maker of non-Kindle e-ink devices, did: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273936 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273936 . It was received well initially but as I understand it, quality issues (e.g. IMEI duplication) proved to be its downfall. I love Onyx devices (had a T68 reader a while ago and still look for the Max* devices) but their quality strangeness keeps me away.

lambda_lover 9y ago

I think there's enough of an audience for a small (4-4.5"), high battery life (5-7 days... or more), simple (email, SMS, messaging apps, basic navigation), open source phone, based on the general sentiment I've seen here on HN. No need to release 5 new versions a year and expect users to upgrade every year -- I'd happily shell out $1000 every 5 years, and only expect version updates every 2-3 years for this kind of phone.

hphu 9y ago

There is the light phone which is almost what you describe. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-design https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-smartphone-... I wish it would get maps and email though..

surajrmal 9y ago
Seems to not have superior battery life according to the specs. Interesting concept though.
borgel 9y ago
Wish they had a prototype to show off. It will be interesting to hear what users think of it.
jcadam 9y ago
Yea, the lack of email absolutely kills it for me. The turn-by-turn directions might be a decent enough substitute for maps. But having an actual maps app would be nice (though it couldn't be as interactive as we're used to with an e-ink display so I'm not sure how that would work). I like the basic idea - I definitely can do without social media, netflix, games, etc. But basic business communication (email!) needs to be there.