14 ms·

The Light Phone

240 points by lelf 7y ago

darthvader101 7y ago
maybe its for people who are kinda looking into disconnecting from the world but still be partially connected. I'd never buy this
api 7y ago
I don't see maps mentioned. If it lacks that it lacks the largest killer app of smart phones.
- zamalek 7y ago
  It's also hard to supplement this with a Garmin or similar, because Google/Apple maps are perpetually up to date. And their UX doesn't completely suck.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  Also only texting, not WhatsApp or other messaging platforms.
  - sprafa 7y ago
    If it had texting, Uber and maps I’d buy it. Really unfortunate
    - war1025 7y ago
      It has texting. They are developing a "taxi" feature, which I think they'd be dumb not to integrate Uber into. And they have a screenshot of a "directions" app. Maybe still too early to rule it out entirely.
- war1025 7y ago
  I didn't see maps mentioned, but there is a cycling screenshot of various apps halfway down the page that does show an app for getting directions.
- pwenzel 7y ago
  There's supposed to be a Directions feature, but no details yet. If it interfaced with the Google Maps API I'd be pretty happy.
abakus 7y ago
$350 ? really?
trox 7y ago
I wonder where this is heading. The original light phone (version 1 if I remember correctly) was simply for calling and very minimalistic. To that I am a bit disappointed that they are adding more features instead of cutting prices.
- onli 7y ago
  There were some background articles explaining they had to. The first version was too minimalist, not even the phone makers ended up using them. The set of the absolutely necessary services for a phone is bigger than one would think and it differs more - does it include maps? taxi services? texting? Answer will vary a lot, and by making it too minimalist they would end up satisfying no one. It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it".
  - war1025 7y ago
    > It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it". The classic response of anyone not financially invested in a product. Hopefully they follow through with their intention not to throw in the kitchen sink rather than burn all their resources trying to attract a picky customer base that has no intention of ever actually buying the phone.
- na85 7y ago
  More and more, the voice calling feature is becoming obsolete. With the exception of hands free use in the car while driving, I essentially never use my phone to make calls. Text is asynchronous and thus the other party can respond when it's convenient. I resent voice calls as an intrusion and rarely answer them.
  - foobarian 7y ago
    The next killer app for me is in the network and it's the SHAKEN/STIR validation helping to show some UI indicator of a "verified caller ID". Luckily it looks like mobile carriers will be there first and when they are it's game over for spam.
hinkley 7y ago
I'm curious to see what would happen if someone made a simple phone that behaved as an access point. Hook up my watch, my tablet, bluetooth headphones, let it stay in my pocket most of the time.
- martin-adams 7y ago
  That sounds exactly like a portable Wi-Fi hotspot which creates a hotspot from a 4G sim.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    Doesn't do anything for my watch though, and can you make calls on those? I thought they were data only?
    - lozaning 7y ago
      A little google voice magic, or any number of other SIP providers and apps will have you making calls to POTS numbers over just a data connection very easily.
      - hinkley 7y ago
        No. I and 98% of the world just want to make calls, not start a project. There's a reason Linux is not ruling the desktop, and that there is it.
        lozaning 7y ago
        Turns out that such functionality is actually supported natively by the watch. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 as long as as you have any of these carriers: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039 Though to your point it did take me a bit of ducking to figure this out. Seems extremely straightforward once you know it exists.
- 7y ago
tashoecraft 7y ago
I think an Apple Watch with cellular accomplishes a lot of what light phone does. Leave your phone behind and just keep all the social apps off the watch (they’re not really usable anyway). You can still accomplish a lot of what you need from a phone, and pair some AirPods and you have music, podcasts, easy hands free calling
- gnicholas 7y ago
  I think that going out with an Apple Watch instead of a phone will become popular as a way of (partially) unplugging. It will also signal that the wearer is not an ordinary worker bee (who need to keep a phone around to respond to emails) but instead a member of upper management (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length).
  - Swizec 7y ago
    > (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length). iWatch + Airpods + dictation, my friend. It is amazing. If only the apple watch could play audiobooks (on Audible) and music (on Spotify) without a phone nearby, it would be the perfect minimalist phone. Alas until that happens I have to continue to lug my phone around when sportsing. You can download books to the Audible watch app but I've never gotten it to work. The connection just isn't stable enough. The new WatchOS supposedly enables the API that Apple Music has been using to stream via LTE (from what I've heard), but it smells like Spotify has decided it's no longer worth the bother.
    - graeme 7y ago
      Do you just deal with having typos in a long reply? You can’t edit watch dictation, so a lot of my replies including some form of “damned apple watch” so people I’m replying to know what’s up. That said I quite like the combo in general. A big reason I went with apple music is the streaming. It is baffling to me that spotify hasn’t enabled lte streaming on the watch now that watchos 6 lets them.
      - 7y ago
billyhoffman 7y ago
I get this is supposed to be minimalist but the texting interaction looks really rough. You read threaded conversations in portrait mode but to reply it switches you to landscape mode where you can’t see the conversation and can only see the reply you’re typing. Nokia candy bar phones from the mid 90s let me type a reply while looking at what I was replying to. This seems like an oversight
- martin-adams 7y ago
  Maybe that’s intentional, so you focus on short messages rather than sprawling conversations.
  - germinalphrase 7y ago
    Why force that choice on me?
    - balladeer 7y ago
      Possibly that's the point of such a phone. Because if it was up to one's choice then I believe one doesn't need any special phone for lesser usage of (smart)phones or use it the way one wants. No?
      - germinalphrase 7y ago
        Possibly. Could simply be sloppy interaction design. There’s a lot of room to project intention on ‘minimal’.
    - taneq 7y ago
      Why choose a phone that doesn't do what you want?
- Zenst 7y ago
  I'd say the Nokia still wins out over this, that's without even looking at the price. How many Nokia's could you get for $350. Then there is this aspect: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=thelightphone.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=thelightphone.com Which does kinda make you wonder many things, more so, that price. Everything else seems to of been already covered in past discussions over the many many years.
markvdb 7y ago
E-ink screen, but the battery life is bad. I can go about a week with mine.
- ebg13 7y ago
  The 950mAh battery is extremely small.
  - vinay427 7y ago
    It's still very low even given the battery size. The updated Nokia 3310 has a traditional display with a 1200 mAh battery and is rated for a standby battery life of 31 days. At 950 mAh that would be just over 24 days. I would expect an improvement in battery life with E-ink. https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310#details https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310#details
    - megablast 7y ago
      Rated for means nothing. They always put out bullshit claims. Would you like these guys to lie too?
      - vinay427 7y ago
        I'm curious why you take the battery life claim about the Light Phone at face value. My assumption is that most every company tests in optimal conditions that users won't achieve in real life, so I think it's generally fair enough to compare between two manufacturer claims given that we don't have side-by-side comparisons yet.
vinay427 7y ago
I don't really care about the price of the phone, because I'm sure it's more expensive to produce on a smaller scale than mainstream manufacturers, but the plan is $30 for unlimited texting and calling? Really? You can get unlimited minutes/SMS and several GB for $10-20/mo from various MVNOs nowadays. Why they would bother marketing a plan that is $30/mo with no data is beyond me.
- yellow_lead 7y ago
  Because this phone's audience are affluenza kids with money to waste.
megablast 7y ago
The light phone. Here is a 100mb webpage plus useless background video introducing our minimalistic concept.
- TheGallopedHigh 7y ago
  Otherwise known as marketing; which is often useful for selling products not necessarily aimed at tech users.
  - crimsonalucard 7y ago
    Don't think tech users are better than other people. They fall for marketing tactics too.
- jonny_eh 7y ago
  It's a light phone, not a light site.
  - einr 7y ago
    But having a garbage site makes me think it's a garbage phone. These things matter.
Animats 7y ago
Why not just get the bottom of the line unlocked Android phone from Walmart for $39?[1] Delete the Google crap, install F_Droid and some basic apps. That's basically what I have, on a Caterpillar Tractor ruggedized phone. No "social" anything. Base email, Fennic browser, ZANavi maps, Mozilla location info provider. Someone could compete with these guys by buying low-end phones in bulk and reconfiguring them that way. Sell it for $49. [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Compass-Unlocked-4G-GSM-Smart-Cell-Phone-Android-8-0-Quad-core-8MP-Camera-ATT-Tmobile-Metro-Rose-Gold/905106532 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Compass-Unlocked-4G-GSM-Smar...
- dsr_ 7y ago
  You're confusing "people who want to get rich" with "people who want useful products". "People who want to get rich" are a significant subset of the HN population, and they are downvoting you because they remember Dropbox. You'll recall that Dropbox was met by "people who want useful products" saying "oh, I can do 90% of that with rsync". Your solution is probably excellent for someone who knows what they are doing, but it won't make a lot of money, and it won't sell to the kind of status-conscious fanatic minimalist who always needs a new toy to prove their minimalism. In fact, there are lots of caution signs around this product's website indicating that they aren't actually very good at the technical parts. I wouldn't be at all surprised to read a teardown showing that this is a low-end Android phone with an e-Ink display running a single shell program around the underlying dialer, SMS and alarm functions.
  - Animats 7y ago
    I get the mindset, but this is round 2 for the "light phone", round 1 having flopped. I could see a low-end product which shares the phone number of the bigger phone. Something carriers could offer as a promotional item and a backup. "What do you do when your iPhone is in the shop for a broken screen?" The amazing thing is that you can get 4 processors, a screen, 8GB, and a camera for $49.
    - paulcarroty 7y ago
      The non-amazing things: no updates and tons of spying services inside - why this phone is so cheap.
huangc10 7y ago
I'd rather buy a Supreme brick than this. All jokes aside, I'd rather buy a Nokia phone than this...
- Hamuko 7y ago
  Any Nokia phone is a better purchase than this thing.
fastball 7y ago
My thoughts: 1. Needs a bigger screen so that texting in portrait is possible / texting in landscape allows you to see the convo. 2. Needs data and basic data-driven apps - google maps, spotify. Any apps that aren't addictive and are used every day seem like they should be in any modern phone, even those intended to be minimalist. I "need" things like banking on my phone, as well as email realistically.
- war1025 7y ago
  Sounds like you aren't the target market. If I hadn't just last week finally deactivated my dumb phone from 2011 and bought a cheap Motorola, I'd seriously consider this. Literally all I want from a phone is the ability to call / text for coordinating near-term meetups with people, and the ability to receive / send calls in emergency situations. Unfortunately, they don't make phones like that anymore. I have my new phone set in battery saver mode with everything deactivated except the calling app, the texting app, and Facebook Messenger. The battery can last four or five days with this configuration, which pleasantly surprised me. Still can't match the two weeks I'd get out of my old dumb phone though.
  - Hamuko 7y ago
    Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do ("it'll never have social media!"). Furthermore, it's not even gonna have a better battery life than your jerryrigged phone since it apparently only does about a week on standby due to its tiny battery. And they expect you to pay $350 for this. Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. Costs like 20% of what the Light Phone costs, does phone calls, text messages (and probably Facebook Messenger since it has a Facebook app) and has a 3-4 week standby battery life.
    - war1025 7y ago
      > Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. As others have mentioned, most of the phones that do fit the criteria of a modern dumb phone don't work on Verizon. I had plans to buy the 3310 if they ever released a 4g version. > Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do I would happily go without Facebook Messenger, but since my phone supports it, it's a convenient thing to have access to. But you are right, I am probably not the target market for this phone.
jxcl 7y ago
ITT: People complaining that a purposefully minimalist phone doesn't have the very specific feature that they want. If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option.
- huangc10 7y ago
  ITT? This isn't Reddit. Of course people are going to talk about missing features. If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, I can think of a hundred other options that don't cost $350. I think that's what you meant.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- hadrien01 7y ago
  I think this phone is the perfect device for someone like my grandmother that can't even answer the phone on her smartphone because she can't slide the answer button. Smartphones nowadays are very complicated machines with hundreds of UX concepts that are not understandable by a increasingly higher proportion of the population. And you can never disable every function ("apps" in iMessage, really?!). My grandmother uses an Android phone I've very heavily customised (deleted apps with adb, put a Windows Phone-like launcher with flashing icons for notifications, compiled custom versions of OSS apps for SMS and calls, etc.). This Light Phone seems perfect for her.
- doesnt_know 7y ago
  > If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option. Not even close. You can get a basic phone plus sim card for like $40 or less and then pay a few dollars (or less) a month on prepay to keep it connected to the network. This is a toy secondary phone for those with disposable income, not a valid low-income alternative.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  >If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option. $350 is not a reasonable option to be reachable by a loved one when a brand new Nokia 3310 is like $60 and can do standby for like 3-4 weeks with a single charge.
ogre_codes 7y ago
This isn't much in terms of value or functionality. You can buy a low end iPhone and just not install any apps and get more functionality and utility. I guess if you are on the road and need multi-week battery life??? Even then, it's easy enough to plug into your car outlet.
- Vendan 7y ago
  The battery life of the Light Phone II is approximately 1-3 days of 'light' regular usage. So yeah, battery life is not that great for what it is...
JohnJamesRambo 7y ago
"It looks like a new thermostat." - my girlfriend when I showed it to her. I'm the perfect customer for this phone (had a Nokia 3310 3g recently) but this is perhaps a little too minimal for even me. Still looking for a replacement for my iPhone SE someday.
ricardobeat 7y ago
I got mine still in the box in a drawer somewhere. The main selling point for me were the additional features compared to the original. From the FAQ: > These tools are currently being developed and will be released in the coming few months These tools being the promised features of Music / Notes / Calculator / Directions / Ride hailing, and "coming months" being the end of 2019. It's been almost two years since the launch, and the original light phone will soon celebrate it's 5th anniversary so I'm not sure I should hold my breath. If anybody from the team is reading this, I'd love to hear what's blocking the software development side.
- kop316 7y ago
  What software does it even use? I couldn't tell based on the website (or I missed it).
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
    It looks bespoke to me, but it could be a skin on Android, possibly.
  - clearing 7y ago
    It's a customized Android OS and firmware. Not sure how much more is okay to divulge.
- AndrewKemendo 7y ago
  I thought the whole point of this phone was to NOT have those things.
  - ip26 7y ago
    Nobody bought the Light Phone to escape the dopamine drip of Calculator.
    - samstave 7y ago
      Calculator dopamine release really starts to add up once you get to the root of the problem...
im3w1l 7y ago
Aww.. I thought this would be about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophone
starpilot 7y ago
You can also get this mini basic phone for $20: https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Bluetooth-Phones-BM70-Earphone-0-66inch/dp/B07VVQHVYK https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Bluetooth-Phones-BM70-Earpho...
fake-name 7y ago
"Light" phone. Homepage requires multiple 3rd party JS libraries to work. Helloooooo hypocrisy!
- klyrs 7y ago
  I'm with ya, it crashed my phone's firefox.
- nornio 7y ago
  It is even worse than requiring 3rd party JS libraries : it requires JS ! Without JS enabled, a blank page is displayed with an error message.
snyp 7y ago
Any reason why the screen is so small? If it were larger and offered one handed access to keyboard that would be a huge plus instead of having to rotate the phone to type. How do you type numbers you have to call? Do you rotate them phone and type the numbers? What about music? The thing that people use the phones most for other than calls and messages would be music, considering the fact that there aren’t that many dedicated music players around a phone without a music player makes a lot less sense
- taneq 7y ago
  Why would it need a bigger screen? It seems explicitly designed not to do any of the things that would be improved by a bigger screen.
- lpghatguy 7y ago
  Based on one of the pictures of the phone on the homepage, it appears that there is a numeric keyboard in portrait mode. It is shown setting the time for an alarm, but I imagine it is also used to type phone numbers.
ge96 7y ago
chonk, e-ink displays are I think a hard sell compared to snappy responsive regular phone displays
- stazz1 7y ago
  eliminate all transitions and it's likely faster than bottom-of-the-barrel phones today
- blululu 7y ago
  Agreed. Sadly the latency on eInk is still way too high. Smooth animations, scrolling and transitions are a large part of what makes touch screen based smart phones so easy to use and compelling. There are, perhaps, alternatives to the design patterns used for touch screens, but the light phone does not really do much in this area.
crashedsnow 7y ago
Feels like a solution looking for a problem to me. Not only are phones trending away from being "phones" (rather portable internet terminals) but I'd wager the largest portion of smartphone use is content consumption, rather than content creation/collaboration. Both of which would suggest this device is a long, long way from product-market fit.
- ConradKilroy 7y ago
  "a solution looking for a problem" my fave descriptive phrase :-)
- troymc 7y ago
  I can see this phone being a great fit for certain markets, such as senior citizens who like to talk on the phone, but who get baffled by the complexity of modern smartphones.
  - nisse72 7y ago
    For about $50 you can (still) get a Nokia 3310.
    - dehrmann 7y ago
      Be careful with this. AT&T shut down its GSM network 3 years ago. The ~only unlocked LTE feature phone I could find a year or two ago for my grandma (who wouldn't be able to learn how to use a smartphone) was an Alcatel Flip 2.
      - Hamuko 7y ago
        There's a 3G variant of the Nokia.
        ebg13 7y ago
        It still uses 900/1800MHz, so it won't work in the US.
ekianjo 7y ago
You can do exactly that kind of things with your regular smartphone by not installing tons of apps that disturb you all the time. As far as I know the user is pretty much in control of what apps they choose to add.
- jimthrow 7y ago
  No. Most android phones come with a ton of ininstallable apps that take up a huge amount of room
  - ekianjo 7y ago
    No. You can disable even the stuff that is installed by default - you can't erase them but once they are inactive they won't bother you anymore.
- Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
  In that case, Putting the phone in DND mode 24x7 and only using it only when we need it exponentially limits phone usage and interruptions. But, not many can afford having their phone in DND mode all the time due to their job/family requirements(I do it and I've read few others on HN doing it). Then again, there are jobs which require you to install apps on your personal device or at-least communication apps like Slack, Teams etc.; In those case even Light Phone cannot be used.
  - cheez 7y ago
    I have DnD 24x7 and it is bliss.
    - Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
      How is your relationship with your friends who are not located close to you? P.S. Please don't mind the bland nature of my question.
      - 7y ago
ppod 7y ago
The use case for this is people who want to take it to a social occasion and show it off, while using a regular phone with email, music, podcasts, maps, uber, and social media for most of their daily lives.
- Sabinus 7y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
- christefano 7y ago
  Your comment seems insightful to me. Not sure if you’re being down voted. I agree there’s definitely some virtue signaling by having a high-cost secondary device like this. There’s chatter upthread with a comparison to other forms of virtue signaling that some people do.
cmoscoso 7y ago
Well, the page is really white!
_hhff 7y ago
My team built the OS on a custom fork of Android (https://www.sanctuary.computer https://www.sanctuary.computer). I would say ask me anything but I’m in the middle of the Australian outback with virtually no mobile signal...! What I can say is that working with Eink is rudimentary - we had to build everything from a custom kernel driver all the way up to the view layouts and UX. We expected Eink would give us sophisticated SDKs, but unfortunately a lot of wheels had to be reinvented. I have huge respect for the team behind the Yota Phone! I’ve written a tear down of how it all works that I’ll be sharing soon on our company twitter if anyone is interested. (not sent from a light phone)
- mesozoic 7y ago
  The battery life must be immense right? AT least one advantage there? How long does it last.
  - mumblemumble 7y ago
    According to the website's FAQ, 1-3 days.
    - _hhff 7y ago
      Yup, we generally prefer to underpromise on battery life.
      - Hamuko 7y ago
        So you can get 3+ days of usage?
  - cheez 7y ago
    Well they're using Android so... Probably not much. Display isn't that important to battery life (unless you're using it all the time.)
    - _hhff 7y ago
mesozoic 7y ago
I don't get it. While it is better than an iPhone by having a headphone jack. Still who is the market here? Someone who doesn't want to use a phone much but can't pull themselves away from it or cutstomize an android phone to not bother them.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
shaklee3 7y ago
With e-ink I was expecting a very long battery life, so only 1-3 days suggests the radio is still a huge battery drain.
- cl3misch 7y ago
  ... or the full Android software stack.
bcatanzaro 7y ago
I got one of these for my 13 year old. We’re trying to ease her into having a phone without giving her Instagram etc. quite yet, since we think smartphones can be dangerous for mental health of young teens. The phone has been a mix of good and bad. The software is still somewhat buggy. I think the hardest thing is that the eInk screen ghosts a lot and has a very long refresh cycle, which really can get in the way of using it. There are times when you just can’t read the screen because it has so much ghosting. Emoji work but are so tiny they are hard to read. Overall - I still like it and hope it gets updated software to add the missing features (music, for example). But the screen is a pretty big compromise. I’d probably be happier if they used a standard LCD screen.
crimsonalucard 7y ago
It's like a flip phone but marketed towards these posers who want to "get away" from technology. Just buy a flip phone.
paxys 7y ago
It's like the world collectively decided to forget that basic feature phones and cheap prepaid plans have always existed and continue to exist.
- Aloha 7y ago
  I strongly suspect the people funding this don't know anyone who don't buy a flagship phone.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- dehrmann 7y ago
  I have a $3 per month prepaid plan with T-Mobile that I use when I need to give a number companies that will likely sell it.
- jay_kyburz 7y ago
  I switched back to a Nokia 3310, disabled data and love it. Its cheap, I can make calls, I can sms, I can take really crappy photos when I need to remember something. Calculator, Alarms, few other little things. It's all I need. I have a nice PC for everything else.
- criddell 7y ago
  Those phones typically look and feel cheap. There's a market for a higher quality version of those phones.
ksec 7y ago
I just wish Apple make a modern thinner All Screen iPhone 4. ( Even smaller than iPhone SE ) The screen should be about 4.7" @ 19.5 : 9. The smaller screen absolutely destroy all gaming and even Internet browsing experience. The UX is so bad you dont want to use it, but still give you the choice should there be a need. While retaining all the essential such as Email, WhatsApp, Calling, Uber, And Music etc.
- b5 7y ago
  That's hyperbolic nonsense. There's a huge number of people, myself included, that continue to use an iPhone SE with a 4" screen without the issues you describe. A 4.7" screen is nearly 20% larger than that; it doesn't "destroy" gaming or internet browsing. A lot of these same people Apple to release an updated version of the iPhone SE form-factor. Many of these people are on Hacker News; search for earlier threads about the iPhone SE being discontinued to see just how many. * Sent from my iPhone SE
dangus 7y ago
Modern smartphones already give you the tools to stop abusing your phone’s dominance of your attention. Screen time and other similar controls let you limit your usage of distracting apps. Or just don’t install them and learn some self control. Put your phone in your bag instead of your pocket, or maybe leave it at home sometimes. A black and white phone missing basic features compared to a modern Nokia feature phone along with being currently unavailable to purchase without waiting is, overall, a shitty proposition. And I didn’t even see the price before writing all that out. $350. No way. A KaiOS device seems way more sensible.
- MperorM 7y ago
  I've installed and uninstalled reddit maybe 7 times in the last year, and even when I don't have it installed I still visit it from my browser. For my Firefox desktop I have written 5 extensions that blocks websites in various ways so to help me control my bad urges, but even then I just open up safari and use it from there. Fact is just I can't control it, and I am willing to pay thousands of dollars for any solution that solves these problems without limiting the use of technology I actually want in my life.
  - bbx 7y ago
    If you’re willing to spend thousands of dollars, book a 1-week trip to a slightly remote place where internet is hard or even impossible to get. Don’t bring your phone. Just money. The location doesn’t even have to be in the middle of the woods. Just a small town or village where there’s nothing much more to do than sightseeing and walking around and having a drink at the local bar/pub. A beach resort is also a nice option as you’ll have fun activities to fill your days. Of course a modern resort will have internet so the temptation will be harder to beat so maybe pick a tiny one. In any case, the idea is to have a physical disconnection with your phone/the internet so that you can’t satisfy any urge to check Reddit. The start will be rough but over time your fear of missing out will disappear. I find that if I spend time traveling or with family (where browsing reddit or similar is not easy) I realise when coming back home that I haven’t missed anything. I used to browse Reddit a lot. Nowadays I just check /r/soccer once in a while and spend time doing a lot more of other things (music, coding, reading, nothing).
kpmcc 7y ago
I just received my light phone and while I haven't used it much yet I'm mostly a fan. I used the Punkt MP01 for a while and it's still pretty much my favorite phone ever. We'll see how I feel about the E-ink display on this thing after some real use. The blinking and ghosting is kind of annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Honestly though I think the main reason I liked the Punkt phone so much was the buttons. Buttons are seriously underrated. I've noticed this already with entering text on the light phone. The screen is purposefully small and trying to cram a full keyboard onto a tiny touchpad is a little iffy. I'm not so concerned about the lack of features at this point. I'd already though about coding up my own little text bot with Twilio to call rides through lyft or uber's APIs so maybe this will give me some incentive. Edit: Yeah the flipping back and forth between landscape and portrait mode is pretty annoying. Devs if you're reading this please address in a future update.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  The Light Phone and Punkt both have a disadvantage: they're not rugged while they are expensive. On the long term I'm interested in a dumbphone for my child (and I am interested in living a disconnected life, on top of that, myself, with an offline e-reader and an offline DAP serving me quite well), but it needs to be rugged. If it is not rugged and not durable, then what is the point of using such? You can't take it for hiking, you have to be super careful with it like an expensive, normal smartphone.
3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
I always wondered why no major phone manufacturers thought to stick an e-ink display on the back of the phone. I’d love to leave it docked on my desk while it scrolled through useful displays, such as calendar, time, weather etc.
abjKT26nO8 7y ago
This website is so light it doesn't work in any capacity without third-party JavaScript and XHR. Ironic.
raghavgoyal14 7y ago
$350 for a modern Nokia?
- fragsworth 7y ago
  To be fair, it's probably not subsidized by hoarding all of your data.
  - Hamuko 7y ago
    How much data is the Nokia 3310 hoarding?
    - ebg13 7y ago
      None in the US because it won't work here.
      - terinjokes 7y ago
        The Nokia 3310 3G definitely works in the US, supporting 850, 900, 1800, 1900 bands. They're readily sold at your local Target and Walmart.
austenallred 7y ago
For that price you might as well get a Palm. It’s tiny and runs android, but I’m keeping one as a minimalist phone for when I don’t want to use my iPhone - https://palm.com/ https://palm.com/
- dhruvkar 7y ago
  I used the tiny Palm phone for a few months as my primary phone. The battery life was terrible, even with a battery case, it lasted 2-3 hours. I'd love a phone like that which had a proper battery life.
ngngngng 7y ago
I would love a dumb phone, except then I lose my ability to make encrypted calls and texts. Can't stand uncle sam being able to read anything I text my wife at any time of the day.
holri 7y ago
With 3rd party JS disabled, I get this opening the link: "Something went wrong" Sorry then I do not want to read your content, because this is wrong on your side.
badrabbit 7y ago
Removable battery?
drivingmenuts 7y ago
Why not just have one phone, instead of a Global phone and a North American phone?
- paxys 7y ago
  A single chip which supports more LTE bands is more expensive.
  - Hamuko 7y ago
    Is that an issue when the phone is $350 already? They're clearly not aiming for low-end users here.
vghadge 7y ago
I use nokia lumia 800, OS updates not supported so only factory apps when I feel like not to be disturbed. I call forward to this phone and keep primary phone switched off.
Hamuko 7y ago
Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social circle in order to justify $350 just to be able to tell people how your minimalist phone is not able to browse the Internet. If you just wanted to have a basic phone that doesn't do a lot of things, you could buy a Nokia 3310 for $60. You just don't get to brag about your disconnected way of living since the Nokia 3310 can actually do those things.
- Nition 7y ago
  For even simpler and smaller, get a Nokia 130[1]. [1] https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-130 https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-130
  - ebg13 7y ago
    > ...nokia-130... 2G 900/1800MHz bands and therefore doesn't work in the US. Got a suggestion that actually works here?
    - simonh 7y ago
      It does work here. Oh, in the US. Got you.
- arc4random 7y ago
  You’re glossing away a lot of important details here with “phone that doesn’t do things”. So, I’m very much in the market for what the Light Phone 2 is going for: not a phone that doesn’t do anything but make calls and text, but a phone with “the essentials”. The problem is that not everyone who wants such a phone has the same set of essentials. The single biggest issue that I have with feature phones is that they lack a qwerty keyboard. I’ve tried a couple in the past few years, and I just can’t go back to texting on a numeric keypad. Texting today is very different from what it was in the 90s and early 2000s. So many conversations you would have today, you cannot meaningfully participate in with a numeric keypad. You find yourself immediately going back to the terseness that gave birth to the various forms of texting shorthand, because text input is so slow. The second biggest issue is that I need a transit map. I live in NYC, and I’m not going to memorize all the different subway lines and stops and schedules. You can actually get Google Maps on a KaiOS phone, and it’s slow but it more or less works. Problem is, you’re still stuck with the numeric keypad. (You can use voice dictation via Google, but I don’t like using Google.) Third, while I don’t need it often, I do sometimes need to use a ride-hailing app. On top of all this, I don’t want a browser or social media apps or games or movies or music. That’s just me, though. Someone else may want music, or a note taking app, or a calendar. A lot of this stuff is on the roadmap for the Light Phone 2, but until it actually hits my set of essentials, it doesn’t work for me.
jtl999 7y ago
I can understand the sentiment of being "fed up" with the state of current phone technology, but rather then bringing back dumbphones (see also Nokia's current product range), why not make phones that have headphone jacks, removable batteries, microSD card slots, IPS displays, et cetera. The features that were "removed" to presumably promote consumerism.
- vinc 7y ago
  What you describe looks like a Fairphone, and by choosing carefully what to install on it I think it'd be a good solution.
joshvm 7y ago
Are there any good websites with turn by turn directions that are accessible on dumb phones? I had a Nokia candy bar phone with 4G(!) which was reasonable if you wanted to win an argument using Wikipedia, but Maps was unusable because the ancient Opera browser couldn't cope. All I wanted was the ability to get the text directions between two places without having to load all the intervening javascript. Hacker News worked well, as did BBC news. There are several modern "dumb" phones which are actually quite capable and have absurd battery life (I'd get a week plus out of that thing, with 4G on), but there are so few websites that provide no-frills output.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  Nokia 800 Tough apparently can do 4G and Google Maps. >I can pair my Huawei FreeBuds 3 with the Nokia 800 Tough, install a bunch of music on it, and jump on my bike. Google Maps navigation provides turn-by-turn instructions at a glance while I’m listening to some good riding music. I’ve got no concerns about the battery running out or the phone falling out of my pocket. I can ask the Google Assistant questions to avoid typing queries into the browser. And if I need to, I can stay in touch with everyone via WhatsApp voice messages. The list of benefits goes on and on. https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-800-tough-review-1063224/ https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-800-tough-review-1063... As an added benefit, you can probably bludgeon someone to death with it after losing an argument.
  - joshvm 7y ago
    That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all together. But that thing runs YouTube too?? Dual SIM is nice. If it could tether I'd buy that next time I go on a long holiday (edit - it does!). Non removable battery is a pity too, but I've never actually needed that. I've been tempted by the CAT S60/61 though. I wonder, would it be worth making a service that works over voice calls, not the Internet? For example have a phone at home that automatically picks up and relays your call into an Alexa or something, then you can hear the response. Minutes are so cheap it might actually work.
NetOpWibby 7y ago
STILL waiting on my behind the scenes book I pledged on this Kickstarter several years ago now.
kienkien 7y ago
Overpriced dump phone.
keymone 7y ago
The price is $50 for what I’ve seen there. And that would still include a pretty sweet margin. Can’t imagine who’s buying it for $350. Either fuck you money or virtue signaling?
LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
Ironically my OS said that this computer lacks sufficient RAM, when i allowed javascript because 'This App needs Javascript to function' appeared. Then the browser tab crashed with the option to close, or reload. Guess what i choose? Did i miss something? edit: Yes, yes, i had many tabs open already, but seriously: LIGHT?
presiozo 7y ago
I like the concept, but I think it needs some work on the design and functionalities. I feel it's a bit too basic for my needs.
elitan 7y ago
Just uninstall the apps on your current phone that are distracting.
SCdF 7y ago
I think the philosophy behind this is lovely, but it unfortunatly falls short in reality because the flexibility of smart phones is their entire value. If I want a phone that allows me to make phone calls and send texts and otherwise not distract me, there are a billion £30 feature phones that will do that, and have a week+ battery life. If I want a phone that does anything "smart" but doesn't distract me, what I consider "smart" but not "distracting" is going to be different to everyone else, to the point where you need an app store to manage all that difference. Which is why the only real option is to just manage what apps you install, manage how it interacts with you (eg notification and noise settings), regulate how you interact with it (ie stop picking it up, leave it in a different room etc), and do all that with a normal smart phone.
beyondcompute 7y ago
I like the idea. However, am I the only person who haven’t used an actual phone for years and is relying mostly on internet messaging services? So we should get an e-ink phone with only messenger apps installed and simplified UI to switch between them.
WoodenKatana 7y ago
I like the concept, looks like the Pebble of phones. But there's something that bus me. Given that it's "designed to be used as little as possible" I don't understand why the price tag is 350$. There are other phones with the same functions that are way cheaper. The worst android phone you can get is at least 200$ less than this.
fock 7y ago
so, if this runs android: how about extracting the launcher and putting it on a 40USD Android Go device... Just kidding ;). But really: if you buy aforementioned device, don't sign into google play, get your apps from f-droid, enable b/w-mode and disable the browser you've got yourself another light phone for 40USD+1h of your net income.
bigjimmyk3 7y ago
I own one of these, and someday when it finally works with my wireless carrier I might find out if it's as nice as they say. Standby time appears to be ~3 days with no use, but I have not measured it rigorously. It does have wifi and bluetooth sonic suppose they could add hotspot capability.
- tecleandor 7y ago
  That's not great, specially if you're not connecting it to the cell network. We had a Nexus 4, IIRC, for our on call sysadmins, that would be always connected to the network but mostly sleeping, as it only was waiting for push notifications. It lasted around 4 or 5 days without charging! No software installed except for Pushover, of course.
kaliali 7y ago
I would buy this for $200, not $350. I still use a Blackberry and look for phones like this but I won't pay $350 for it. All I want is a phone I can call, text, and listen to audiobooks.
blunte 7y ago
If I were going for a less is more phone, I would be much happier with a traditional "flip" or basic-functionality physical button phone. This will just be frustrating to use, because it sort of offers what you need, but with a cramped interface and likely painful interface obstacles.
mkettn 7y ago
That is a nice take on digital minimalism, but in my opinion you could also just delete most of the attention-sink-apps and enable black-and-white-screen on the smart phone you're currently using, instead of buying yet another device.
DaveSchmindel 7y ago
This entire endeavor smells like an exercise of reaping good design. When I received the first iteration, I was excited only from the moment of unboxing to the moment of my first call. I truly enjoy the sentiment and message behind this product. IMO though, at the rate they're going and in the direction they're headed, a consumer is better off with existing products that have been offering what Light II does for decades. https://www.amazon.com/Snapfon-Senior-Unlocked-Hearing-Compatible/dp/B005CWSF3U?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1 https://www.amazon.com/Snapfon-Senior-Unlocked-Hearing-Compa...
ronyfadel 7y ago
I would love to have a phone like this, but with Whatsapp. People I communicate with don’t use their phone/sms functions anymore. It has all moved to Whatsapp. When my iPhone broke down, and I had to wait for it to be repaired, that was the only functionality I really needed (and maybe Google Maps) but it more or less stopped there.
scarface74 7y ago
I already own a device that does just the basics, the cellular Apple Watch: - make calls - text messages - calculator - navigation - plays music and podcasts - and can track my heart rate and speed when I am running. It lets me leave my phone when I don’t want distractions. When I need something more full featured, I have my phone. When I want something full featured with a larger screen, I have an iPad. Calls and text messages go to all three devices and things are synced where appropriate.
- arkades 7y ago
  Very true. I got the watch for exactly those features,
b34r 7y ago
Paltry battery life for such a minimalistic device.
shawndrost 7y ago
How to make your iphone a light phone: 1. Make it black and white. https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-black-and-white-and-why-you-should-42e70deb92c7 https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-bla... 1b. If you're like me, and you like colors when looking at pics people send you, set up your phone to toggle to full-color mode when you triple-tap. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcuts-iph3e2e31a5/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcu... 2. Delete the apps that aren't "basic functionality", then break your app store and browser. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 Step 2 involves setting up a passcode. I recommend getting a friend to enter this passcode, then hide it away from you, since you obviously can't trust your junkie brain. I did this and it is RAD. I still use a subset of communication-oriented social media, but my phone is kind of boring now, in a good way.
- divbzero 7y ago
  I’ve heard about the black & white mental hack multiple times and finally tried it today after reading this comment. I like it already and have applied it to my computer as well. Not sure how much of the effect is real vs. placebo (or if that distinction even matters) but the reduction in stimuli seems to sharpen my focus.
dreamer7 7y ago
I've found gray-scale mode to be a great deterrent for constant phone use. It just makes everything so much more dull
chopchopgoodbye 7y ago
I have one of the new models, it's pretty cool. I backed the kickstarter so I got it cheaper than its listing price. If you find the concept interesting and don't mind spending the money it's a good option. If you find the concept interesting and do mind spending the money I'd recommend a 7-11 burner or prepaid phone
kwhitefoot 7y ago
Why not just get a cheap underpowered Chinese smartphone that can do all the simple things but has a crap camera and a low res. easily scratched screen, so you don't bother taking pictures, a weak processor so web pages render so slowly that they discourage you from browsing, etc. Then you can donate the remaining USD 250 to a more worthy cause.
teslaberry 7y ago
you can buy a light phone in china for 10 bucks. a good one too, not a shitty 'new one' but one with proven robustness that doesn't break and has good support and can be fixed for 2-3 dollars.
Antoninus 7y ago
6 months ago I considered going full dumbphone. The best option was an unlocked jiophone 2 with KaiOS. Unfortunately, spotify has not been ported over yet and the OS is not as polished as I'd like. I settled with Samsung's mid range line released this year. The Galaxy a20, a30 and a50 are great value for the price when rooted and stripped of all the bloatware.
- spookthesunset 7y ago
  You want a dumb phone but you want Spotify? Somebody else wants a dumb phone but they want YouTube. Somebody else wants a dumb phone but they want candy crush. Congratulations. This is why dumb phones don’t exist. Nobody actually wants them.
  - Antoninus 7y ago
    Smartphones barely beat the feature phone market share in 2013. That is not too long ago. Q1 2019 saw a 40% market share with high adoptions in India, Africa and Latin America. This is because in developing countries, data is expensive. I believe you know better than the multiple investors putting 80m into KaiOS to enable whatsapp, facebook messenger and hopefully spotify on features phones. People smart phones, they just can't afford them. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kai-technologies https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kai-technologies
csuki 7y ago
seems a bit pretentious to me. not much use for it either, as there are far cheaper ways to avoid constant phone use.

240 points by lelf 7y ago

maybe its for people who are kinda looking into disconnecting from the world but still be partially connected. I'd never buy this

api 7y ago

I don't see maps mentioned. If it lacks that it lacks the largest killer app of smart phones.

zamalek 7y ago
It's also hard to supplement this with a Garmin or similar, because Google/Apple maps are perpetually up to date. And their UX doesn't completely suck.
oh_sigh 7y ago
Also only texting, not WhatsApp or other messaging platforms.
- sprafa 7y ago
  If it had texting, Uber and maps I’d buy it. Really unfortunate
  - war1025 7y ago
    It has texting. They are developing a "taxi" feature, which I think they'd be dumb not to integrate Uber into. And they have a screenshot of a "directions" app. Maybe still too early to rule it out entirely.
war1025 7y ago
I didn't see maps mentioned, but there is a cycling screenshot of various apps halfway down the page that does show an app for getting directions.
pwenzel 7y ago
There's supposed to be a Directions feature, but no details yet. If it interfaced with the Google Maps API I'd be pretty happy.

abakus 7y ago

$350 ? really?

trox 7y ago

I wonder where this is heading. The original light phone (version 1 if I remember correctly) was simply for calling and very minimalistic. To that I am a bit disappointed that they are adding more features instead of cutting prices.

onli 7y ago
There were some background articles explaining they had to. The first version was too minimalist, not even the phone makers ended up using them. The set of the absolutely necessary services for a phone is bigger than one would think and it differs more - does it include maps? taxi services? texting? Answer will vary a lot, and by making it too minimalist they would end up satisfying no one. It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it".
- war1025 7y ago
  > It's interesting to see exactly that happening in the comments here - "if it only had X, Y and Z I would buy it". The classic response of anyone not financially invested in a product. Hopefully they follow through with their intention not to throw in the kitchen sink rather than burn all their resources trying to attract a picky customer base that has no intention of ever actually buying the phone.
na85 7y ago
More and more, the voice calling feature is becoming obsolete. With the exception of hands free use in the car while driving, I essentially never use my phone to make calls. Text is asynchronous and thus the other party can respond when it's convenient. I resent voice calls as an intrusion and rarely answer them.
- foobarian 7y ago
  The next killer app for me is in the network and it's the SHAKEN/STIR validation helping to show some UI indicator of a "verified caller ID". Luckily it looks like mobile carriers will be there first and when they are it's game over for spam.

hinkley 7y ago

I'm curious to see what would happen if someone made a simple phone that behaved as an access point. Hook up my watch, my tablet, bluetooth headphones, let it stay in my pocket most of the time.

martin-adams 7y ago
That sounds exactly like a portable Wi-Fi hotspot which creates a hotspot from a 4G sim.
- hinkley 7y ago
  Doesn't do anything for my watch though, and can you make calls on those? I thought they were data only?
  - lozaning 7y ago
    A little google voice magic, or any number of other SIP providers and apps will have you making calls to POTS numbers over just a data connection very easily.
    - hinkley 7y ago
      No. I and 98% of the world just want to make calls, not start a project. There's a reason Linux is not ruling the desktop, and that there is it.
      - lozaning 7y ago
        Turns out that such functionality is actually supported natively by the watch. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203032 as long as as you have any of these carriers: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039 Though to your point it did take me a bit of ducking to figure this out. Seems extremely straightforward once you know it exists.
7y ago

tashoecraft 7y ago

I think an Apple Watch with cellular accomplishes a lot of what light phone does. Leave your phone behind and just keep all the social apps off the watch (they’re not really usable anyway). You can still accomplish a lot of what you need from a phone, and pair some AirPods and you have music, podcasts, easy hands free calling

gnicholas 7y ago
I think that going out with an Apple Watch instead of a phone will become popular as a way of (partially) unplugging. It will also signal that the wearer is not an ordinary worker bee (who need to keep a phone around to respond to emails) but instead a member of upper management (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length).
- Swizec 7y ago
  > (who can skim important messages that come in, but needs not respond at length). iWatch + Airpods + dictation, my friend. It is amazing. If only the apple watch could play audiobooks (on Audible) and music (on Spotify) without a phone nearby, it would be the perfect minimalist phone. Alas until that happens I have to continue to lug my phone around when sportsing. You can download books to the Audible watch app but I've never gotten it to work. The connection just isn't stable enough. The new WatchOS supposedly enables the API that Apple Music has been using to stream via LTE (from what I've heard), but it smells like Spotify has decided it's no longer worth the bother.
  - graeme 7y ago
    Do you just deal with having typos in a long reply? You can’t edit watch dictation, so a lot of my replies including some form of “damned apple watch” so people I’m replying to know what’s up. That said I quite like the combo in general. A big reason I went with apple music is the streaming. It is baffling to me that spotify hasn’t enabled lte streaming on the watch now that watchos 6 lets them.
    - 7y ago

billyhoffman 7y ago

I get this is supposed to be minimalist but the texting interaction looks really rough. You read threaded conversations in portrait mode but to reply it switches you to landscape mode where you can’t see the conversation and can only see the reply you’re typing. Nokia candy bar phones from the mid 90s let me type a reply while looking at what I was replying to. This seems like an oversight

martin-adams 7y ago
Maybe that’s intentional, so you focus on short messages rather than sprawling conversations.
- germinalphrase 7y ago
  Why force that choice on me?
  - balladeer 7y ago
    Possibly that's the point of such a phone. Because if it was up to one's choice then I believe one doesn't need any special phone for lesser usage of (smart)phones or use it the way one wants. No?
    - germinalphrase 7y ago
      Possibly. Could simply be sloppy interaction design. There’s a lot of room to project intention on ‘minimal’.
  - taneq 7y ago
    Why choose a phone that doesn't do what you want?
Zenst 7y ago
I'd say the Nokia still wins out over this, that's without even looking at the price. How many Nokia's could you get for $350. Then there is this aspect: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=thelightphone.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=thelightphone.com Which does kinda make you wonder many things, more so, that price. Everything else seems to of been already covered in past discussions over the many many years.

markvdb 7y ago

E-ink screen, but the battery life is bad. I can go about a week with mine.

ebg13 7y ago
The 950mAh battery is extremely small.
- vinay427 7y ago
  It's still very low even given the battery size. The updated Nokia 3310 has a traditional display with a 1200 mAh battery and is rated for a standby battery life of 31 days. At 950 mAh that would be just over 24 days. I would expect an improvement in battery life with E-ink. https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310#details https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310#details
  - megablast 7y ago
    Rated for means nothing. They always put out bullshit claims. Would you like these guys to lie too?
    - vinay427 7y ago
      I'm curious why you take the battery life claim about the Light Phone at face value. My assumption is that most every company tests in optimal conditions that users won't achieve in real life, so I think it's generally fair enough to compare between two manufacturer claims given that we don't have side-by-side comparisons yet.

vinay427 7y ago

I don't really care about the price of the phone, because I'm sure it's more expensive to produce on a smaller scale than mainstream manufacturers, but the plan is $30 for unlimited texting and calling? Really? You can get unlimited minutes/SMS and several GB for $10-20/mo from various MVNOs nowadays. Why they would bother marketing a plan that is $30/mo with no data is beyond me.

yellow_lead 7y ago
Because this phone's audience are affluenza kids with money to waste.

megablast 7y ago

The light phone. Here is a 100mb webpage plus useless background video introducing our minimalistic concept.

TheGallopedHigh 7y ago
Otherwise known as marketing; which is often useful for selling products not necessarily aimed at tech users.
- crimsonalucard 7y ago
  Don't think tech users are better than other people. They fall for marketing tactics too.
jonny_eh 7y ago
It's a light phone, not a light site.
- einr 7y ago
  But having a garbage site makes me think it's a garbage phone. These things matter.

Animats 7y ago

Why not just get the bottom of the line unlocked Android phone from Walmart for $39?[1] Delete the Google crap, install F_Droid and some basic apps. That's basically what I have, on a Caterpillar Tractor ruggedized phone. No "social" anything. Base email, Fennic browser, ZANavi maps, Mozilla location info provider. Someone could compete with these guys by buying low-end phones in bulk and reconfiguring them that way. Sell it for $49. [1] https://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Compass-Unlocked-4G-GSM-Smart-Cell-Phone-Android-8-0-Quad-core-8MP-Camera-ATT-Tmobile-Metro-Rose-Gold/905106532 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Plum-Compass-Unlocked-4G-GSM-Smar...

dsr_ 7y ago
You're confusing "people who want to get rich" with "people who want useful products". "People who want to get rich" are a significant subset of the HN population, and they are downvoting you because they remember Dropbox. You'll recall that Dropbox was met by "people who want useful products" saying "oh, I can do 90% of that with rsync". Your solution is probably excellent for someone who knows what they are doing, but it won't make a lot of money, and it won't sell to the kind of status-conscious fanatic minimalist who always needs a new toy to prove their minimalism. In fact, there are lots of caution signs around this product's website indicating that they aren't actually very good at the technical parts. I wouldn't be at all surprised to read a teardown showing that this is a low-end Android phone with an e-Ink display running a single shell program around the underlying dialer, SMS and alarm functions.
- Animats 7y ago
  I get the mindset, but this is round 2 for the "light phone", round 1 having flopped. I could see a low-end product which shares the phone number of the bigger phone. Something carriers could offer as a promotional item and a backup. "What do you do when your iPhone is in the shop for a broken screen?" The amazing thing is that you can get 4 processors, a screen, 8GB, and a camera for $49.
  - paulcarroty 7y ago
    The non-amazing things: no updates and tons of spying services inside - why this phone is so cheap.

huangc10 7y ago

I'd rather buy a Supreme brick than this. All jokes aside, I'd rather buy a Nokia phone than this...

Hamuko 7y ago
Any Nokia phone is a better purchase than this thing.

fastball 7y ago

My thoughts: 1. Needs a bigger screen so that texting in portrait is possible / texting in landscape allows you to see the convo. 2. Needs data and basic data-driven apps - google maps, spotify. Any apps that aren't addictive and are used every day seem like they should be in any modern phone, even those intended to be minimalist. I "need" things like banking on my phone, as well as email realistically.

war1025 7y ago
Sounds like you aren't the target market. If I hadn't just last week finally deactivated my dumb phone from 2011 and bought a cheap Motorola, I'd seriously consider this. Literally all I want from a phone is the ability to call / text for coordinating near-term meetups with people, and the ability to receive / send calls in emergency situations. Unfortunately, they don't make phones like that anymore. I have my new phone set in battery saver mode with everything deactivated except the calling app, the texting app, and Facebook Messenger. The battery can last four or five days with this configuration, which pleasantly surprised me. Still can't match the two weeks I'd get out of my old dumb phone though.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do ("it'll never have social media!"). Furthermore, it's not even gonna have a better battery life than your jerryrigged phone since it apparently only does about a week on standby due to its tiny battery. And they expect you to pay $350 for this. Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. Costs like 20% of what the Light Phone costs, does phone calls, text messages (and probably Facebook Messenger since it has a Facebook app) and has a 3-4 week standby battery life.
  - war1025 7y ago
    > Also, I have no fucking idea when you say that "they don't make phones like that anymore", since Nokia still makes the 3310. As others have mentioned, most of the phones that do fit the criteria of a modern dumb phone don't work on Verizon. I had plans to buy the 3310 if they ever released a 4g version. > Sounds like you aren't the target market either, since you want a phone that only does phone calls, text messages and Facebook Messenger, the latter of which the Light Phone does not do I would happily go without Facebook Messenger, but since my phone supports it, it's a convenient thing to have access to. But you are right, I am probably not the target market for this phone.

jxcl 7y ago

ITT: People complaining that a purposefully minimalist phone doesn't have the very specific feature that they want. If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option.

huangc10 7y ago
ITT? This isn't Reddit. Of course people are going to talk about missing features. If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, I can think of a hundred other options that don't cost $350. I think that's what you meant.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hadrien01 7y ago
I think this phone is the perfect device for someone like my grandmother that can't even answer the phone on her smartphone because she can't slide the answer button. Smartphones nowadays are very complicated machines with hundreds of UX concepts that are not understandable by a increasingly higher proportion of the population. And you can never disable every function ("apps" in iMessage, really?!). My grandmother uses an Android phone I've very heavily customised (deleted apps with adb, put a Windows Phone-like launcher with flashing icons for notifications, compiled custom versions of OSS apps for SMS and calls, etc.). This Light Phone seems perfect for her.
doesnt_know 7y ago
> If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option. Not even close. You can get a basic phone plus sim card for like $40 or less and then pay a few dollars (or less) a month on prepay to keep it connected to the network. This is a toy secondary phone for those with disposable income, not a valid low-income alternative.
Hamuko 7y ago
>If the point is to be reachable by a loved one in an emergency and nothing else, this seems like a reasonable option. $350 is not a reasonable option to be reachable by a loved one when a brand new Nokia 3310 is like $60 and can do standby for like 3-4 weeks with a single charge.

ogre_codes 7y ago

This isn't much in terms of value or functionality. You can buy a low end iPhone and just not install any apps and get more functionality and utility. I guess if you are on the road and need multi-week battery life??? Even then, it's easy enough to plug into your car outlet.

Vendan 7y ago
The battery life of the Light Phone II is approximately 1-3 days of 'light' regular usage. So yeah, battery life is not that great for what it is...

JohnJamesRambo 7y ago

"It looks like a new thermostat." - my girlfriend when I showed it to her. I'm the perfect customer for this phone (had a Nokia 3310 3g recently) but this is perhaps a little too minimal for even me. Still looking for a replacement for my iPhone SE someday.

ricardobeat 7y ago

I got mine still in the box in a drawer somewhere. The main selling point for me were the additional features compared to the original. From the FAQ: > These tools are currently being developed and will be released in the coming few months These tools being the promised features of Music / Notes / Calculator / Directions / Ride hailing, and "coming months" being the end of 2019. It's been almost two years since the launch, and the original light phone will soon celebrate it's 5th anniversary so I'm not sure I should hold my breath. If anybody from the team is reading this, I'd love to hear what's blocking the software development side.

kop316 7y ago
What software does it even use? I couldn't tell based on the website (or I missed it).
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
  It looks bespoke to me, but it could be a skin on Android, possibly.
- clearing 7y ago
  It's a customized Android OS and firmware. Not sure how much more is okay to divulge.
AndrewKemendo 7y ago
I thought the whole point of this phone was to NOT have those things.
- ip26 7y ago
  Nobody bought the Light Phone to escape the dopamine drip of Calculator.
  - samstave 7y ago
    Calculator dopamine release really starts to add up once you get to the root of the problem...

im3w1l 7y ago

Aww.. I thought this would be about the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photophone

starpilot 7y ago

You can also get this mini basic phone for $20: https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Bluetooth-Phones-BM70-Earphone-0-66inch/dp/B07VVQHVYK https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Bluetooth-Phones-BM70-Earpho...

fake-name 7y ago

"Light" phone. Homepage requires multiple 3rd party JS libraries to work. Helloooooo hypocrisy!

klyrs 7y ago
I'm with ya, it crashed my phone's firefox.
nornio 7y ago
It is even worse than requiring 3rd party JS libraries : it requires JS ! Without JS enabled, a blank page is displayed with an error message.

snyp 7y ago

Any reason why the screen is so small? If it were larger and offered one handed access to keyboard that would be a huge plus instead of having to rotate the phone to type. How do you type numbers you have to call? Do you rotate them phone and type the numbers? What about music? The thing that people use the phones most for other than calls and messages would be music, considering the fact that there aren’t that many dedicated music players around a phone without a music player makes a lot less sense

taneq 7y ago
Why would it need a bigger screen? It seems explicitly designed not to do any of the things that would be improved by a bigger screen.
lpghatguy 7y ago
Based on one of the pictures of the phone on the homepage, it appears that there is a numeric keyboard in portrait mode. It is shown setting the time for an alarm, but I imagine it is also used to type phone numbers.

ge96 7y ago

chonk, e-ink displays are I think a hard sell compared to snappy responsive regular phone displays

stazz1 7y ago
eliminate all transitions and it's likely faster than bottom-of-the-barrel phones today
blululu 7y ago
Agreed. Sadly the latency on eInk is still way too high. Smooth animations, scrolling and transitions are a large part of what makes touch screen based smart phones so easy to use and compelling. There are, perhaps, alternatives to the design patterns used for touch screens, but the light phone does not really do much in this area.

crashedsnow 7y ago

Feels like a solution looking for a problem to me. Not only are phones trending away from being "phones" (rather portable internet terminals) but I'd wager the largest portion of smartphone use is content consumption, rather than content creation/collaboration. Both of which would suggest this device is a long, long way from product-market fit.

ConradKilroy 7y ago
"a solution looking for a problem" my fave descriptive phrase :-)
troymc 7y ago
I can see this phone being a great fit for certain markets, such as senior citizens who like to talk on the phone, but who get baffled by the complexity of modern smartphones.
- nisse72 7y ago
  For about $50 you can (still) get a Nokia 3310.
  - dehrmann 7y ago
    Be careful with this. AT&T shut down its GSM network 3 years ago. The ~only unlocked LTE feature phone I could find a year or two ago for my grandma (who wouldn't be able to learn how to use a smartphone) was an Alcatel Flip 2.
    - Hamuko 7y ago
      There's a 3G variant of the Nokia.
      - ebg13 7y ago
        It still uses 900/1800MHz, so it won't work in the US.

ekianjo 7y ago

You can do exactly that kind of things with your regular smartphone by not installing tons of apps that disturb you all the time. As far as I know the user is pretty much in control of what apps they choose to add.

jimthrow 7y ago
No. Most android phones come with a ton of ininstallable apps that take up a huge amount of room
- ekianjo 7y ago
  No. You can disable even the stuff that is installed by default - you can't erase them but once they are inactive they won't bother you anymore.
Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
In that case, Putting the phone in DND mode 24x7 and only using it only when we need it exponentially limits phone usage and interruptions. But, not many can afford having their phone in DND mode all the time due to their job/family requirements(I do it and I've read few others on HN doing it). Then again, there are jobs which require you to install apps on your personal device or at-least communication apps like Slack, Teams etc.; In those case even Light Phone cannot be used.
- cheez 7y ago
  I have DnD 24x7 and it is bliss.
  - Abishek_Muthian 7y ago
    How is your relationship with your friends who are not located close to you? P.S. Please don't mind the bland nature of my question.
    - 7y ago

ppod 7y ago

The use case for this is people who want to take it to a social occasion and show it off, while using a regular phone with email, music, podcasts, maps, uber, and social media for most of their daily lives.

Sabinus 7y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
christefano 7y ago
Your comment seems insightful to me. Not sure if you’re being down voted. I agree there’s definitely some virtue signaling by having a high-cost secondary device like this. There’s chatter upthread with a comparison to other forms of virtue signaling that some people do.

cmoscoso 7y ago

Well, the page is really white!

_hhff 7y ago

My team built the OS on a custom fork of Android (https://www.sanctuary.computer https://www.sanctuary.computer). I would say ask me anything but I’m in the middle of the Australian outback with virtually no mobile signal...! What I can say is that working with Eink is rudimentary - we had to build everything from a custom kernel driver all the way up to the view layouts and UX. We expected Eink would give us sophisticated SDKs, but unfortunately a lot of wheels had to be reinvented. I have huge respect for the team behind the Yota Phone! I’ve written a tear down of how it all works that I’ll be sharing soon on our company twitter if anyone is interested. (not sent from a light phone)

mesozoic 7y ago
The battery life must be immense right? AT least one advantage there? How long does it last.
- mumblemumble 7y ago
  According to the website's FAQ, 1-3 days.
  - _hhff 7y ago
    Yup, we generally prefer to underpromise on battery life.
    - Hamuko 7y ago
      So you can get 3+ days of usage?
- cheez 7y ago
  Well they're using Android so... Probably not much. Display isn't that important to battery life (unless you're using it all the time.)
  - _hhff 7y ago

mesozoic 7y ago

I don't get it. While it is better than an iPhone by having a headphone jack. Still who is the market here? Someone who doesn't want to use a phone much but can't pull themselves away from it or cutstomize an android phone to not bother them.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

shaklee3 7y ago

With e-ink I was expecting a very long battery life, so only 1-3 days suggests the radio is still a huge battery drain.

cl3misch 7y ago
... or the full Android software stack.

bcatanzaro 7y ago

I got one of these for my 13 year old. We’re trying to ease her into having a phone without giving her Instagram etc. quite yet, since we think smartphones can be dangerous for mental health of young teens. The phone has been a mix of good and bad. The software is still somewhat buggy. I think the hardest thing is that the eInk screen ghosts a lot and has a very long refresh cycle, which really can get in the way of using it. There are times when you just can’t read the screen because it has so much ghosting. Emoji work but are so tiny they are hard to read. Overall - I still like it and hope it gets updated software to add the missing features (music, for example). But the screen is a pretty big compromise. I’d probably be happier if they used a standard LCD screen.

crimsonalucard 7y ago

It's like a flip phone but marketed towards these posers who want to "get away" from technology. Just buy a flip phone.

paxys 7y ago

It's like the world collectively decided to forget that basic feature phones and cheap prepaid plans have always existed and continue to exist.

Aloha 7y ago
I strongly suspect the people funding this don't know anyone who don't buy a flagship phone.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
dehrmann 7y ago
I have a $3 per month prepaid plan with T-Mobile that I use when I need to give a number companies that will likely sell it.
jay_kyburz 7y ago
I switched back to a Nokia 3310, disabled data and love it. Its cheap, I can make calls, I can sms, I can take really crappy photos when I need to remember something. Calculator, Alarms, few other little things. It's all I need. I have a nice PC for everything else.
criddell 7y ago
Those phones typically look and feel cheap. There's a market for a higher quality version of those phones.

ksec 7y ago

I just wish Apple make a modern thinner All Screen iPhone 4. ( Even smaller than iPhone SE ) The screen should be about 4.7" @ 19.5 : 9. The smaller screen absolutely destroy all gaming and even Internet browsing experience. The UX is so bad you dont want to use it, but still give you the choice should there be a need. While retaining all the essential such as Email, WhatsApp, Calling, Uber, And Music etc.

b5 7y ago
That's hyperbolic nonsense. There's a huge number of people, myself included, that continue to use an iPhone SE with a 4" screen without the issues you describe. A 4.7" screen is nearly 20% larger than that; it doesn't "destroy" gaming or internet browsing. A lot of these same people Apple to release an updated version of the iPhone SE form-factor. Many of these people are on Hacker News; search for earlier threads about the iPhone SE being discontinued to see just how many. * Sent from my iPhone SE

dangus 7y ago

Modern smartphones already give you the tools to stop abusing your phone’s dominance of your attention. Screen time and other similar controls let you limit your usage of distracting apps. Or just don’t install them and learn some self control. Put your phone in your bag instead of your pocket, or maybe leave it at home sometimes. A black and white phone missing basic features compared to a modern Nokia feature phone along with being currently unavailable to purchase without waiting is, overall, a shitty proposition. And I didn’t even see the price before writing all that out. $350. No way. A KaiOS device seems way more sensible.

MperorM 7y ago
I've installed and uninstalled reddit maybe 7 times in the last year, and even when I don't have it installed I still visit it from my browser. For my Firefox desktop I have written 5 extensions that blocks websites in various ways so to help me control my bad urges, but even then I just open up safari and use it from there. Fact is just I can't control it, and I am willing to pay thousands of dollars for any solution that solves these problems without limiting the use of technology I actually want in my life.
- bbx 7y ago
  If you’re willing to spend thousands of dollars, book a 1-week trip to a slightly remote place where internet is hard or even impossible to get. Don’t bring your phone. Just money. The location doesn’t even have to be in the middle of the woods. Just a small town or village where there’s nothing much more to do than sightseeing and walking around and having a drink at the local bar/pub. A beach resort is also a nice option as you’ll have fun activities to fill your days. Of course a modern resort will have internet so the temptation will be harder to beat so maybe pick a tiny one. In any case, the idea is to have a physical disconnection with your phone/the internet so that you can’t satisfy any urge to check Reddit. The start will be rough but over time your fear of missing out will disappear. I find that if I spend time traveling or with family (where browsing reddit or similar is not easy) I realise when coming back home that I haven’t missed anything. I used to browse Reddit a lot. Nowadays I just check /r/soccer once in a while and spend time doing a lot more of other things (music, coding, reading, nothing).

kpmcc 7y ago

I just received my light phone and while I haven't used it much yet I'm mostly a fan. I used the Punkt MP01 for a while and it's still pretty much my favorite phone ever. We'll see how I feel about the E-ink display on this thing after some real use. The blinking and ghosting is kind of annoying, but not a deal-breaker. Honestly though I think the main reason I liked the Punkt phone so much was the buttons. Buttons are seriously underrated. I've noticed this already with entering text on the light phone. The screen is purposefully small and trying to cram a full keyboard onto a tiny touchpad is a little iffy. I'm not so concerned about the lack of features at this point. I'd already though about coding up my own little text bot with Twilio to call rides through lyft or uber's APIs so maybe this will give me some incentive. Edit: Yeah the flipping back and forth between landscape and portrait mode is pretty annoying. Devs if you're reading this please address in a future update.

Fnoord 7y ago
The Light Phone and Punkt both have a disadvantage: they're not rugged while they are expensive. On the long term I'm interested in a dumbphone for my child (and I am interested in living a disconnected life, on top of that, myself, with an offline e-reader and an offline DAP serving me quite well), but it needs to be rugged. If it is not rugged and not durable, then what is the point of using such? You can't take it for hiking, you have to be super careful with it like an expensive, normal smartphone.

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago

I always wondered why no major phone manufacturers thought to stick an e-ink display on the back of the phone. I’d love to leave it docked on my desk while it scrolled through useful displays, such as calendar, time, weather etc.

abjKT26nO8 7y ago

This website is so light it doesn't work in any capacity without third-party JavaScript and XHR. Ironic.

raghavgoyal14 7y ago

$350 for a modern Nokia?

fragsworth 7y ago
To be fair, it's probably not subsidized by hoarding all of your data.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  How much data is the Nokia 3310 hoarding?
  - ebg13 7y ago
    None in the US because it won't work here.
    - terinjokes 7y ago
      The Nokia 3310 3G definitely works in the US, supporting 850, 900, 1800, 1900 bands. They're readily sold at your local Target and Walmart.

austenallred 7y ago

For that price you might as well get a Palm. It’s tiny and runs android, but I’m keeping one as a minimalist phone for when I don’t want to use my iPhone - https://palm.com/ https://palm.com/

dhruvkar 7y ago
I used the tiny Palm phone for a few months as my primary phone. The battery life was terrible, even with a battery case, it lasted 2-3 hours. I'd love a phone like that which had a proper battery life.

ngngngng 7y ago

I would love a dumb phone, except then I lose my ability to make encrypted calls and texts. Can't stand uncle sam being able to read anything I text my wife at any time of the day.

holri 7y ago

With 3rd party JS disabled, I get this opening the link: "Something went wrong" Sorry then I do not want to read your content, because this is wrong on your side.

badrabbit 7y ago

Removable battery?

drivingmenuts 7y ago

Why not just have one phone, instead of a Global phone and a North American phone?

paxys 7y ago
A single chip which supports more LTE bands is more expensive.
- Hamuko 7y ago
  Is that an issue when the phone is $350 already? They're clearly not aiming for low-end users here.

vghadge 7y ago

I use nokia lumia 800, OS updates not supported so only factory apps when I feel like not to be disturbed. I call forward to this phone and keep primary phone switched off.

Hamuko 7y ago

Do the makers think that there's a sizeable portion of people that hate their iPhones or Galaxies and want to spend $350 on a phone that doesn't do things? Doesn't do social media, doesn't do email, doesn't do news. Most consumers would at this point ask "What's the fucking point?" Smartphones are popular because people want to do the things that they enable. You probably need to live in some sort of a niche social circle in order to justify $350 just to be able to tell people how your minimalist phone is not able to browse the Internet. If you just wanted to have a basic phone that doesn't do a lot of things, you could buy a Nokia 3310 for $60. You just don't get to brag about your disconnected way of living since the Nokia 3310 can actually do those things.

Nition 7y ago
For even simpler and smaller, get a Nokia 130[1]. [1] https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-130 https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-130
- ebg13 7y ago
  > ...nokia-130... 2G 900/1800MHz bands and therefore doesn't work in the US. Got a suggestion that actually works here?
  - simonh 7y ago
    It does work here. Oh, in the US. Got you.
arc4random 7y ago
You’re glossing away a lot of important details here with “phone that doesn’t do things”. So, I’m very much in the market for what the Light Phone 2 is going for: not a phone that doesn’t do anything but make calls and text, but a phone with “the essentials”. The problem is that not everyone who wants such a phone has the same set of essentials. The single biggest issue that I have with feature phones is that they lack a qwerty keyboard. I’ve tried a couple in the past few years, and I just can’t go back to texting on a numeric keypad. Texting today is very different from what it was in the 90s and early 2000s. So many conversations you would have today, you cannot meaningfully participate in with a numeric keypad. You find yourself immediately going back to the terseness that gave birth to the various forms of texting shorthand, because text input is so slow. The second biggest issue is that I need a transit map. I live in NYC, and I’m not going to memorize all the different subway lines and stops and schedules. You can actually get Google Maps on a KaiOS phone, and it’s slow but it more or less works. Problem is, you’re still stuck with the numeric keypad. (You can use voice dictation via Google, but I don’t like using Google.) Third, while I don’t need it often, I do sometimes need to use a ride-hailing app. On top of all this, I don’t want a browser or social media apps or games or movies or music. That’s just me, though. Someone else may want music, or a note taking app, or a calendar. A lot of this stuff is on the roadmap for the Light Phone 2, but until it actually hits my set of essentials, it doesn’t work for me.

jtl999 7y ago

I can understand the sentiment of being "fed up" with the state of current phone technology, but rather then bringing back dumbphones (see also Nokia's current product range), why not make phones that have headphone jacks, removable batteries, microSD card slots, IPS displays, et cetera. The features that were "removed" to presumably promote consumerism.

vinc 7y ago
What you describe looks like a Fairphone, and by choosing carefully what to install on it I think it'd be a good solution.

joshvm 7y ago

Are there any good websites with turn by turn directions that are accessible on dumb phones? I had a Nokia candy bar phone with 4G(!) which was reasonable if you wanted to win an argument using Wikipedia, but Maps was unusable because the ancient Opera browser couldn't cope. All I wanted was the ability to get the text directions between two places without having to load all the intervening javascript. Hacker News worked well, as did BBC news. There are several modern "dumb" phones which are actually quite capable and have absurd battery life (I'd get a week plus out of that thing, with 4G on), but there are so few websites that provide no-frills output.

Hamuko 7y ago
Nokia 800 Tough apparently can do 4G and Google Maps. >I can pair my Huawei FreeBuds 3 with the Nokia 800 Tough, install a bunch of music on it, and jump on my bike. Google Maps navigation provides turn-by-turn instructions at a glance while I’m listening to some good riding music. I’ve got no concerns about the battery running out or the phone falling out of my pocket. I can ask the Google Assistant questions to avoid typing queries into the browser. And if I need to, I can stay in touch with everyone via WhatsApp voice messages. The list of benefits goes on and on. https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-800-tough-review-1063224/ https://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-800-tough-review-1063... As an added benefit, you can probably bludgeon someone to death with it after losing an argument.
- joshvm 7y ago
  That looks good! It's an interesting way around the problem, just put an Alexa/G Assistant terminal in and you can interact via voice and avoid the phone all together. But that thing runs YouTube too?? Dual SIM is nice. If it could tether I'd buy that next time I go on a long holiday (edit - it does!). Non removable battery is a pity too, but I've never actually needed that. I've been tempted by the CAT S60/61 though. I wonder, would it be worth making a service that works over voice calls, not the Internet? For example have a phone at home that automatically picks up and relays your call into an Alexa or something, then you can hear the response. Minutes are so cheap it might actually work.

NetOpWibby 7y ago

STILL waiting on my behind the scenes book I pledged on this Kickstarter several years ago now.

kienkien 7y ago

Overpriced dump phone.

keymone 7y ago

The price is $50 for what I’ve seen there. And that would still include a pretty sweet margin. Can’t imagine who’s buying it for $350. Either fuck you money or virtue signaling?

LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago

Ironically my OS said that this computer lacks sufficient RAM, when i allowed javascript because 'This App needs Javascript to function' appeared. Then the browser tab crashed with the option to close, or reload. Guess what i choose? Did i miss something? edit: Yes, yes, i had many tabs open already, but seriously: LIGHT?

presiozo 7y ago

I like the concept, but I think it needs some work on the design and functionalities. I feel it's a bit too basic for my needs.

elitan 7y ago

Just uninstall the apps on your current phone that are distracting.

SCdF 7y ago

I think the philosophy behind this is lovely, but it unfortunatly falls short in reality because the flexibility of smart phones is their entire value. If I want a phone that allows me to make phone calls and send texts and otherwise not distract me, there are a billion £30 feature phones that will do that, and have a week+ battery life. If I want a phone that does anything "smart" but doesn't distract me, what I consider "smart" but not "distracting" is going to be different to everyone else, to the point where you need an app store to manage all that difference. Which is why the only real option is to just manage what apps you install, manage how it interacts with you (eg notification and noise settings), regulate how you interact with it (ie stop picking it up, leave it in a different room etc), and do all that with a normal smart phone.

beyondcompute 7y ago

I like the idea. However, am I the only person who haven’t used an actual phone for years and is relying mostly on internet messaging services? So we should get an e-ink phone with only messenger apps installed and simplified UI to switch between them.

WoodenKatana 7y ago

I like the concept, looks like the Pebble of phones. But there's something that bus me. Given that it's "designed to be used as little as possible" I don't understand why the price tag is 350$. There are other phones with the same functions that are way cheaper. The worst android phone you can get is at least 200$ less than this.

fock 7y ago

so, if this runs android: how about extracting the launcher and putting it on a 40USD Android Go device... Just kidding ;). But really: if you buy aforementioned device, don't sign into google play, get your apps from f-droid, enable b/w-mode and disable the browser you've got yourself another light phone for 40USD+1h of your net income.

bigjimmyk3 7y ago

I own one of these, and someday when it finally works with my wireless carrier I might find out if it's as nice as they say. Standby time appears to be ~3 days with no use, but I have not measured it rigorously. It does have wifi and bluetooth sonic suppose they could add hotspot capability.

tecleandor 7y ago
That's not great, specially if you're not connecting it to the cell network. We had a Nexus 4, IIRC, for our on call sysadmins, that would be always connected to the network but mostly sleeping, as it only was waiting for push notifications. It lasted around 4 or 5 days without charging! No software installed except for Pushover, of course.

kaliali 7y ago

I would buy this for $200, not $350. I still use a Blackberry and look for phones like this but I won't pay $350 for it. All I want is a phone I can call, text, and listen to audiobooks.

blunte 7y ago

If I were going for a less is more phone, I would be much happier with a traditional "flip" or basic-functionality physical button phone. This will just be frustrating to use, because it sort of offers what you need, but with a cramped interface and likely painful interface obstacles.

mkettn 7y ago

That is a nice take on digital minimalism, but in my opinion you could also just delete most of the attention-sink-apps and enable black-and-white-screen on the smart phone you're currently using, instead of buying yet another device.

DaveSchmindel 7y ago

This entire endeavor smells like an exercise of reaping good design. When I received the first iteration, I was excited only from the moment of unboxing to the moment of my first call. I truly enjoy the sentiment and message behind this product. IMO though, at the rate they're going and in the direction they're headed, a consumer is better off with existing products that have been offering what Light II does for decades. https://www.amazon.com/Snapfon-Senior-Unlocked-Hearing-Compatible/dp/B005CWSF3U?ref_=fsclp_pl_dp_1 https://www.amazon.com/Snapfon-Senior-Unlocked-Hearing-Compa...

ronyfadel 7y ago

I would love to have a phone like this, but with Whatsapp. People I communicate with don’t use their phone/sms functions anymore. It has all moved to Whatsapp. When my iPhone broke down, and I had to wait for it to be repaired, that was the only functionality I really needed (and maybe Google Maps) but it more or less stopped there.

scarface74 7y ago

I already own a device that does just the basics, the cellular Apple Watch: - make calls - text messages - calculator - navigation - plays music and podcasts - and can track my heart rate and speed when I am running. It lets me leave my phone when I don’t want distractions. When I need something more full featured, I have my phone. When I want something full featured with a larger screen, I have an iPad. Calls and text messages go to all three devices and things are synced where appropriate.

arkades 7y ago
Very true. I got the watch for exactly those features,

b34r 7y ago

Paltry battery life for such a minimalistic device.

shawndrost 7y ago

How to make your iphone a light phone: 1. Make it black and white. https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-black-and-white-and-why-you-should-42e70deb92c7 https://medium.com/better-humans/how-to-make-your-iphone-bla... 1b. If you're like me, and you like colors when looking at pics people send you, set up your phone to toggle to full-color mode when you triple-tap. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcuts-iph3e2e31a5/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/accessibility-shortcu... 2. Delete the apps that aren't "basic functionality", then break your app store and browser. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 Step 2 involves setting up a passcode. I recommend getting a friend to enter this passcode, then hide it away from you, since you obviously can't trust your junkie brain. I did this and it is RAD. I still use a subset of communication-oriented social media, but my phone is kind of boring now, in a good way.

divbzero 7y ago
I’ve heard about the black & white mental hack multiple times and finally tried it today after reading this comment. I like it already and have applied it to my computer as well. Not sure how much of the effect is real vs. placebo (or if that distinction even matters) but the reduction in stimuli seems to sharpen my focus.

dreamer7 7y ago

I've found gray-scale mode to be a great deterrent for constant phone use. It just makes everything so much more dull

chopchopgoodbye 7y ago

I have one of the new models, it's pretty cool. I backed the kickstarter so I got it cheaper than its listing price. If you find the concept interesting and don't mind spending the money it's a good option. If you find the concept interesting and do mind spending the money I'd recommend a 7-11 burner or prepaid phone

kwhitefoot 7y ago

Why not just get a cheap underpowered Chinese smartphone that can do all the simple things but has a crap camera and a low res. easily scratched screen, so you don't bother taking pictures, a weak processor so web pages render so slowly that they discourage you from browsing, etc. Then you can donate the remaining USD 250 to a more worthy cause.

teslaberry 7y ago

you can buy a light phone in china for 10 bucks. a good one too, not a shitty 'new one' but one with proven robustness that doesn't break and has good support and can be fixed for 2-3 dollars.

Antoninus 7y ago

6 months ago I considered going full dumbphone. The best option was an unlocked jiophone 2 with KaiOS. Unfortunately, spotify has not been ported over yet and the OS is not as polished as I'd like. I settled with Samsung's mid range line released this year. The Galaxy a20, a30 and a50 are great value for the price when rooted and stripped of all the bloatware.

spookthesunset 7y ago
You want a dumb phone but you want Spotify? Somebody else wants a dumb phone but they want YouTube. Somebody else wants a dumb phone but they want candy crush. Congratulations. This is why dumb phones don’t exist. Nobody actually wants them.
- Antoninus 7y ago
  Smartphones barely beat the feature phone market share in 2013. That is not too long ago. Q1 2019 saw a 40% market share with high adoptions in India, Africa and Latin America. This is because in developing countries, data is expensive. I believe you know better than the multiple investors putting 80m into KaiOS to enable whatsapp, facebook messenger and hopefully spotify on features phones. People smart phones, they just can't afford them. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kai-technologies https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kai-technologies

csuki 7y ago

seems a bit pretentious to me. not much use for it either, as there are far cheaper ways to avoid constant phone use.