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New? Can't you buy this for $80 at any CVS or Walgreens? "Companies including Nokia Corp. still manufacture “feature phones,” devices that look, feel and opera

New? Can't you buy this for $80 at any CVS or Walgreens? "Companies including Nokia Corp. still manufacture “feature phones,” devices that look, feel and operate like the cellphones of the ’00s. But most feature phones still follow a design philosophy of abundance, cramming all the features they can into a limited operating system, said Petter Neby..." Bullshit. They can't get on the Internet, that's what matters. You can call, you can text (awkwardly) and that's pretty much it. Is it really worth $250+ to strip out the shitty version of Snake or whatever the Feature phone comes with? The whole issue is distraction, and I'm pretty sure a tiny monochrome display with no Internet poses little threat in that regard. Pure wankery, especially when you consider they could probably sell THIS phone for $80 too, if they wanted to. Buy a feature phone if this is what you want (and more power to you). Don't reward this nonsense.

tyingq 5y ago
If you're in the US, $5 from Tracfone, though it's locked to them. $15/month for unlimited talk/text. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/alcatel-myflip-trade%3B-%28a405dl%29---reconditioned-tfala405dcr-p https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/alcat...
- spicybright 5y ago
  You can even get plans where you pay a small amount per year and get X amount of minutes and Y amount of texts per month if you don't use a phone that often. Great for an emergency phone to keep in your car.
  - belltaco 5y ago
    If you only need a way of calling 911, you don't need a plan or even a SIM to do so.
    - selfhoster11 5y ago
      In some countries, a SIM card is needed due to past abuse of the emergency numbers.
dehrmann 5y ago
> Is it really worth $250+ to strip out the shitty version of Snake or whatever the Feature phone comes with? Juicero makes me say "yes."
- smabie 5y ago
  juicero didn't end so well...
kart23 5y ago
> Don't reward this nonsense. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean others can't. It's design, and design is subjective. People bemoan that Jackson Pollocks go for $20 Million, why are these stupid people buying that when a two year old can make 'the same thing'? I think most people buying this are well aware, they aren't buying it for the features or something that is exclusive to these phones. They're buying because they like how it looks and for the novel user experience.
ajsnigrutin 5y ago
I really like the (new) nokia 3310... works great, fast, does minimalistic stuff you actually need, and the battery lasts a long time.... also has snake, a camera, fm radio and a headphone hack.
exporectomy 5y ago
My elderly mother got a feature phone and couldn't figure out how to use it. It was such a complicated muddle of changing on-screen menus and icons that you activated with mystery buttons on the keypad. I had to first play around with it myself to learn how to make a call, then teach her. Somehow she activated the camera instead and couldn't get back to normal phone mode on her own. These things are pointless toxic waste. All those stupid features force you to give them your attention every time you want to call someone or even answer the damn phone. This is a dumb-phone that cost as much as a low-end smartphone so anyone buying it would be doing so because they don't want all those aggravating complications. I'm sick of machines constantly nagging for my attention. Shut up and get out of the way. I own you, not the other way round! Anyway, excuse me getting a bit carried away there :P Touched a nerve.
- nilram 5y ago
  My partner's mom's, age 96, was needing a new phone, so we got the latest "feature" phone from Lively (company formerly known as Jitterbug). On the new phone, the minimum number of keypresses to make a call to anyone in her phonebook was about 8. The minimum on the prior phone (which I know only by Jitterbug) was 2. Although she was an early adopter of word processing and email many years ago, she couldn't track what was going on with this new phone enough to use it. We found a direct replacement of the prior phone and have moved her back to that. > I'm sick of machines constantly nagging for my attention. Same. And in her case, she can manage far less attention than she used to. Tech companies don't accommodate for that.

tyingq 5y ago

If you're in the US, $5 from Tracfone, though it's locked to them. $15/month for unlimited talk/text. https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/alcatel-myflip-trade%3B-%28a405dl%29---reconditioned-tfala405dcr-p https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/alcat...

spicybright 5y ago
You can even get plans where you pay a small amount per year and get X amount of minutes and Y amount of texts per month if you don't use a phone that often. Great for an emergency phone to keep in your car.
- belltaco 5y ago
  If you only need a way of calling 911, you don't need a plan or even a SIM to do so.
  - selfhoster11 5y ago
    In some countries, a SIM card is needed due to past abuse of the emergency numbers.

dehrmann 5y ago

> Is it really worth $250+ to strip out the shitty version of Snake or whatever the Feature phone comes with? Juicero makes me say "yes."

smabie 5y ago
juicero didn't end so well...

kart23 5y ago

> Don't reward this nonsense. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean others can't. It's design, and design is subjective. People bemoan that Jackson Pollocks go for $20 Million, why are these stupid people buying that when a two year old can make 'the same thing'? I think most people buying this are well aware, they aren't buying it for the features or something that is exclusive to these phones. They're buying because they like how it looks and for the novel user experience.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

I really like the (new) nokia 3310... works great, fast, does minimalistic stuff you actually need, and the battery lasts a long time.... also has snake, a camera, fm radio and a headphone hack.

exporectomy 5y ago

My elderly mother got a feature phone and couldn't figure out how to use it. It was such a complicated muddle of changing on-screen menus and icons that you activated with mystery buttons on the keypad. I had to first play around with it myself to learn how to make a call, then teach her. Somehow she activated the camera instead and couldn't get back to normal phone mode on her own. These things are pointless toxic waste. All those stupid features force you to give them your attention every time you want to call someone or even answer the damn phone. This is a dumb-phone that cost as much as a low-end smartphone so anyone buying it would be doing so because they don't want all those aggravating complications. I'm sick of machines constantly nagging for my attention. Shut up and get out of the way. I own you, not the other way round! Anyway, excuse me getting a bit carried away there :P Touched a nerve.

nilram 5y ago
My partner's mom's, age 96, was needing a new phone, so we got the latest "feature" phone from Lively (company formerly known as Jitterbug). On the new phone, the minimum number of keypresses to make a call to anyone in her phonebook was about 8. The minimum on the prior phone (which I know only by Jitterbug) was 2. Although she was an early adopter of word processing and email many years ago, she couldn't track what was going on with this new phone enough to use it. We found a direct replacement of the prior phone and have moved her back to that. > I'm sick of machines constantly nagging for my attention. Same. And in her case, she can manage far less attention than she used to. Tech companies don't accommodate for that.