7 ms·

I'd like to have a good dumbphone. Here are my requirements: - good keypad (no accidental double presser, clear tactile feedback) - voice calls, SMS - 4g wif

I'd like to have a good dumbphone. Here are my requirements: - good keypad (no accidental double presser, clear tactile feedback) - voice calls, SMS - 4g wifi hotspot - power management good enough to not run out of battery when used as a wifi hotspot and plugged in - good ui for the requirements above (e.g. ability to choose whether wifi is shut down if no connected devices) (bonus points for being rugged and waterproof) My previous try, nokia 8110 new version nailed 2 out of those 5, and as a result, I gave up pretty soon. To my knowledge there is no phone in the market at the moment that fills these requirements, and I find it odd.

dredmorbius 5y ago
I have a similar shopping list and very little that satisfies it. General commentary: - A laptop or e-ink tablet can run other voice comms (Jitsi, Zoom, Skype, etc.) These are also generally more capable systems and convenient to use when seated or established at some location. The dividing line between present-gen phones and smaller tablets (beginning at 6") is ... slim. - SMS is itself not secure and highly problematic. As much as I'd like a dumb phone, I'm not sure I'd trust it to even SMS. Voice comms alone, or support for a secure encrypted messaging system. SMS itself seems too limited to allow an encryption extension, though xmms might suffice. - Splitting the phone and the hotspot functionalities is an option. That's an additional service, but might be preferable. - For the phone, I'd prefer a monochrome display, preferably e-ink, with a backlight or frontlight for low-light conditions. Hardware keyboard similar to the Blackberry, Palm Treo, or Palm Centrol might suffice. - The Psion Series 5 may well have been the perfect mobile communicator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 Otherwise, a B&W candy-bar phone along the lines of the Nokia 3310, or a flip phone like the Ericsson T28 or Motorola Razr would be a welcome sight. The feature I'd most appreciate in any of these for the present which wasn't available in their initial deployments is strict whitelist-based call acceptance. Any unknown numbers roll directly to voicemail or are rejected entirely.
Syonyk 5y ago
Take a look at the rugged KaiOS devices. They should do what you need. I have a "Flip IV" right now (AT&T sent me one when I hooked up my 8110 to their network because that doesn't support VoLTE), and other than being waterproof, it meets your requirements nicely. There are some waterproof devices with the same features, though.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  If you could link to specific models or vendors you could recommend I'd appreciate it. It's not clear from quick browsing whether or not KaiOS is a specific hardware vendor or an operating system that can be used on other OEM devices.
  - majkinetor 5y ago
    Literary first link I found.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      The first link you find, given your search engine choices, localisations, and/or personalisations, today, may not be the first link I find. Or someone reading this in a week, or six months, or six years. Please for their sake if not mine, post a specific link. Thanks. Also, I suspect: s/Literary/Literally/
      - majkinetor 5y ago
        Nah, its DDG. Stop with this BS please.
twmiller 5y ago
Sometimes I think that it might be good to ditch the smart phone in favor of a dumb phone. Then two things occur to me: 1. 90% of the ‘communicating’ I do with my phone these days is text messaging, and I almost never make voice calls anymore. 2. Dumb phones are terrible devices to use when it comes to text messaging.
- bmj 5y ago
  Yes, I don't understand why there aren't more feature phones with full hardware keyboards. This, combined with the GP's requirements, would likely convince me to shift to a feature phone.
  - p_j_w 5y ago
    >I don't understand why there aren't more feature phones with full hardware keyboards. If I had to hazard a guess, it'd be that not enough people want them for it to be a financially viable product.
  - flobosg 5y ago
    Something like a newer version of the Samsung Alias 2 would be pretty cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U750_Alias_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U750_Alias_2
Beltalowda 5y ago
Related story from a few weeks ago: "My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver"; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30007742 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30007742
dvtrn 5y ago
Were you ever a fan of the blackberry form-factor? You may enjoy the Unihertz Titan Pocket. It’s still a smartphone in that it runs a flavor of Android. But they nailed the tactile keys I remember missing and still miss about phones with physical keyboards. Not my daily driver, just something I had been following since the kickstarter and ordered one to fiddle about with. I ended up turning it into my “work phone/pagerduty device”. For that particular purpose, it works very well. YMMV https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-pocket https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-pocket

dredmorbius 5y ago

I have a similar shopping list and very little that satisfies it. General commentary: - A laptop or e-ink tablet can run other voice comms (Jitsi, Zoom, Skype, etc.) These are also generally more capable systems and convenient to use when seated or established at some location. The dividing line between present-gen phones and smaller tablets (beginning at 6") is ... slim. - SMS is itself not secure and highly problematic. As much as I'd like a dumb phone, I'm not sure I'd trust it to even SMS. Voice comms alone, or support for a secure encrypted messaging system. SMS itself seems too limited to allow an encryption extension, though xmms might suffice. - Splitting the phone and the hotspot functionalities is an option. That's an additional service, but might be preferable. - For the phone, I'd prefer a monochrome display, preferably e-ink, with a backlight or frontlight for low-light conditions. Hardware keyboard similar to the Blackberry, Palm Treo, or Palm Centrol might suffice. - The Psion Series 5 may well have been the perfect mobile communicator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5 Otherwise, a B&W candy-bar phone along the lines of the Nokia 3310, or a flip phone like the Ericsson T28 or Motorola Razr would be a welcome sight. The feature I'd most appreciate in any of these for the present which wasn't available in their initial deployments is strict whitelist-based call acceptance. Any unknown numbers roll directly to voicemail or are rejected entirely.

Syonyk 5y ago

Take a look at the rugged KaiOS devices. They should do what you need. I have a "Flip IV" right now (AT&T sent me one when I hooked up my 8110 to their network because that doesn't support VoLTE), and other than being waterproof, it meets your requirements nicely. There are some waterproof devices with the same features, though.

dredmorbius 5y ago
If you could link to specific models or vendors you could recommend I'd appreciate it. It's not clear from quick browsing whether or not KaiOS is a specific hardware vendor or an operating system that can be used on other OEM devices.
- majkinetor 5y ago
  Literary first link I found.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    The first link you find, given your search engine choices, localisations, and/or personalisations, today, may not be the first link I find. Or someone reading this in a week, or six months, or six years. Please for their sake if not mine, post a specific link. Thanks. Also, I suspect: s/Literary/Literally/
    - majkinetor 5y ago
      Nah, its DDG. Stop with this BS please.

twmiller 5y ago

Sometimes I think that it might be good to ditch the smart phone in favor of a dumb phone. Then two things occur to me: 1. 90% of the ‘communicating’ I do with my phone these days is text messaging, and I almost never make voice calls anymore. 2. Dumb phones are terrible devices to use when it comes to text messaging.

bmj 5y ago
Yes, I don't understand why there aren't more feature phones with full hardware keyboards. This, combined with the GP's requirements, would likely convince me to shift to a feature phone.
- p_j_w 5y ago
  >I don't understand why there aren't more feature phones with full hardware keyboards. If I had to hazard a guess, it'd be that not enough people want them for it to be a financially viable product.
- flobosg 5y ago
  Something like a newer version of the Samsung Alias 2 would be pretty cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U750_Alias_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_U750_Alias_2

Beltalowda 5y ago

Related story from a few weeks ago: "My first three months with a Nokia dumb phone as a daily driver"; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30007742 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30007742

dvtrn 5y ago

Were you ever a fan of the blackberry form-factor? You may enjoy the Unihertz Titan Pocket. It’s still a smartphone in that it runs a flavor of Android. But they nailed the tactile keys I remember missing and still miss about phones with physical keyboards. Not my daily driver, just something I had been following since the kickstarter and ordered one to fiddle about with. I ended up turning it into my “work phone/pagerduty device”. For that particular purpose, it works very well. YMMV https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-pocket https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-pocket