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Minimal phone gets back to basics with E Ink display and real keyboard
- nicoritschel 3y ago[flagged]
- 2big2fail_47 3y agowhich is not a bad thing
- browningstreet 3y ago> The handset will feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with 5G currently being explored If this could be a wireless access point, I think that could be a differentiator. I would love a more minimal phone for daily carry -- but when travelling, it'd be nice to connect my iPad/laptop to an AP for those things that need modern apps.
- dangus 3y agoLack of 5G is a major oversight. The iPhone had that 4 years ago. Good condition iPhone 12 models go for under $300, and they want to sell this thing for $400. Seems like it's better to grab an iPhone 12, set the screen to greysfale in the accessibility settings, and then turn on screen time to block social media apps and other distractions. An OS settings preference selection isn't a product.
- AlecSchueler 3y ago> Seems like it's better to grab an iPhone 12, set the screen to greysfale in the accessibility settings, and then turn on screen time to block social media apps and other distractions. Better to use rsync than bother with Dropbox?
- dangus 3y agoI mean, if you really think this thing is the next Dropbox…sure.
- smoldesu 3y agoEven Dropbox didn't succeed at being the next Dropbox.
- samatman 3y agoThis phone is not the next Dropbox.
- AlecSchueler 3y agoNo, but buying a product that does everything for you and ensures that you don't just turn distractions back on is the entire value of the product. Saying "but you can just x and y" misses the point of what's being brought to market.
- smcleod 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dangus 3y agoI've got major doubts on a lot of these claims. Shimmying modern Android into an e-Ink display and physical keyboard is going to be a strange experience even if you truly want a zero-distraction phone. Supposedly it's going to protect your privcy but they also claim you can just download apps from the Play store. Seems like a bit of an unnecessary promise. Navigation with map apps in particular is going to be awful on the e-ink display. Really, a lot of "basic" non-social media non-addicting apps involve a lot of motion that plain and simple isn't designed for e-ink. Uber is highlighted as one of these apps that you might want to use without a distracting smartphone, but think about how much motion is involved with the Uber user interface when you use it. The whole interface plus the map is doing a bunch of smooth motions that do not take low refresh rates into account. The physical keyboard basically has to be there due to the shortcomings of the display, but I think when you go back to physical keyboards on phones you'll quickly realize that they are awful to type on compared to modern predictive autocorrect. They also can't adapt at all to the specific apps on the system. Say goodbye to emojis, stickers, and GIFs when you talk to your friends! Imagine what Slack will look like on this thing, and that's an app I have to use for work! Another odd claim is that the device will be $400 but be available with early bird discounts below that! That's an impossible price for an incredibly niche phone with heavily customized software. One last comment on this concept: when you think about the most mainstream smartphones in the world, what is the most physically distinguishing physical feature on them – the one cosmetic feature that identifies the phone with a brand? That's right, the cameras. That's no coincidence: it's the most important feature of the smartphone. It isn't mentioned at all with this phone, and questions about it on the AMA were ignored. At face value it seems like video calls and perhaps even sending simple photographs will be a major challenge on this phone. I think most people who want to curb smartphone addiction aren't looking to compromise healthy things like sending photos and videos to their family and friends. I just get a feeling from the AMA [1] that this company is biting off more than they can chew. Finally, it's plainly obvious that you can get all of the "unique" features of this phone by setting up simple OS settings, like setting your screen to greyscale and setting up screen time/disallowing social media app installs. Essentially, this company is trying to sell an OS preference pane as a standalone product. It will fail. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMinimalCompany/comments/19a6xr5/join_me_for_an_ama_the_journey_of_the_minimal/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMinimalCompany/comments/19a6xr5/...
- jerlam 3y agoHere's the crowdfunding page with more pictures (renders?) and details: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-minimal-phone-first-e-ink-qwerty-phone/#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-minimal-phone-first-e... Their estimated shipping date is August 2024, which seems wildly optimistic.
- garyfirestorm 3y agolol more like August 2026
- bookstore-romeo 3y agoI'm the owner of a Light Phone II [0] and (other than battery life), the biggest downside to the Light Phone I can envision for most people is the absence of apps like Uber, Apple Pay and Spotify. I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing. This phone seems to have a camera, though, and access to Play Store (although it will likely be messy) really sets it apart from most "minimal" phones out there. Plus, a real keyboard might attract the people who despise the on-screen one on the Light Phone. They're really devices of different classes at this point, though. The price does seem awkwardly low, however. [0]: https://www.thelightphone.com/ https://www.thelightphone.com/
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- toast0 3y ago> I think 5G isn't that necessary on a phone like that, except maybe for future-proofing. 5G is more than future proofing, at least where I am, 5G is deployed at new lower frequencies (taken from broadcast TV) that provide for more full coverage. With my new 5g phone, I have less dead zones than my old 4g phone.
- fragmede 3y agoThat is to say, you live in the future. I have the same experience with my phone. 5G is already here.
- simfree 3y ago5G New Radio (5G-SA) at 600Mhz (band 71) can deliver useful signal about 20% further than LTE on 700Mhz (bands 12, 13, 14 & 17). We have seen this in action as many Cellspot and other signal booster users have retired these devices as the indoor and basement cell coverage improvements of 5G deliver better service than the DSL or satellite back hauled micro cells these users used to have at home.
- al_borland 3y ago
- throwaway81523 3y agoA minimal phone, with an e-ink display and an alphabetic keyboard, that costs $400? Umm, that is confused. Here is what I would call a minimal phone: https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3310-192.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_3310-192.php Unfortunately those are all now bricked by the 2G/3G shutdown and nobody makes a phone with a similar feature set (i.e. absence of everything but voice calls) any more. The Jitterbug Flip 2 comes sort of close but it still has Alexa and other confusing stuff, and you can't buy it without an overpriced subscription. I've been looking for a phone simple enough to not confuse some of my elderly family members and those phones no longer exist. So I'm constantly the involuntary tech support for whatever phone they use. I think of buying a cheap Android phone and writing a kiosk mode app that has no access to anything except dialing the phone. Maybe someday.
- missedthecue 3y agoLook at the Raz Memory phone. $349 and it comes network unlocked.
- throwaway81523 3y ago$349 minimal phone, um no, a minimal phone should be more like $20 ;). https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1661-pictures-2572.php https://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_1661-pictures-2572.php Not really minimal but the above is the type of thing I have in mind.
- idle76 3y agoThis one is the same phone type with 4G(my kids have them): https://m.gsmarena.com/nokia_105_4g-10966.php https://m.gsmarena.com/nokia_105_4g-10966.php
- butz 3y agoI wonder how it went for Mudita with their "Mudita Pure" minimal phone? It is out of stock on their website and main focus is on alarm clocks.
- nonethewiser 3y agoI appreciate these basic phones but what I need is something different. I would prefer 2 phones: a regular smartphone and a basic feature phone. Then I’d take the one I need when I leave the house. The problem is you either need two lines with your carrier or swap physical sims. Swapping physical sims is inconvenient and means you cant use an esim.
- mrbombastic 3y agoNot exactly what you want but how about this setup: keep your minimal phone as your default phone with cell service. Whenever you head out use that. Your second distracting regular smartphone has no cell service. If you want to use that one either use wifi or bring both along and tether to your minimal phone.
- SoftTalker 3y agoThe reality is that most people do not want to carry multiple devices around. Carrying some kind of minimalist phone for text and voice, and a tablet or other device for "apps" isn't really a great experience.
- daxfohl 3y agoYeah, or charge every night, or look for when you're in a hurry to get out the door, etc. Or buy, for that matter. Probably what I'd rather have is a phone that has a low power low function mode, that I can configure what apps are available, and then a regular mode where everything is available. But to get to it, I need to convince a LLM equivalent of Seinfeld's soup nazi why I need it.
- SoftTalker 3y agoYeah a phone with an easy toggle between "dumb" and "smart" would be handy, especially if "dumb" mode had greatly increased battery life, but I don't think it would appeal to enough people to motivate making one.
- qgin 3y agoThese types of phones keep getting made and people keep not buying them in any significant numbers. I think people want to want this kind of phone. But it ends up being a kind of performance art thing / statement about modern society thing more than filling an actual demand in the market.
- ummonk 3y agoThis seems more practical though, providing access to the full play store rather than crippling user functionality.
- pillusmany 3y ago[flagged]
- btbuildem 3y agoMaybe price is a factor? If this thing cost $100 you'd see mass adoption.
- ianburrell 3y agoMy guess is that the people who want minimal phones buy feature phones. They are less of investment for lifestyle change, can be used as secondary phones, and have nostalgia. I bet this phone would be more popular if it looked more like Blackberry.
- PopePompus 3y agoI've signed up and sent contributions to a few "let's build a phone!" projects (like, for example, the neo900). I've come to the conclusion that building a phone is just not something a small group of people can do on a small budget. They won't get access to good processors, etc, because their projected volumes are too small to interest suppliers. The project inevitably ends up being very, very late. They can't build many prototypes and test them extensively, so if something actually gets shipped, it will be buggy.
- steelframe 3y agoWe need to reverse the trend of most people having a phone that's wired in with Google or Apple. I don't, and I can't tell you how often I try to do something only to be told, "Okay, now download our app and..." It happened just last week when I was buying a car. The sales rep kept insisting that I install the car company's app while I was trying to just write a check, grab the keys, and drive off the lot. "You can use your Google or Facebook identity to make signup quicker!" Not only can I not actually install the app, I don't even have a Google or Facebook account. Eventually he relented and showed me "his wife's" car -- which happens to be the most expensive car on the lot -- on his own phone so I could see how the app worked. (His wife's car had an odometer reading of 6 miles per what I saw in the app running on his phone, but I'm sure she just hasn't had a chance to drive it yet anywhere except home from the dealership yet.) For situations like that I usually have to tell them, "I don't have a phone with me that can do that." Then they get really confused, convinced that I have no idea what I'm talking about that that all I have to do is open the App Store and search for the app. The problem is my "App Store" is F-Droid. Why on earth I wouldn't be cool with just handing over my privacy to Google or Apple is completely lost to them, and most of the time I have neither the time nor desire to try to explain it to them. So I just end up coming across as some weirdo asshole by refusing to "just install the app." We need more people using phones that respect their privacy and that don't have an umbilical cord to Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- vitalurk 3y agoIt's bewildering to me that you're the weird, odd one for doing this.
- hyperthesis 3y agoIt's in the sales rep's interest.
- Syonyk 3y agoThis is a big part of the reason I carry a flip phone. Instead of explaining that your "otherwise smartphone looking thing" can't run Apple or Android apps, I just have to whip out the flip phone, flip it open, flip it closed, and say "Sorry, my phone doesn't have apps." ... even though it's running Android 11 Go and I can sideload stuff, it doesn't matter because the number of apps that work on a 320x240 screen with keyboard input only are "roughly zero." Even if there's no good reason it shouldn't work, nobody tests or designs for that case, so there I am.
- ipv6ipv4 3y agoThe best minimal phone is a cellular smart watch.
- ddrmaxgt37 3y agoExactly
- dorchadas 3y agoI'm leaning more and more towards this myself, except for the fact I hate the look of most of them, and love my traditional watches. Maybe I could just keep it in my pocket. But it's ideal for what I want - GPS, WhatsApp, telegram, Spotify.
- mckn1ght 3y agoI’m waiting for the day I can have an Apple Watch without ever needing an iPhone to manage it, and an iPad to do real dev work (ie, Xcode for iPad) without ever having to fall back on a Mac/Book. I’ve been waiting for years already so now I’m not sure those days will ever actually arrive.
- fragmede 3y agoDepends on your particular flavor of 'real' dev. https://vscode.dev/ https://vscode.dev/ and an SSH app and a web browser.
- ummonk 3y agoThe mentioned price ($400) seems rather low for a new entry phone. I’d rather they charge a little more to give themselves financial to enable faster manufacturing and snag free deliveries.
- wkat4242 3y agoDon't forget it competes with $50 feature phones. They can't go too crazy. This is already too much imo.
- seam_carver 3y agoI recorded a video of another e ink phone running many common Android apps really well (in direct sunlight)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvO9ScTdwz8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvO9ScTdwz8 It's the Hisense A9 with a beautiful and fast Carta 1200 e ink display. It's very capable, I would have preferred a phone more like that instead. It's biggest drawback is terrible USA cell reception. This company was initially going to make a phone like this but apparently keyboards were much more popular in polls.
- MBCook 3y agoUnfortunately this confirms my fear. I think I’d want to throw an e-ink phone against a wall after a while from frustration with the lag. E-ink screen refreshes are just far too slow for something interactive. That’s one of the reasons they work great on e-readers. I wondered if they were doing something special or had a different kind of e-ink screen that was faster in trade for some other property but at least the one in your video doesn’t.
- seam_carver 3y agoOut of curiosity which part of the video makes you think the lag is unacceptable? It’s more like a low refresh rate. Sure scrolling is a bit slow so it’s much better to fixed length “page turn” with the volume buttons instead but I’ve really gotten used to it. If you are talking about me missing the tap zones on the touchscreen to scroll that’s user error :P
- MBCook 3y agoThat’s what I mean. The lag between my action and the updated screen. Caused by the low refresh rate. When you’re trying to tap the screen a bunch to get something accomplished if each step takes 250+ms extra just waiting on the screen it would add up to frustration fast.
- garaetjjte 3y agoApparently with better controller they can refresh faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XduK7wn9SE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XduK7wn9SE4
- UberFly 3y agoThese phones remind me (a bit) of the Windows vs Linux arguments. There are a lot of appealing aspects to these phones but switching to them is really impractical for most of the population.
- Y_Y 3y ago"The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation" -Thoreau I understand caring about the huddled masses if you're trying to mass-market something. Here, as with so many other threads on hn, I feel like it's fine to acknowledge that most people won't be interested.ñ and then move on to discussing the subject at hand which invariably is going to be interesting to more significant portion of hackers. I love this product idea, but the device itself isn't the hard part. Already pine64 or random Shenzhen supplier could do this, getting a UI (android or otherwise) is going to be the challenge.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Difwif 3y agoUgh another minimal phone that tries to sell me new hardware. I don't think there's anything wrong with current smartphone hardware. What I want is someone to reimagine the OS. My phone should be like a Startrek Tricorder - a very advanced tool that can assist me with anything. The key metric should be how much time it saves me... not how much time I waste using it. What I don't want is spyware, ads, and interactions designed to maximize my engagement. I need to be able to use feature rich apps sometimes, but I also want very hard limits that I set on my social media usage and other time wasting activities. Every single blocker app completely sucks and needs to be implemented as an OS feature. Screen time on iOS isn't enough and Digital Wellbeing on Android is a joke. Sometimes I don't have the willpower to overcome the digital crack at my finger tips. So bad I want a new OS to enter the market that reimagines my phone as just a tool and not the center of my life. Apple could do it and has the right incentives (kinda) but I don't understand why they don't make screen time more feature rich with an API. I've never owned an iPhone but I would finally switch if they did this. Edit: I'm being too harsh to the creators of this phone. Clearly I am not the customer. I just want a solution that doesn't involve giving up useful tools like Maps.
- nullderef 3y agoI actually really like that the hardware includes an E-ink screen instead. It makes it really interesting for reading on the go without needing an additional device.
- jen729w 3y ago> What I don't want is spyware, ads, and interactions designed to maximize my engagement. Turn off notifications. > Every single blocker app completely sucks Install 1Blocker (indie dev) and turn on the on-device firewall. Works like magic. > Screen time on iOS isn't enough Have more self control. ;-) > Sometimes I don't have the willpower to overcome the digital crack But seriously, use Screen Time to disable Safari. Just remove the web browser from your device. Make the Screen Time password something like “i am weak”. It works. > I've never owned an iPhone You can 100% get what you want with an iPhone. Just don’t install all the garbage, and if an app is useful but spams you (hi, Uber), turn off its notifications. Use 1Blocker and you’ll never see an ad, not even in-app. Or do what my partner does: she basically lives in DND mode. Her phone hygiene is exceptional. She scarcely uses it. I never see her using it during the day.
- d--b 3y agoNow that phones have turned into authentication devices for a lot of mainstream services, we’re screwed.
- airhangerf15 3y agoI never use my phone for authentication. You can get Okta to give you the OTP secret (you gotta use a stupid QR code reader, but the number is there and you can stick it into a script using any Python/Ruby/Node OTP library). I don't have Google services on my phone and Okta will just puke and die without them, plus work has no right to ask me to use a personal device for anything.
- noah91734 3y ago> Can I use apps on Minimal? > Yes, Minimal runs on Android, allowing you to download and use essential apps. However, the e-ink display and device optimization are geared towards minimizing unnecessary distractions. That answers the only question I had about this. You still get full access to every app you need, it just increases the friction (via the low refresh rate and the lack of colors) so you can't doomscroll. Unfortunately, it does not list Bluetooth among its many wireless features, so I don't think I'd be able to use it. Not having music or podcasts in the car or on a run is a dealbreaker.
- xrd 3y agoThe article mentioned Android Auto. I assume it must have Bluetooth.
- DANmode 3y agoAndroid Auto and Apple CarPlay both have wired functionality.
- barbs 3y ago> Entertainment will be kept simple as well, "focusing on relaxation and mindfulness." The handset will feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with 5G currently being explored,
- noah91734 3y agoAh. I didn't see it on the kickstarter/gofundme page with the specifications. Back on my wishlist then :)
- windowsrookie 3y agoIsn't bluetooth bundled with every wifi chip / mobile soc these days?
- MBCook 3y agoI thought so too.
- AAAAaccountAAAA 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- bengale 3y agoYou can do a lot of this on an iPhone if you use focus modes and automations. I have a deep work mode that sets a blank Home Screen, turns off always on display, sets the phone to greyscale and only allows notifications from my wife. It feels like something like this gets you most of the way there and you can then have different focus levels that ramp up potential distractions. All without carrying two devices or giving up the modcons.
- pentaphobe 3y agoThis sounds pretty great, how do you achieve it?
- WalterBright 3y agoLooks a lot like my Kindle Keyboard. The KK also has a cell phone chip in it!
- Almondsetat 3y agoThese boutique pieces of tech are bound to fail because they don't stand upon the shoulders of giants. We see it everywhere in the phone world: phones aimed at the elderly have buggy horrible software and become quickly abandoned; modern feature phones are buggy, slow and incomplete because nobody in their right mind assigns their best engineers to the dumb phone division, not Nokia, not LG; plus small companies like Mudita, Punkt, Light and others don't have the know how to produce a complete device. The only real solution is the true "hacker path"of taking existing perfected and mass produced technology and achieve your goal with a few small modifications. If your goal is to have a basically "dumb" experience, why aren't you getting a bunch of 5yo Xiaomi phones, follow the extremely safe guides and flash LineageOS without Google Services on them? And maybe pair them with a SIM card with no data? This way you get a snappy phone with actually usable offline applications (and you can sideload the ones you truly need).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- squarefoot 3y agoI've read positive comments about BaldPhone. It's aimed at elderly people, but I don't see reasons why it couldn't be used to make regular smartphones interfaces more usable for everyone. https://baldphone.com/ https://baldphone.com/
- btbuildem 3y agoIsn't the form factor a little odd, or is that just me? How would you even hold that? Make something with a wide enough screen (say, 2.5" wide) and a height that maps to a common aspect ratio (maybe 4"?), let it have some bulk (like... 1" thick?) and suddenly you have a distinctive object that has enough space for all the electronics + a decent battery.
- stonogo 3y agoBe careful with your money. I'm still not convinced this is real. Neither are others: https://old.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/198y1xi/minimal_phone_real_or_vaporware/ksnx43l/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/198y1xi/minimal... https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMinimalCompany/comments/1aoq90q/so_its_february_already/kqzveo1/?context=3 https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMinimalCompany/comments/1aoq90q/... https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/my-company-got-funded-millions-of-dollars-ama.1139719/page-2#post-12270335 https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/my-company-got-funded-mill... and https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/1b35fuz/please_exercise_caution_with_the_minimal_phone/ https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/1b35fuz/please_exerci...
- RajT88 3y agoThis would make a great work phone if they promise 3 years of security updates as well as major Android upgrades. Otherwise this phone will be unusable in 6 months according to my company's BYOD security policy.
- drekipus 3y agoThe problem with eink phones is that they're largely unsupported / using some OS that I don't trust. I tried using my phone in grayscale mode for a while, but the complete lack of colours makes it difficult to use. I'm working on making a "desaturated" mode that changes the android renderer to not go fully grayscale, but only a little, so there's still some colour information.
- moreofthis 3y agoI would guess that a phone designed with an eink display will have visual design and UX that is more thoughtfully designed for greyscale than iOS or Android. I was always taught that a design should be done first in greyscale to make sure that it works well using only alignment, hirearchy, balance etc, then you add colour; I still see that done frequently in print design, but less so in the digital world for whatever reason.
- drekipus 3y agothat is an interesting point; i didn't know that (about design in grayscale). the issue with "apps are designed with e-ink UX in mind" -- how many stock apps do you actually use? where the manufacturer has control over how it's implemented? Usually the apps that are used frequently are apps that are designed for big colourful phones. That's why i want to experiment with a "deglossed" or slightly desaturated version.
- seam_carver 3y agoTypically apps from fdroid have really simple ui that look good on eink
- running101 3y agoI bet the battery life would be awesome on this phone.
- moreofthis 3y agoI love the aesthetic of phones like this, but I'm not sold on comments like this (from the reddit ama in the article): > Its durability also means less frequent replacements, countering the disposable culture of modern electronics. My starting point is that the most eco-friendly phone avilable to me is the one I already have. That comment reads to me as saying that if you have a fault you need a replacement instead of being able to opt for repair. I simply do not believe that a phone that isn't built to be repaired can be considered more eco-friendly than not buying a new phone. The CEO has promised more information about repairability closer to launch and I hope they follow through; I would guess that compared to the average phone purchase the overlap of people who want a minimal phone and people who want a repairable phone is pretty high.
- mattkevan 3y agoLooks interesting. I’m fascinated by e-ink and the oddball devices which use it. I wish I had the cash to collect them all (though I did get a Remarkable tablet the other day). As far as I can see, there’s no mention of a backlight. An e-ink phone sounds great but if you can’t see the screen in the dark that’s a problem.
- dredmorbius 3y agoAddressing a few points that have been raised about e-ink, apps, and Android, I've been using an e-ink tablet as my daily driver for the past three years (Onyx BOOX Max Lumi, running Android 11), and have a pretty good idea of the capabilities and limitations. Overall, the device has been far superior to any earlier Android device I've owned for overall readability, usability, battery life, and satisfaction. For a demonstration of what e-ink displays are capable of, see this video, which starts basic (static signage systems), and progresses through video-capable displays (not, it's true, high quality, but serviceable): <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4 https://yewtu.be/watch?v=KdrMjnYAap4> An Onyx BOOX Note displaying video, similar to my own device: <https://yewtu.be/watch?v=XRDJv_-wWBI https://yewtu.be/watch?v=XRDJv_-wWBI>. For e-ink tablets and mobile devices there are typically multiple display modes, which can be set on both a per-app and overall system basis. It's reasonably easy to switch between these where needed (e.g., on a Web browser). Higher-quality rendering comes with slower refresh, and there's a trade-off for visual quality vs. speed, but even basic animation is possible with only very modest quality degradation. "X-mode" for full video sacrifices a lot of quality, but you'd typically use that only for video-intensive apps (or occasional video viewing in a Web browser). The main side-effect is ghosting at higher refresh speeds. Android devices can use third-party app stores such as F-Droid (VERY strongly recommended), with an independent selection of apps, or the Aurora Store alternative interface to Google Play Store which provides any Android app available through Google Play. I minimise the apps I've installed, and have avoided virtually all authenticated services (one article-managing app excepted), to minimise distractions, but have several installed from both sources. E-ink itself does have its strengths and weaknesses. I like to say: Persistence is free; pixels are cheap; paints are expensive; refreshes are slow (1-8 Hz rather than 60--120); shades and colours are limited or nonexistent; line-art, dithered images, and half tones render quite well (raster and gradients far less so); paginated navigation is vastly better than scrolling; graphics are reflective rather than emissive; touch/Wacom may exist; and feature-detection capabilities are limited (e.g., CSS @media queries). It's a different medium, and rewards some adaptation of design principles. See: <https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba8448a5b29e257 https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/638a8d10e041013afba844...>. I'd make one further addition: dark-on-light styles are hugely preferable to "dark-mode" (light-on-dark), which is far more difficult to read. Generally, e-ink prefers full black on full white styling. I'll note that apps which are designed for e-ink, most particularly EinkBro (an adaptation of the FOSS Browser) make for a much superior experience: <https://github.com/plateaukao/einkbro https://github.com/plateaukao/einkbro>. And yes, there are full e-ink monitors which are available for desktop systems: <https://shop.boox.com/products/mira https://shop.boox.com/products/mira>
- AndyKelley 3y agoI don't know how you can call something minimal that is built on top of Android. This isn't going back to the basics, this is another complex abstraction layer added to the top of an abstraction skyscraper.
- beretguy 3y agoAnd it’s most likely gonna cost $300-500 like Mudita, Punkt and Light Phone.
- 7e 3y agoThis will fall. So much of our life is online that a real handheld computing device is necessary. This will sell only to those in addiction treatment.
- tzm 3y agoI want this to be a success, but I really can't leave my iPhone. I love the design and simplicity.. just practically, I don't think it will fit my life.
- hislaziness 3y agoI have experience using the Motofone - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone . It was not the best of experience especially due to the lag which many have mentioned here. E-Ink displays have come a long way, hoping this time it is a better experience.
- Log_out_ 3y agoStupid question, but how expensive would it be to turn a large surface from solar reflecting to solarabsorbing using eink. Like a house Southside becoming black in the wintermonths and white in the summer?
- hyperpl 3y agoIt's really sad to me to see how many of the early phones had microsd slots and almost none of them have them anymore.
- seltzered_ 3y agoSharing a "Buyer beware" message from /r/eink on minimal phone: https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/1b35fuz/please_exercise_caution_with_the_minimal_phone/ https://www.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/1b35fuz/please_exerci... (I started and curate /r/ergomobilecomputers, /u/magictheblathering is a familiar username) See also this comment with more links: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39576514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39576514