I’ve been researching and saving for the Light Phone III for a while, but there’s just one thing that’s making me hesitant about getting it: music streaming. I have no problem with downloading all of my music, but that prevents me from discovering new songs that Spotify or YouTube Music or whatever recommends me. I feel like I’m going to miss it in situations I can’t have my laptop (like on long drives).
What do you miss most?
Nothing, really, though it took a good bit of detox to get to that point. I’m only using a pseudo dumb phone, though (it runs Android 11 in a flip phone form factor).
Last August, I did a 30 day challenge and used it like a true dumb phone. No email, no chat, just the same things a comparable KaiOS true dumb phone would do. That was…limiting but I quickly got used to it. After that, I decided to un-dumb it a bit and am still daily-driving it almost a year later.
The only apps it runs now:
So it’s not a true dumb phone now, but it’s pretty bare bones. I think even true dumb phones have mobile browsers (KaiOS is basically Firefox OS, afterall) as well as some kind of mapping, email, and even TOTP apps. All the rest of the “smart” stuff it does is just annoying enough that I don’t spend all day on it, but works well when I need it.
I don’t know if I could go to a Light Phone III since I need my bank app, but something like the Minimal Phone with its eink display and QWERTY keyboard is probably my upgrade path.
A lot of dumb phones actually did have chat and email back in the day, for what that’s worth.