Dumbphones

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Smartphones dominate the world. But have we become smarter by using them?

This community is oriented for people who prefer either so-called "dumbphones" or "feature phones" in order to regain control of their life.

Here is a very simple set of rules to follow:

Don't be rude to others.
Don't harass or shame somebody for not being hardcore dumbphones fan. Everybody does it his own way.
Keep this community simple: discussions must be dumbphone or smartphone-oriented, not about dogs or food.

All in all, enjoy your time here :D

founded 1 year ago

Dumbphone Journey (self.dumbphones)

submitted 1 year ago by shinnoodles to c/dumbphones

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hey, just wanted to get some activity rolling. I had my dumbphone journey for 3 months, and it was pretty great. Rocked a Light Phone and a Sony DAP running Linux. My mind was very free, and I thought a lot more. Unfortunately due to me being a young adult still at my parents they told me they wanted me to use a Smartphone again.

It's been a few months after that, and while measuring out the pros and cons I have decided I definitely want to get a dumbphone again, just one that's probably more on the "smarter" side. At the moment, I am hoping the upcoming Punkt MC01 will have a featureset comparable to the higher tier Sunbeam F1 and Pro devices., Perhaps with the ability to use self-hosted or at least generic option compared to their paid services. Caldav, Cardav, etc. Getting that, along with a Tangara for my other services like Navidrome, Audiobookshelf, etc. seems like it'd make for a great dumb, local network duo.

For a companion device, I'd like a tablet/laptop/netbook that's tiny and portable for other services I'd need. I've been looking at the MNT Reform Pocket and some Linux tablets such as these. (StarLabs Lite, Purism 11, Fydetab Duo)

How about you guys? What have your journeys been like? I'd love to hear. It's a pretty hard road to take in a world being controlled by mandatory apps and the like. I really wish so much wasn't dependent on the phone.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've done some experiments where I go out with a quite old Android phone with only Whatsapp and Spotify. I'm liking it so far. Since it's an old phone it's also quite small. The problem is it randomly reboots itself when I'm listening to music which is annoying. But, unfortunately I'm kind of dependent on various apps for various reasons (e.g. work) so I can't really get rid of my "main" Android phone... Sometimes I carry both, sometimes only one of them.

Now I've been considering if I should replace that old phone with something newer like a Jelly, or instead go for something like an F22. Feeling inclined for the latter.

[–] shinnoodles 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting journey! I feel that, to some extent, I know this is why some people buy an Ipad/tablet, or carry both a dumb phone and a simple, small smartphone. Then there's the ones who keep a smartphone exclusively at home, with only necessary apps. Very scary how many real world functions are getting replaced with apps, at least to me.

The Jelly seems neat, but what made you interested in the F22?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, many things are getting replaced by apps and we're becoming more and more dependent... And you're right, tablet or netbook as companion can also work depending on your requirements.

And well, an F21/F22 is half price of the newest Jelly, and since I'm looking for a secondary phone I'm ok with the more basic specs. Also it has the real dumphone looks which is pretty cool. On the other hand, maybe I can get an older Jelly (or I also recently saw the Cubot J20), with that option I could use maps more easily (not sure how comfortable that is on the F21/F22) and that would allow me to carry less my main phone. I'm still on the fence.