
Light Phone 2: A simple 4G phone with e-ink - nafizh
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2-design#/
======
iodiniemetra
The biggest benefit this could have is a smart-ish phone with multiple days of
active use battery life. Instead they specced a 500mah battery

Also it's $3-400. Insane.

I can get a commodity android phone for $150, remove all of the apps, and with
a little self control have the same thing.

It looks good, though.

~~~
com2kid
> The biggest benefit this could have is a smart-ish phone with multiple days
> of active use battery life. Instead they specced a 500mah battery

Take any Android phone, uninstall all messaging apps, disable all other forms
of background transfers and sync (increasingly hard to do as Google adds more
and more of their services to the OS).

Enjoy your 3 to 4 day battery life.

You said active use, but this phone doesn't have any active uses, by design.

Standby time on modern smart phones isn't half bad, if you get rid of
everything that wakes up the device!

~~~
nullify88
This.

Go to Settings / Battery and you can prevent or minimise a applications
background cpu usage. Then go to your Data usage, from there you can prevent
or minimize background data transfer.

This has greatly improved battery life on my phone.

~~~
iainmerrick
Turn off data and just use it for calls and SMS and it’ll last even longer
(just like old Nokia phones used to).

Android used to let you disable 3G/4G data and just limit the phone to 2G data
- - low bandwidth but adequate for syncing email and other tasks, much lower
power usage. Unfortunately that option seems to have been removed.

~~~
izacus
That's because 2G networks are shutting down (together with 3G ones) and
4G/LTE ones are moved to lower, more efficient, frequencies previously taken
by GSM.

Disabling 4G these days can often be counter productive for signal strength
and battery life.

~~~
Fnoord
Actually, 3G will be shut down first because so much relies on 2G networks.

> Disabling 4G these days can often be counter productive for signal strength
> and battery life.

You can always have peace of mind with airplane mode or whole data disabled.

------
Animats
They're trying to sell flip-phone functionality for $300 by positioning this
as a "lifestyle" purchase. _" We call this experience 'going light'."_ That
may work; it got their Kickstarter funded.

A sunlight-readable ruggedized e-ink phone would be useful. But that's not
their target market.

~~~
lev99
The first phone had even less features.

Starting a hardware product by making a niche product and expanding the market
and device complexity over iterations on the hardware is a proven success
path. "Active" apps require third party buy in, which is hard for a new
company to achieve.

------
joelrunyon
In similar news - the banana phone is coming back

[https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/nokia-8110-4g-banana-p...](https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/nokia-8110-4g-banana-
phone-on-sale-price-specifications-1862890)

About $100 too. Might just pick one up for fun to see how it goes.

~~~
freekh
Does anyone know if the banana phone has Spotify?

~~~
r3bl
Banana phone runs Kai OS, which is not supported by Spotify.

However, there are people requesting it:
[https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Simplified-
versi...](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/Simplified-version-of-
spotify-for-kaiOS/idi-p/4400024) and [https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-
Partners-Web-Player-e...](https://community.spotify.com/t5/Other-Partners-Web-
Player-etc/Nokia-8110-4G/td-p/4400818).

So the answer to your question is "no", but it might.

FYI, I am not interested in this phone and it took me 30 seconds of searching
the Internet to find this info. It took me longer to write this comment. It
really doesn't seem like you've put in an effort of searching for such info.

~~~
freekh
Thanks! And sorry for replying so late, but just had to ask why on Earth you
would go to the trouble of looking it up, writing this comment and then adding
that FYI in there? Just strange (or is it some sort of display of superiority
I don't understand), hence the question. Hope this comment is not offending I
certainly did not mean it. Just felt that it would be polite to answer given
that you took the time :)

------
Mandatum
For $300 I'd expect longer battery life and international band support. Old
Nokia's were $50 and still usable in most of the world - this is a step
backward.

Look at the Galaxy Pocket Neo released for the African markets for instance,
priced at less than $130 at release, had 3 days battery life and would be
considered a modern smart phone.

This on the other hand, has much less capability in a less robust form and
costs double that.

~~~
gruez
>For $300 I'd expect longer battery life and international band support. Old
Nokia's were $50 and still usable in most of the world - this is a step
backward.

2g/3g probably works around the world. notice how they mentioned band
1/2/3/whatever support, which isn't used to describe 2g/3g frequencies. i'm
guessing the only reason your nokia could work anywhere around the world is
because there are only a few bands for 2g/3g. whereas there are a few dozen
for lte.

------
TeMPOraL
I really want an e-ink phone. But not really that phone. It seems really just
to be a fashion statement. I worry it'll have very little practical utility.

The best implementation I've heard of so far was YotaPhone 2 -
[https://yotaphone.com/gb-en/](https://yotaphone.com/gb-en/). A proper
smartphone with two screens - normal one on the front, an e-ink on the back. I
was considering to buy it some time ago, but I discovered the product was
abandoned. If someone could re-do this concept, but put the specs of ~Galaxy
S7 inside, I'd buy that in a heartbeat, even at flagship prices.

Or even better, I'd love if someone could make a proper e-ink _tablet_. Give
me 12.3-inch e-ink touchscreen and a software stack that would let me read,
browse, write e-mails and run a text editor on it, and it'll be my new go-to
machine. If I could hook up a keyboard to it and run Emacs on it (even
terminal Emacs via SSH), I'd be in heaven.

~~~
eat_veggies
The remarkable [0] seems like what you're looking for. It runs Linux, and you
get root + ssh access to it out of the box.

[0] [https://remarkable.com](https://remarkable.com)

~~~
skykooler
I spent a while looking around that site and couldn't find any specs - what is
the screen size?

~~~
eat_veggies
spec page is here: [https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-
us/articles/11500008512...](https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-
us/articles/115000085129-What-are-the-specifications-of-the-reMarkable-)

it says 10.3" screen at 1872x1404

------
holstvoogd
I like the concept, but the execution worries me.

I bought the light phone (1), it's a complete piece of garbage. Controls &
feels like some of the crappy stuff from around 2000. I tried to use it once,
but it turned out to be unusable outside due to being white and reflecting
more sunlight than it's leds/display could produce... (I did feel stupid at
that point, yes).

Hope they do a better job at this one & then, maybe, if they drop the price by
50% I'd consider it.

------
whitepoplar
Looks cool, but I wish some phone maker could come up with a phone that's
actually ergonomic. Remember how well old Nokias used to fit the hand? Now it
seems like every phone on the market is a slippery glass rectangle.

~~~
r00fus
Any modern smartphone is ergonomic.

Use a decent pair of BT or wired headset/buds/speaker, and you're no longer
putting a (potentially hot-running) cell radio up to your head and regain use
of both your hands.

Much safer for driving too.

~~~
FranzFerdiNaN
> Any modern smartphone is ergonomic.

Any phone bigger than an iPhone SE is completely unusable for me, as it
requires two hands to control the whole screen. The screen of the SE allow me
to reach everything with just my thumb, which is awesome.

~~~
Synaesthesia
The SE is a great phone. Good performance and excellent battery life.

------
lev99
I leave my phone behind and take my Apple Watch Series 3 with me sometimes.
The watch is much less distracting than a smart phone while keeping basic
connectivity.

The Apple Watch Series 3 has almost all of the features of the Light Phone 2
(missing battery life), and is equally as non-distracting. The Light Phone 2
is missing several features of Apple Watch Series 3 like Health Kit and Apple
Pay. Configuring call forwarding and message forwarding is much simpler with
Apple Watch than it is for Light Phone. Preordering a Light Phone 2 costs $300
and and will ship next April. Buying an Apple Watch Series 3 costs $320 and
you can pick you up today.

If you have an iPhone I would recommend an Apple Watch to someone wanting to
leave the phone behind from time to time instead of this. This might be more
useful to spending days away from a charging station, someone without an
iPhone, or someone that doesn't like wearing watches.

I assume there is an Android Watch product with most of the big features of
the Apple Watch too.

~~~
tallanvor
An Apple Watch is only useful if you have an iPhone. Apple Pay isn't a big
deal for a lot of owners since it's only available in about 28 countries
anyway.

That said I wouldn't spend $300 on a feature phone when I can get a basic one
for $50 or less which can do everything that this one can.

The Light Phone appears to be for people looking for a specific aesthetic
rather than actually coming close to being in a middle ground between being
unplugged and carrying a smartphone.

~~~
jakobegger
Last year I tried ditching my iPhone and used a feature phone for a couple of
weeks. The biggest annoyance was typing SMS / text messages with the numeric
keypad. I absolutely hated it.

Also, all feature phones are hideous.

I think there's a market for a feature phone that has nice messaging and looks
good. And since it's based on Android, it might be possible to write apps for
it (messaging apps would absolutely make sense).

~~~
Fnoord
The biggest annoyance -which Light Phone 2 also has- is that I do not use SMS
anymore. I use WhatsApp. Say they implement WhatsApp support. Well, someone
else uses Telegram. Yet someone else WeChat. And someone else solely e-mail.
There's also some features on Android which I'm too much used to (such as
tethering).

If your feature phone has Bluetooth you can use a Bluetooth keyboard together
with it. You can even use a laptop's keyboard (I know it is possible on Linux
and Maemo), perhaps even a game controller [1], and perhaps even a remote
(mine has a keyboard).

Finally, if you got dictation it doesn't matter. I do agree T9 is horrible
though. But if you do use it regularly, you get used to it.

[1] [https://www.gearbest.com/air-
mouse/pp_756041.html?wid=143336...](https://www.gearbest.com/air-
mouse/pp_756041.html?wid=1433363)

------
sigi45
I use my phone distraction free.

I disable notifications i don't care / are not notificatin worthy. I remove
myself from newsletters. I use the 'Do not disturb' mode.

I don't need an 'light' phone. I need my phone as powerful as it is right now
when i wanna use google maps, it should be fast and responsive and with great
details.

~~~
markatkinson
It doesn't look like they are attempting to replace your powerful phone. It
seems the Light Phone 2 is something you use alongside your main device.

So I can already see how this device might be useful. If you are shooting out
the house quickly to go surfing, climbing, trail running you can grab your
light phone with a smaller physical footprint and only essential
functionality.

But at $300 not sure its worth it yet. The new Nokia 3310 offers most of the
same for $55.

~~~
wool_gather
Mostly makes sense. What seems strange in this pitch is that there's no
camera. I totally get _why_ there's no camera, but in the "outdoor activity,
minimal functions" scenario, I generally want one.

------
joshwcomeau
I like how so many of these comments are claiming that this company is missing
the mark / doing it wrong / out of touch, and yet the project is >600% funded.

~~~
georgemcbay
Missing the mark and getting overly-crowdfunded aren't mutually exclusive. The
Ouya comes to mind, it was an absolute hit on Kickstarter (904% funded) and
completely missed the mark.

~~~
MisterOctober
Or, say, the 'Reading Rainbow' kickstarter.

------
MisterOctober
Companies continually miss the mark when it comes to neo-dumbphones -- folks
that want a dumbphone badly enough to seek one out, and I count myself in this
category, want one that is small, very durable, foolproof, and inexpensive.

These features were all common on old dumbphones like the previously-mentioned
Nokia and some Motorolas [or Jitterbugs]. Whenever a 'hip' dumbphone is
released, such as this one or the regrettably-named 'Punkt,' they look cool
but fail miserably in two or more of those criteria.

~~~
asherism
What's wrong with the name 'Punkt'? I quite like it.

~~~
MisterOctober
Different strokes for different folks -- I find it pretty patronizing ["Hey
hip kids! Dig our slang!"] but recognize that tastes very widely.

------
sonaltr
I'd consider it if they had an SDK.

While I agree that it's just android under the hood - a price of $300+ and not
letting developers get in on the action is just too much for me.

~~~
netsec_burn
Wouldn't allowing apps defeat the purpose of having a phone like this?
Allowing users to install more apps would get in the way of having a simple
phone.

~~~
argestes
If you really want to control how your customers are allowed to use the thing
you can put a limit like 3 or 4 apps maximum. For example I think this phone
needs at least a way to read e-books but it's possibly not going to be
implemented. IF there was an API I could write my own e-book reader for it.

------
jacknews
Looks cools, BUT...

\- People call you on your phone number, so you have to swap your sim card
from smart-phone to this every time you want to "go light". Also phone-book
sync, etc.

\- e-ink displays are incredibly fragile.

~~~
petecox
> you can leave behind your smartphone more often... _or for good_

If I were spending $US300 on a phone, it ought to be my daily driver.

So I would assume this is for people who, if they do want to access social
media on iOS/Android then they do it from the comfort of a large screen device
such as a wifi-only iPad, tethering to their 4G dumbphone.

Oh and there's nothing preventing an e-ink device from using a cloud
addressbook.

~~~
acct1771
Hotspot on that tiny battery...ew

------
seba_dos1
I was initially interested some time ago, but couldn't find or get any
information about software license, so I haven't backed it.

~~~
nobodyshere
I couldn't care less about the licenses, however the pricing of that thing
immediately means no to my purchase. Especially positioning $300 as an awesome
discount from $400.

------
usaphp
It will be difficult to “go light” if you will have to carry a DSLR with you
instead of having a camera in your phone. Nowadays camera in a phone is just
as important as a phone capabilities itself, especially for families with
kids.

~~~
giancarlostoro
Depends on the person but even with my Smartphone I rarely use my camera if I
had a eink phone it wouldn't be too different for me just that I wont be able
to use Signal.

~~~
stuntkite
In the reality we live in now, I don't even have to photograph anything
anymore because everyone else is already taking and sharing those photos. I
basically gave up on photos last year. I don't like being in them anymore
either. They don't feel commemorative, just transient social currency powering
an odd ad machine that doesn't seem to have my interests in mind.

I agree that the phone is expensive, but I like the design. It's funny that
people are comparing it to $100 Android phones. Those already exist, you can
get them in vending machines at the airport. This isn't that. It's hard to get
anything simple with LTE without building it yourself. I'd pay money for what
is not in this phone. I'm already $2k into my DIY dumbphone project and it's
not reliably hanging out in my pocket making calls.

~~~
chartflip
Do you have more info on your DIY dumbphone project? Would love to see!

~~~
stuntkite
I try to keep my identity private online and like I mentioned, don't really
take pictures anymore, but I can give you a general overview.

I started with this arm platform called Firefly

[http://en.t-firefly.com/](http://en.t-firefly.com/)

I really like how their coreboard are set up. The current version is about the
size of an apple TV. I wanted to get away from actually needing a touch screen
so I've been working with a dev unit of a low power laser projector that also
does depth scanning to allow for optional alerts and gestural interfaces. The
unit I'm using is from this company Microvision. They have a couple retail
products, I don't know if they even have the production capacity to do their
depth sensing units at scale, but they'll sell you dev units if you email
them.

[http://www.microvision.com/technology/](http://www.microvision.com/technology/)

People always want to use these things for watching movies or whatever, which
they will make a 100" screen on the wall, but they are extremely low lumens,
so I focus on short throw and an interface that only uses four colors. CYMK.
Since it's a laser, it doesn't need to focus and blacks are absolute so it
works pretty well.

I just got an Intel Realsense the other day and I'm hoping to move to that for
depth sensing and just use MV's projection module. And their tools are great
even if brand new mostly and need some help. It's a cool platform.

They bill the Firefly as good for AR installations and stuff and it has the
ability to do synced stereo vision that is helpful for depth stuff, but I've
found that to largely be a giant pain in my ass to pretend like I'm going to
solve. That and mounting two CCDs really breaks my already pretty kludgy
assembly.

Using this unit as the pcie LTE modem.

[http://shop.t-firefly.com/goods.php?id=49](http://shop.t-firefly.com/goods.php?id=49)

Funny thing about most LTE modems, there' sa good hackaday article on this
problem, but even though they are capable of PCM audio on chip, they don't
give you access, so if you wanna do voice, you're stuck with crazy hacks or
VoIP. There is a neat 4 modem board availible that also supports virtual sims
(which I didn't even know was a thing and sounds exploitable) but or some
reason has an audio bus that works with a couple models of modems. I might be
getting some of the details wrong on this problem, I'll see if I can find the
hackaday article, but a quick google search didn't turn it up. Voice
communication isn't my favorite thing anyway, so VoIP or XMPP/WebRTC is fine
with me.

For less hand waving interface I started with two of these power point mice
that I got super cheap. They are bluetooth, have a reasonable accelerometer, a
few buttons, and most importantly a thumb stick with a press mode so with two
I've been working on a trainer to use the thumb sticks as a twiddler keyboard
since there's enough combinations to do full querty and plus some.

Now that I've tested that out, I'm designing a controller myself, still faster
and more interactive to use two, but I'm working on a pattern for easy one
handed text entry.

I bought a set of Bone Conduction headphones that I liked except for their
fidelity and how ugly they were so, I'm playing around with building something
myself. Exciters are cheap and I think I can do better. What I like about bone
conduction is that your ears are open and what you're hearing doesn't
interrupt regular life. Ear buds are great for closing our the world, but that
goes against what I want out of my "phone".

Basically I'm annoyed and overloaded by all the crap that all the tech around
me blasts at us all the time. I think it's inelegant, annoying, and motivated
by bullshit sales and ad tracking exploitation. Because of that no one has
improved on shit in 10 fucking years. From my tech I want it to give me less,
work with me to provide communication, stay the hell out of my face, but also
I want to own my platform and know what it's doing. Most importantly, I'd like
it to actually be freaking cool. We are essentially using the exact same
device as the first iphone. That isn't because we can't do better, it's
because it works to keep us in line, vendor locked, and ready to shell out for
the next one.

So yeah, the "phone" is kind of big, especially with the battery, which is
roughly the size of a Stephen King paperback, but it lasts forever and has an
AC invert er which is handy sometimes. This prototype stuff isn't quite ready
to be rugged and travel with me, but the goal is to get it down to something
easy to even put in my back pocket, but at least in my backpack, but really
all I'm interacting with is the twiddler and the headphones. If I'm working I
can set the thing on my desk and I it can use color, motion, and clear,
uncluttered text to share info with me.

Because I'm doing weird point cloud depth scanning, starting with an ARM
platform has been a giant pain in my ass. There have been some powerful and
small x86 platforms that have come out recently like the LattePanda, so I'm
eyeballing that as the next move to speed up the software side of stuff. Also
I've been playing with the LimeSDR, it's technically capable of LTE and tons
of other stuff. Their package manager isn't up to snuff yet, but the next gen
will be capable of ranges up to 5G. The dream with this pile of techno garbage
is some sort of open source, not awful, mesh network phone that still can use
your t-mobile account until your friends get enough SDR radios that we can
just say fuck it to the telcos.

[https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1727.html](https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1727.html)

[https://myriadrf.org/projects/limesdr/](https://myriadrf.org/projects/limesdr/)

But to answer the question you probably have, my daily driver is an iPhone7
that I would be fine if it fell in the ocean. My brand new macbook pro had
keys falling off and it's USB-C went out after 3 months, so I've left most of
apple's ecosystem for good. All the parts for way cooler stuff is out there!
We can totally just quit paying thousands of dollars for bullshit ad-slabs and
take our communication back.

Sorry, I guess that was quite the barf. I've been working on this off and on
going on 3 years now but haven't looked at it in months because of a new job.
I forgot how much was going on with it. hah.

------
pndy
It's definitely looking outstanding and simple which is something I like but:
there's no backlight even in old-fashioned electroluminescence form and there
are situations where external light isn't enough. I'd like to know if company
is collecting any data of device usage and how secure this LightOS is. There's
only English language available which eliminates it as my mother's current HTC
8S replacement - while it's similar in size and simplicity of use, she would
prefer seeing UI in native language.

Are there any owners of previous model who could share their experience?

------
gnode
I like the look of the hardware, particularly the e-ink ink display, but can't
say the software UX appeals to me. I agree that the modern smartphone
experience by default is cognitively impairing (too many notifications), but
that's something I'd like to have control over, rather than take it or leave
it.

I think making the software side extensible could make this a great phone for
hackers.

------
passive
I like the look they are going for, but by April of next year, I'm confident
Xiaomi could be selling something like this for $150.

------
nnash
For what is supposed to be a simple, minimalist "unphone" they chose the
absolute most boring form factor.

~~~
gnode
I think it makes sense for something minimalist to not be an eccentric shape.

------
matt_morgan
I'm agreed with everyone who's pointing out that self-control is a fine
solution to the same problem. But this is a great-looking phone that's small.
Skinny pants are still pretty in, and even smaller smartphones are too big for
the pockets. You're using it for going out at night anywhere that stays warm
in the evening.

It needs to have that "ride home" feature, and probably "rides anywhere." If
that works I might spend $300 on it just for the 12ish nights a year I would
use it--it's a small cost compared to babysitter, restaurant, show, Lyfts,
etc.

------
deftturtle
I would like Apple to sell e-ink or Qualcomm's mirasol displays, so we could
swap them and save power. Would be amazing. I generally have enough ambient
light to see my screen. And I don't want to use my phone at night anyway.

Everyone is whining about cost but ignoring the fact that someone is trying to
innovate in this space. Who cares what it costs. They're pushing something
out, and eventually if Apple and other major manufacturers offer low power
displays, people will appreciate the option.

------
altpdr
I love e-ink screens and have been thinking about getting an arduino to play
around with them. Where can you get e-ink screens like that? Or would it be
manufactured in-house?

~~~
godelski
You can get some off of Alibaba. Been Krasnow's blog might help you a bit
[https://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2017/10/fast-partial-
refresh...](https://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2017/10/fast-partial-refresh-
on-42-e-paper.html?m=1)

~~~
leetbulb
I have a few Waveshare brand e-ink displays to play around with. They are
really cool!

------
X6S1x6Okd1st
300 seems WAY too expensive.

------
pasta
Isn't this a scam?

All previews of the phone exclude e-ink. They are all fitted with bad quality
LCD screens (which you can't read outside).

------
milankragujevic
This is too expensive for the features and the hardware, and I currently get
everything, including a few days of battery life, with a Lumia 640 XL, and
Windows Phone 8.1. I uninstalled all apps and made it a dumb phone with a big
screen...

------
hjek
What's up with Indiegogo just showing nothing unless you have JavaScript
enabled?

~~~
iainmerrick
Plenty of sites do that, unfortunately. Why would you expect Indiegogo to
handle disabled JS gracefully?

(I'm not saying I like it -- I often disable JS myself. It works great for
most news sites.)

~~~
hjek
Yes, they do. Well, I'd expect possibly not being able to sign up or donate or
something, but not being able to _read text_ I find a bit extreme, as if
they've gone out of their way to actively break their web page when run w/o
JS.

------
jsendros
They should've just built a custom launcher for Android. Could've resulted in
the exact same effect with zero hardware of manufacturing overhead.

~~~
Yoric
Well, there's the small matter of e-ink, which should drive battery usage
waaaay down.

------
bane
I...sorta get it. But seriously, if this is what you want, get a $50 feature
phone and don't even bother with data fees.

------
kbumsik
I don’t think it is possible to keep the same design with a e-ink and a
touchscreen. There must be a bezel.

~~~
wincy
The Kindle Voyage is e-ink and has a responsive touch screen. You can type
stuff out without too much issue on it.

~~~
lsc
both the voyage and the oasis do have a bezel, if we're using the modern usage
of the word, like the iphone 7 has a bezel and the iphone x is bezel-less. The
paperwhite, voyage and oasis are all touch screen e-ink kindles that I've
owned (I dunno if the base kindle is touchscreen these days, I haven't owned
one.)

I don't know if it's required or not, but I think previous poster was
suggesting that the bezel was needed in e-ink displays, and all the kindles I
know of have a bezel, even though that bezel is flush on the voyage and oasis
models. Now, I personally think that poster is wrong, at least if we are using
bezel in the sense that the iphone x is bezel-less; but the current crop of
e-ink kindles are not bezel-less.

Personally, I think typing is okay on the paperwhite and the second gen
oasis... on the voyage and on the first gen oasis, the thing wasn't responsive
enough to type comfortably, in my opinion. I dunno if that had anything to do
with it being e-ink, though; It could have easily been an anemic processor.

------
baby
Or get an iPhone and don't install addictive apps. Although the browser by
itself is addictive...

~~~
kall
The browser can be either disabled or limited to certain sites easily in
Settings > Restrictions. You can also disable the app store there (with
automatic updates enabled) for good measure. Add dark mode aka "Smart Invert"
to have less phone glow on the face.

I‘m sure you can achieve the same stuff on any android phone.

Buying yet another gadget, that you will likely play around a lot with in the
beginning, seems kind of like the opposite of going light.

As a gadget this looks really neat though and I kind of want to develop apps
for it.

~~~
baby
> Buying yet another gadget, that you will likely play around a lot with in
> the beginning, seems kind of like the opposite of going light.

It's more than a gadget personally, I use these essential features all the
time:

* camera

* payement (apple pay, starbucks, other cards)

* banking (Monzo and Revolut only exist as apps)

* plane tickets

* access to important docs on dropbox anywhere

* music (apple music)

* reading (news feed, articles, papers, etc.)

~~~
kall
Yes, I think so to. I was referring to the light phone as the gadget. Setting
up a smartphone with all features that you consider valuable and disabling
everything else just seems more worthwhile if the goal is to get away from
distracting phone (or gadget) use.

~~~
baby
Oh yeah, I guess we agree.

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tcfunk
I love the idea of a much simpler phone. However, I don't think I could ever
give up the camera.

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BadassFractal
I would get it, but at $300 it's a pretty expensive luxury fashion statement.

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hwc
I had a Motorola Fone years ago, but I ditched it because it did SMS so
poorly.

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reshie
it's like a cellphone(dumb phone?) with a nice soft keyboard and display.

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shakehar
Why 4G? Wouldn't 3G use less power and let it run for longer?

~~~
petecox
Longevity.

I live in a country where they have shut off the 2G network. 3G may well
suffer the same fate within a few years, as carriers migrate to 5G.

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speps
No Email app ever seems quite drastic for a $300 phone.

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inieves
Very cool!

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m3kw9
Eventually, it will diverge back to what you have today.

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jlebrech
Ride Home: this could work with a minimal web browser. something like wap
comes to mind.

