Anyone using a "dumb phone"?

[Bestbank Tiger]

The two main benefits to a smartphone are having my coordinates if I need to call AAA, and being able to log into eTrade if a buying opportunity occurs during market hours.

Otherwise I could easily live without it.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

I hate having the internet in my pocket, I can't handle it & waste time.

I gave up (non business) use of the Internet for Lent. Might be worth a try next year.

 

[Quintillus]

I have a powered-up dumbphone, Sony Ericsson w580i. I have recently used it as a flashlight given the lack of power locally.

But it isn't the phone which has my SIM card in it, that's a (comparatively) modern iPhone 6S. And prior to that (and a slightly newer, but less spacious, iPhone SE), I was on the Burning Platform, Symbian, from 2014 - 2019.

I do not have e-mail set up on my iPhone (intentionally), nor do I post to or browse CivFanatics from it. Those are strictly, and intentionally, laptop/desktop activities. It's part of how I demarcate the "real world" from the Internet-connected world. That said, there are times where it's useful to be able to look up the hours of a restaurant or the address of a location in Firefox or HERE Maps.

I think the big weakness of a dumbphone these days would be the general lack of support for group texts. Add that, and a halfway recent version of Opera Mini, and I could probably get by with a dumbphone today, much like I got by with the Burning Platform well past its best-by date. But that is a hard ask to go back from. I remember when one of my colleagues had his modern smartphone break, and he went back to a middling (not the latest model) BlackBerry, group chats was what he missed the most.

But aside from that? Yeah, I'll keep using my iPod for Pandora and mp3s, and I like my GPS apps for outdoors stuff. But take that out, and if you gave me a dumbphone with group chat and Opera Mini, I'd probably get by just fine.

 

[Quintillus]

I don't think they sell any anymore. Your best bet for cheap is a refurbished flip phone from Best Buy, but it'll still have more tech than what you're used to and what you want, and also significantly more expensive ($50-70). If you expect the phone to kick the bucket within the next year, you're also in a tricky spot: Canada is phasing out its 3G network by the end of 2025, and a lot of the flip phones are 3G-only. In fact, yours might be as well (4G was introduced in 2009, but cheap phones didn't support it), so even if it doesn't break in the next year... you might still be forced to upgrade.

They do in fact sell dumb phones, at least in the U.S. I just searched Micro Center for "dumb phone", and found this one: https://www.microcenter.com/product/637315/nokia-225-unlocked-4g-lte-blue-feature-phone Nnow it's not cheap as Valka's $18 CAD, but at $50 USD, it's still pretty inexpensive as phones go these days. And it's not Android, not iPhone, just a good old-fashioned Nokia feature phone.

Buy one that's a couple years old, and you might find a used one for $20. Though as you say, you've got to watch out for 3G-only phones and their subsequent expiration (although the linked one is 4G).

Honestly I'm a bit surprised I found that one so easily.. a few years ago when I was in the market for a really cheap Android phone, the least expensive one I found was about $85 USD.

 

[uppi]

Buy one that's a couple years old, and you might find a used one for $20. Though as you say, you've got to watch out for 3G-only phones and their subsequent expiration (although the linked one is 4G).

Depends a bit on the country you want to use it in. Here, 3G is (almost) entirely shut down, but 2G will still be operated for a couple of years. And a phone that does not support 2G is probably a heavy brick you don't want to carry around anyway.

I checked, and you can get a new Nokia 105 4G-capable dumb phone for around 20 €.

 

[Narz]

I checked, and you can get a new Nokia 105 4G-capable dumb phone for around 20 €.

Good to know.

My cracked Google pixel still hanging out but no way I would drop $200+ on another smartphone, only reason I had to have one before was I needed it to deliver on Ubereats.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I still have multiple old skool flip phones that are dumb and still work sitting in my closet somewhere. The only problem is 3G is obsolete and mostly not available.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Any phone will work for you if you have the discipline to "just say No!"

What of it for those of us who lack disciple and willpower?

 

[Samson]

What of it for those of us who lack disciple and willpower?

This is something I have wondered. I think it depends how much your lack of willpower will combat your laziness. If you had a modern phone without a web browser installed, how much time would you be willing to spend to get one?

I think you should be able to jailbreak the phone, break enough to stop you using say anything but whatsapp and maps, and then "un-jailbreak" it. That would be a load of hassle to get it to do anything else.

 

[Birdjaguar]

What of it for those of us who lack disciple and willpower?

The same applies to those who drink too much, drive too fast, are selfish, over eat, etc. When personal issues overwhelm us, we look for work arounds. Overcoming our own shortcomings can be difficult. AA has a 12 step program.... YMMV

 

[Narz]

The same applies to those who drink too much, drive too fast, are selfish, over eat, etc. When personal issues overwhelm us, we look for work arounds. Overcoming our own shortcomings can be difficult. AA has a 12 step program.... YMMV

Workarounds are better than thinking one can overcome all ones 'defects', better to focus on a few main things about oneself one doesn't like and seek workarounds for the rest.