[deanhills]

Dumb phones seem to have been around for a couple or more months.  I only learned about them today in the news paper and that really has me intrigued as I've noticed some of my friends saying they've had enough of "smart" phones invading their lives.  So looks as though they aren't alone and there seems to be a market for minimalist "dumb" phones that don't go for the Internet and Social Media and Apps as much:

Here is one of them - light phone 2:
https://www.androidcentral.com/light-pho...oes-basics


And here is Samsung J2 - Samsung is particularly aiming at the elderly and children market:


https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/04/13...-internet/

Here are the specs of the J2 Samsung Galaxy "dumb" phone:

Specs include a 5" SAMOLED qHD (960x540) display, unnamed 1.4GHz quad-core SoC, 1.5GB RAM, 2,600mAh replaceable battery, 8MP rear camera, 5MP front-facing camera, and expandable storage via a microSD slot. It's available in black or gold and should run 199,100 won (~$185). Notable omissions include 3G/LTE data and Wi-Fi.
Both have a heavily edited version of Android. 

I get the feeling that the first one - Light 2 is limited to the US perhaps.  I haven't seen the J2 dumb phone here in South Africa - but maybe I should check this out.

[SeductiveWalrus]

I understand elderly and children. With the elderly, they can get intimidated or overwhelmed by all of the features of a modern mobile device. My grandfather won an ipad from the bank once and he asked me to help him put windows 95 on it because that's all he ever learned to use. Of course I laughed at him, but I think this would be a much better alternative for him. As for children, there is a different motivation to get them a dumbed down android phone. You want them to be able to contact you or emergency services when something serious happens, but don't yet want their innocence to be taken by the internet culture. This can, of course be remedied by a parental filter, but I heard some of the smarter kids could always find a way around it.

Now we get to the people who claim that smart phones have ruined their lives. That's just stupidity. They allow themselves to engorge in trashy social media and PM people they never met for hours a day , and then they say the phones are doing it. They demonize the wonderful achievements of all the scientists and engineers who designed these awesome devices because they don't know how to moderate themselves or ever use the internet to do something beneficial. It just really annoys me how people blames the internet for their bad self-discipline, but then again it can be argued that they are more self-disciplined than others because they decided to ditch the feature-rich phones. I guess where you can draw the line between the two is when people start to tell others they should do it too.

[Mashiro]

"Dumb phones" sounds like a dumb term for this, IMHO. I guess only few remember that these days, but this kind of phones are simple and normal cell phones while the toys we have nowadays are smartphones.

I had a few normal 15 € - 25 € Samsung cell phones. They were very good in general. Battery lasted very long. Even had a color screen. Normal keypads and no touchscreen. It just did all the basics I needed. Calls, text messages and alarm.

Let me show you a picture real quick:



I said "I had..". For the price the phones are totally ok but there was usually one problem. After a year or so it seemed like the battery got tad bit smaller in terms of physical size. Or something else in the battery tray happened. So the phone just went off randomly. Battery tested and it was totally ok. Later I noticed that it lost contact because it was flexing away from the contacts. This got quite annoying... I had a trick that worked to keep it in place properly though. It involved the end of a toothpick being jammed between the battery and case on the other side. So it would press the battery against the contacts properly without damaging anything.

After a while though I was tired of always having two phones with me. That's where I ended my journey with these phones. I don't use my smartphone much anyway. Usually only at work while at home its idling on the desk.

[deanhills]

Thanks @"Hidden Refuge"  The "dumb" phone that was referred to in the newspaper is one that is specially designed for those who want to have minimalist features in a smart phone - some people just thought to give it a "dumb" name.  I've got plenty of the old model design phones, but was curious to see what the new model "dumb" Samsung J2 would look like that was supposed to compete with the new Light2.   Although I guess they don't seem to be calling the Light 2 a dumb phone (the guy who wrote the article didn't do the article justice), but an ultra minimalist smart phone or anti-phone with very limited features. It's marketed by Indiegogo and looks as though it is due for release in April 2019 only.  Looks as though it is available for pre-order.  Maybe a nice little toy to have.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light...2-design#/

[humanpuff69]

Well now dumb phone are getting less interest simply because those basic task like calling and sms are already replaced by much cheaper internet messaging app that only cost couple KB per chat . so evem though the phone is cheaper the cost of using it isnt . Imagine like console is a little bit cheaper at start but you need to buy those bullshit subscription to play online whereas on pc online is totally free

[deanhills]

Well now dumb phone are getting less interest simply because those basic task like calling and sms are already replaced by much cheaper internet messaging app that only cost couple KB per chat .  so evem though the phone is cheaper the cost of using it isnt . Imagine like console is a little bit cheaper at start but you need to buy those bullshit subscription to play online whereas on pc online is totally free

Right.  But you won't find any of those very cheap phones making quality photos such as the Samsung J2 and the Light2 special "dumb" models are planning to do.  They're not cheap phones, they are minimalist design phones designed for people with quality in mind but who want to be disconnected from the Internet.  The cameras for example come with high specs that you won't find in the phones you mentioned,

[Golden]

I am not sure if there is a need for this. You can control your phone with voice command now, any mobile OS has it now.