Lately I have been having a lot of fun playing around with mestastic devices, older phones, and so called “dumb phones”. I dont plan on getting rid of my current smart phone (at least any time soon) but I do want to see how it feels to go back to a dumb phone.
Anyone have a preferred dumb-phone setup that still works with 4G?
I want to be able to:
- Make/receive phone calls
- At least be able to see texting
- Replaceable battery
- (optional) some sort of directions (google maps/OSM+ etc…)
Things I have looked at:
- Ive been looking at some of the new Nokia offerings and it looks like they are going full retro which I like. I just dont like how thin the plastic looks. It looks like the phones could die at any point.
- I took a look at https://www.wiphone.io/ and that looked neat, but no GSM (phone calls outside of wifi) so thats a no go.
- https://dumbwireless.com/products/punkt-mp02 looked almst perfect…then I saw you can repair the device or replace the battery.
- https://dumbwireless.com/products/light-phone-2 looks nifty but again cant replace anything.
- Sunbeam F1 Horizon might be a good fit given that you can take out the battery but the price is a bit steap.
What do you all think?
I feel like Google Maps is going to be the biggest hurdle. I mentioned in another comment but a minimalist launcher might help.
Beyond that you could always consider getting a case for the Nokia phone off of Ali Express or looking up feature phone operating systems. For example KiaOS is quite popular among feature phones and appears on some Nokia ones.