Thought this might interest some Lemmy folks.

  • @athairmor
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    277 days ago

    That’s not a dumbphone. It has email, a camera, an e-reader and , looks like, a few other apps.

    • @Teanut
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      7 days ago

      Mobile phones in the era before smartphones had cameras, email clients, games, music players, and even web browsers. They just weren’t very good at those functions and their core feature was being a phone for voice calls. Texting was barely a feature on some of them (the first camera phone in the United States, the Sanyo SCP-5300, didn’t have a two way text messaging client - the user had to go to a website on the phone to send texts, which was inconvenient even on a 1xRTT 3G connection.)

      The e-ink phone seems closer to a dumbphone than a smartphone, IMO, largely because it lacks access to an app store.

      Source: I sold mobile phones before smartphones and during the early smartphone years (BlackBerry and Palm Treo, for example.)

      Edit: calling it a feature phone instead of a dumb phone might be more accurate.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      7 days ago

      I disagree. A dumbphone (in my opinion) is a phone that does everything you need and nothing you don’t, and is distraction-free. And especially one that DOES NOT run Android. Email is unfortunately essential in the modern age.

      But you do you, fam.

      • @[email protected]
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        317 days ago

        While I get your opinion, these things have definitions. Here’s a super simple version:

        • A dumb phone does not connect to the internet. Its a phone. Just a dumb device.
        • A feature phone is what you’re referring to here, where it may connect to the internet, but isn’t part of some larger ecosystem and is certainly not an app-first approach. Its a phone first, ancillary features are a bonus.
        • Smartphones are your android and iOS devices, which connect to the internet, is part of a large ecosystem of applications, is an internet first oriented device, etc.

        So yes, this is a feature phone from what I’ve read of the translation.

        • @iopq
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          16 days ago

          Then I can’t message anyone since people use messaging clients like signal and not actual texts

          • @[email protected]
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            36 days ago

            Which is why dumb phones and feature phones aren’t common anymore, and the people choosing them are specifically choosing it to avoid being available via WhatsApp/Signal/Slack/Discord/Teams/whatever else.

            My FIL for example has a clamshell feature phone, because he doesn’t want to be reached except by phone or SMS. He doesn’t want to read email or get messages on his phone, he wants to restrict that to when he’s in front of his computer.

            So yes, you would not be able to use messaging clients on a dumb phone, that’s the idea behind their use today.

            • @iopq
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              35 days ago

              I remember sending a Facebook message on my feature phone. I had to type with the num pad and it took minutes to load the page, but it I was successful.

              I think people are forgetting that feature phones were connected to the internet back in the day

              • @[email protected]
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                25 days ago

                A dumb phone and a feature phone are not the same thing, and a feature phone may connect to the internet.

          • @[email protected]
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            7 days ago

            Several decades of phone technology as it developed…

            Edit: and why are you just down voting everyone replying providing you with info?

            • @[email protected]OP
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              -257 days ago

              Several decades of phone technology as it developed…

              …so you just made it up then.

              why are you just down voting everyone replying providing you with info?

              No one has done that. The only comments I’m downvoting are the ones spreading disinformation.

              • @[email protected]
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                167 days ago

                …so you just made it up then.

                No, the phone industry made up these terms.

                No one has done that. The only comments I’m downvoting are the ones spreading disinformation.

                So how I read that is “Anything that isn’t what I want it to say is disinformation”.

                Well, enjoy your day buddy, my participation in this thread is over. Its a neat feature phone, and that’s where I’ll be leaving that.

                • @[email protected]OP
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                  -136 days ago

                  the phone industry made up these terms.

                  Except you can’t find any citations, so I’m pretty sure ya did.

                  So how I read that is “Anything that isn’t what I want it to say is disinformation”.

                  Very unsurprisingly, you’re reading it wrong. And you know it.

                  my participation in this thread is over

                  Excellent, glad to hear it!

              • paraphrand
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                7 days ago

                The Wikipedia page for Feature Phone looks to have been started in 2011.

                The iPhone was introduced in 2007 and popularized Smart Phones to a point that Feature Phone grew in use enough to warrant a Wikipedia entry a few years later.

                You better head over to Wikipedia to fix the misinformation issue they have had for over a decade now.

                • @[email protected]OP
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                  6 days ago

                  The Wikipedia page for Feature Phone looks to have been started in 2011.

                  Should that mean something to me?

                  You better head over to Wikipedia to fix the misinformation issue they have had for over a decade now.

                  Did I say the phrase “feature phone” was misinformation? The fact that it exists or the date it came into existence disproves nothing…

      • @Manifish_Destiny
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        167 days ago

        Since we’re just making up definitions, a dumb phone is now a type of salad.

        • paraphrand
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          77 days ago

          I need to get more dumb phones in my diet.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          -197 days ago

          Just because we have different interpretations doesn’t mean we’re “making up definitions”. Who made you the definitive authority?

          • @Manifish_Destiny
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            76 days ago

            We don’t have different interpretations. You are just misrepresenting the definition. That’s not what a dumb phone is.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          -177 days ago

          Feature phones typically have more “features” than dumbphones, hence the name. They almost always run Android as well which means they build in all sorts of telemetry and dependencies.

          • @[email protected]
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            7 days ago

            I consider anything that even touches data (even 3gp or email) and can play MP3s a feature phone. Even if this thing didnt play MP3’s, the fact it can read ebooks I’d say makes it one.

            Is 3gp still a thing?

            • @[email protected]OP
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              -107 days ago

              You’re free to disagree. I’m not the one telling others they’re wrong for having a different perspective.

              Is 3gp still a thing?

              Never heard of it, did you mean 3G?