So my plan with LightPhone was to try to recreate my life circa 2004. Lemmy (or Digg) all I want on my desktop at home, but when I’m out and about, be mostly disconnected. I’m actually typing this on my old iPhone which I use over WiFi.
LPII has “apps,” but it’s a fixed selection that you can add or remove. There’s phone, calculator, alarm, podcasts, music (1gig for mp3s, no streaming), directions, notes, mobile hotspot. You can’t install 3rd party apps. There’s no web browser. No camera. MMS images get forwarded to my email.
The entire phone is managed over the website. Like you add MP3s by dragging them into your web browser and they show up on the phone next time it syncs.
The display is ePaper like a Kindle. It’s actually a bit silly IMO because there isn’t even an option to keep it always on, and the refreshing is slow and can make it difficult to navigate/type at times.
Really, it’s a very well thought out product. You get a premium product with features you wouldn’t find on a typical dumb phone (voice to text, direction, mobile hotspot), but it really forces you to disconnect. I tried the screen time features on iOS, but you can always turn them off when you really want to check it. This has helped me be a little more “in the moment” while I’m out, and it’s been fun trying to navigate the world without a smartphone.
So my plan with LightPhone was to try to recreate my life circa 2004. Lemmy (or Digg) all I want on my desktop at home, but when I’m out and about, be mostly disconnected. I’m actually typing this on my old iPhone which I use over WiFi.
LPII has “apps,” but it’s a fixed selection that you can add or remove. There’s phone, calculator, alarm, podcasts, music (1gig for mp3s, no streaming), directions, notes, mobile hotspot. You can’t install 3rd party apps. There’s no web browser. No camera. MMS images get forwarded to my email.
The entire phone is managed over the website. Like you add MP3s by dragging them into your web browser and they show up on the phone next time it syncs.
The display is ePaper like a Kindle. It’s actually a bit silly IMO because there isn’t even an option to keep it always on, and the refreshing is slow and can make it difficult to navigate/type at times.
Really, it’s a very well thought out product. You get a premium product with features you wouldn’t find on a typical dumb phone (voice to text, direction, mobile hotspot), but it really forces you to disconnect. I tried the screen time features on iOS, but you can always turn them off when you really want to check it. This has helped me be a little more “in the moment” while I’m out, and it’s been fun trying to navigate the world without a smartphone.