Shen told The Register 4G feature phones have until recently used the QQVGA standard for their displays – meaning developers only had 160 x 120 pixels to work with. QVGA jumps to 320 x 240 resolution, which he believes makes accessing the web on a feature phone at least a little bit more appealing.
I cannot imagine browsing the web on 320x240, let alone 160x120.
While I could see this being used in specific uses cases (for children, people with legal restrictions) and in the entry level market in some developing countries, I don’t think feature phones can “rise again”.
I am sure the people who are buying these 4G feature phones will switch to a regular super budget smartphone as soon they are able to find the money for it.
Back when phones with 160x120 screens were common, you used websites that were designed for them and they worked pretty well. The sites were mostly text, which was a good thing because 2G was slow and data was expensive.
SeNt WiTh TaPaTaLk
Ouch, wap sites…
Developed my first one in 2000. Developed my last one in 2000 as well.
Low resolution is less of a problem if you want content only. If you can live with pages that have all visual elements taken away, then resolution is much less of an issue.
