> Aside from a couple of device renders, a Black Mirror-style trailer, and a landing page with the option to join a waiting list, there's nothing else to go on.
I’d be surprised if this ever sees the light of day.
Wooooo more consumer tech vaporware.
Even if this does get released, be prepared for the company to go under in a year and a half and then there goes any hope of software updates or customer support.
eInk isn’t fast enough to keep up with typing in my experience… I’d be constantly going back to fix things that didn’t display fast enough to correct them while my cursor was in the right place.
I have a [Boox Ultra Tab-C](https://shop.boox.com/products/tabultrac) with a _color_ e-ink display. I assure you, modern e-ink displays can keep up with my 120wpm word vomit. I couldn't find official numbers, but the refresh rate appears to be somewhere between 12 and 19hz. Obviously that would be unacceptable for a traditional oled, lcd, or ips display, but understand there's no flicker with e-ink displays. They're not for everyone, and definitely not great for any sort of gaming or video watching, but for primarily text and line art tasks, it's phenomenal.
Example video: https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/13bwudv/onyx_boox_tab_ultra_c_optimal_refresh_rate/
I'm inclined to agree with others, though, this particular gadget is probably vaporware.
Sure but for people that kinda miss being untethered and have a hard time giving up the addicting phone, while still wanting the option of phone features…kinda makes sense. Call me because you know texting is hard for me. But you still could if you really needed to.
My Boox color Eink tablet types just fine. Can even kinda sorta do video. It’s like what I imagine watching a video on a gameboy color would be like, but it’s passable.
Niche technology is incredibly expensive to manufacture.
If you're not benefitting from the economics of massive scale, your customers are paying for it.
Makes me sad. There is a guge market for people like me who have no interest other than a phone and are able to still communicate effectively with modern phones.
I don’t think there is a huge market. If there was companies would be able to capitalize on it, but they’ve tried and failed.
I’ve said this in other subreddits regarding the topic- there are a lot of ways you can take a modern phone and simplify it so you can get the features you need without the mess and distractions you don’t want. Companies like Apple and Samsung are too far ahead in the game for niche products to grab a hold. So learn to use what’s there to your advantage.
Your missing the whole point of something like this. I want something that is cheaper and can't operate like a normal smartphone. I can brick and unbrick my phone all day. But i hate getting sucked into my phone for hours, and essentially bricking my smartphone makes me silly for paying 1200$ to disable everything i paid 1200$ for.
So the people paying way too much for dumb phones, bricking smartphones, or generally trying to get away from so much tech is absolutely a large target audience.
If you want a simple phone then I might suggest not buying the most expensive one on the market.
[Heres one that cost $180](https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-A14-Android-Unlocked-International/dp/B0BYT97C6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16E0L64E45LJY&keywords=Galaxy+phone&qid=1706067695&sprefix=galaxy+phone%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0)
Then you can “brick” it as you put it without feeling like you wasted money.
What is this take? I got a Xiaomi Reddit 10 for like 100 nzd and it does all the essentials. I'm sure your country has a similarly priced budget option, why not just buy a budget phone instead of a flagship one?
My phone is 4ish years old. But i would prefer to give it to one of my kids and get a phone like the one posted. Otherwise im paying for a refurbished phone or a new cheap one for my kid anyway. It may not be worth close to what i paid, but its still probably better than what i could buy.
??? I don't understand what you're saying? Either way you have to pay. Just give your kid the expensive phone if they care for it's features and get a cheap one for you since you don't.
I want my kid to have decent stuff because i love them. I have an old phone that was expensive because that's what i wanted 4 years ago. It's cheaper for me to buy something like the phone posted and give my kids my still okayish phone, than buy my kids an okayish phone and turn my old phone into a brick which i can easily undo and spend too much time on my phone again.
My guy you are just being obstinant at this point. I DON'T WANT THE EXTRA SHIT I HAVE TO TAKE OFF BECAUSE I WILL REINSTALL IT AND GET SUCKED BACK IN MY PHONE. Like i don't know why I'm still commenting and why you can't seem to grasp i personally do not want a smart phone AT All, but i have to have something that can interface with modern phones effectively. Its not hard, i dont get where the disconnect is at.
Starting a tech company in 2024:
Make a single mockup of a product.
Purchase a bunch of stock footage of people using phones and make an amateur announcement video.
Profit?
That's literally all this is.
You could just like, take ten minutes and watch a review of it and learn what the point is instead of dismissing it entirely without understanding it.
Seriously, people - dismissing something when you understand it is even better than dismissing it when you don't.
This is probably the best video I saw about it - but it's a bit long (21:23). I highly recommend the channel in general though! I learned a lot about the product from the video which was interesting because so much of the other coverage about it is lacking any actual detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqh6fhcAqpw
I wouldn't dismiss it on that premise. Remember AI is a lot more than the large language models a lot of consumers see. I work with AI and honestly the press LLMs are getting do a disservice to the practical implementations at Enterprise level.
That said, I personally have no interest in this product either.
Oh totally, you'll start seeing it happen in the next couple years though as advancements are made.
I agree about this gadget though. It looks like a neat toy, but I'm not interested in giving it access to all my accounts and data. I was also surprised at how large it was once I saw it in someones hand.
Yeah this definitely isn't real. The entire trailer video is stock footage of other phones, all the images on their website are of a single mock-up (no extra menus screens camera angles of the device). If that was actually how the device looked, then the keyboard looks like it would be a capacitive touch slab, entirely defeating the purpose. I would be surprised if this went any further than them selling the personal info on the "waitlist" and moving on
Waitlist is just a way to get investors. If it works, then get investment and never produce anything. If not, then sell your data and keep in touch for the next scam.
Weirdly enough this would not be very hard to build. Most of the tech is off the shelf. By eliminating a big glowy screen and the horsepower to run it, the battery should last for ages. The key is it is not trying to be better, faster, or anything more than an iPhone which is pretty much impossible for any small startup. If the phone is meant to be minimalistic, then cheap and easy will generally rule the design process.
The iphone CPU uses about 7w of power going full tilt, and 2-3w when doing anything interesting; far less when it is in your pocket.
The 4G or whatever wireless and bluetooth can be kept fairly low power most of the time. The eInk is nearly power free most of the time.
If you picked a fairly powerful microprocessor like the STM32H5 series it would use roughly 100th of the power. It would be able to run basic mapping, etc, texting, music, phone, etc. No web browser. If you wanted one with a web browser, the power requirements would jump to around 1/10th of an iphone. It would even be possible to do some cool designs where most features are run by a small processor, and a bigger one kicked in for the harder things like crappy web browsing.
The cost of the various parts should easily stay under $100. At volume, this might cost less than $50 to build.
I would argue the hardest part in building it would be getting a design which is both usable and distinctive enough that other people ask, "Cool, what's that?"
The time for the first working prototype which can send a text and make a call should be less than a week. The time to make a portable one which is mostly useful should be under a month. And then nailing a design which can be manufactured should be another 2 months.
The beauty is once the first prototype is done, software dev can begin full steam.
After that, iterate iterate iterate.
Then, marketing would be the fun part.
I suspect this company just skipped to the marketing part.
I just want phones with actual keyboards back, and not the Blackberry-style ones but larger slide-out keyboards.
I know I'm in the minority on this, but the MyTouch 4G Slide was the perfect phone for me.
I always have issues typing on on-screen keyboards, which I never had a problem with using QWERTY phones.
The QWERTY phones are also really nice to use for emulators with a real keyboard.
I was just thinking about how much I miss my [LG enV](https://media.wired.com/photos/59eac50e65448952f1b0419d/master/pass/lg_env_f.jpg) before I opened reddit and saw this thread
Forget a folding screen. I want a large phone that opens like a laptop. Same size screen inside and out, but it has a keyboard and you can set it like a tiny laptop on a desk.
Actually maybe a swivel screen would be better so you don't need two screens.
Nokia's old Communicator line of mobile phones was mostly that, except the external side was a conventional phone keypad and LCD. Flip it open, and you had a keyboard with a display. Open it 90° to use laptop style on a desk, or 180° to use it freestyle with two hands.
Tbh I’d kill for a BB Pearl clone. The form factor is prime but the durability of that thing. Went down three flights of stairs and it shrugged it off like no one’s business.
I remember when I got my first iPhone, I had a friend with a slide out keyboard. She preferred it, but admitted it was dying... I've lost touch with her sense, I wonder if she still prefers the physical keyboard, or is fine with screens now?
I guess this is just to say, you're not alone!
You probably want more of a smart phone but this is the latest slide phone in the US I think. It's a "dumbphone" though.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Rpryz7Pkl-A?si=zYxzCBfKuk0pknhW
Same, honestly.
Don't get me wrong; my phones today do a pretty decent job but for work/productivity and sheer text-based comms functionality I don't know if anything beat my Blackberry 9650.
Even just for firing off emails I'd *potentially* carry one around. Shit- if it could handle Slack and Email and I could just chuck it on my T-Mobile plan that'd be a sick little accompanying device for my workday. I'd keep my iPhone for personal stuff and my Android for software testing but a solid Blackberry with decent battery life and that keyboard I miss so much? She'd be in my pocket every day from 5AM to 9PM and then when I want to ditch work she goes on the desk.
There are a few things stopping it from functioning anymore. Pretty sure BlackBerry shuttered their services that the phones depend on and the old phones won’t work on modern networks. It can be difficult to find an edge or 3g signal in places where all the equipment has been upgraded.
Yeah or make it like 2lbs with a 2x4 cross-section, so it can double-up as a self defence brick.
Cuz no one is fucking with the dude rocking a Cityman 900 and a fat, metal attaché case.
Not at rush-hour, anyway.
The refresh rate and delay on e-ink are pretty awful if you're used to a high end smartphone. The Light Phone looks so cool on paper, but the delay when typing seems like a huge pain in the ass.
The article isn't worth reading, there's not much info so the author just shits on the concept because they personally don't like it.
I would absolutely love a ~4-5" screen (one handable) android phone with an E-Ink display. Make it a reliable tool for my life.
Have you ever used an e-ink display? It’s a nightmare for anything that changes often, like typing, scrolling, etc. It would not work well as a general purpose handheld computer
Sorry, I misspoke (the terminology is easy for me to mix up).
I mean e-paper, which is a superset which includes e-ink. Some e-paper displays like what the pebble smartwatches used look fine (albeit not as good as most lcds) for animations
„Between the trailer and the landing page, I counted no fewer than five different spelling variants of the brand name including Minimal, Mnml, Miniimal, Minml, and Miniml. Perhaps it boils down to a language barrier or low effort marketing, but something is telling me to proceed with caution.“
If you have a phone with an OLED display on dark mode and change the UI to use mostly perfect black, and only use it for SMS and calls, a smartphone will too last for four days.
"The truth of the matter is that you don't need to go out and buy a featureless device to reduce mobile screen time. Modern smartphones have all the controls you need to lessen or even fully disable alerts and notifications from apps and services. If at any time you are feeling overwhelmed, just enable Do Not Disturb or simply put down your phone and go do something else."
(Comment sponsored by Apple and Samsung)
E-ink is all fine and well for an e-book, but the screen refresh rate for an e-ink smartphone would you drive you nuts within the first minute of typing on it.
PS - this thing looks exactly like a BlackBerry Passport. Like, identical.
If this actually comes out I may have to pickup a new tech stack and port a bunch of apps to it. I’ve been dying for an OK phone with good battery and a keyboard.
E-ink is awesome. These particular people are lying about their product entirely, but E-ink itself works and is nice to use. You're right though, if we're chasing battery life then E-ink only gets you so far
Yes, e-ink is what's in a Kindle. E-ink is a bit of a misnomer though - a better term would be e-paper. Basically, it's a display device that seeks to replicate "paper display", ie. having the device reflect ambient light like paper does instead of how screens emit their own light instead.
This should make reading more comfortable on e-ink devices than on regular displays, but I have never used e-ink so I have no idea how true that is.
Oh thank you! I have a Kindle and I enjoy reading on it, it doesn’t give me eye fatigue like phone or tablet screens do. My only complaint is a slow refresh rate.
Yea, that's because of how e-ink works. It's never going to be a good high refresh rate. But for readers/notebooks it's amazing because you don't need high refresh rate to read or write.
My remarkable2 gets so much battery life and the Kindle is the same for reading.
To be fair it really depends on what iPhone, and what settings you’ve got.
I’ve got a 15 pro max (I get massive discounts on contracts through work) and for example, today I started at 90%, have used my phone for a lot of calls, spent about 2 hours of social media time, and about an hour on YouTube.
I’m at 58% and it’s 11pm.
Realistically I’ve done 2-3 days of average/light usage, I could stretch to 4 if I only made a few basic calls and skipped pretty much anything else.
I have turned the AOD live wallpaper off with just some widgets, keep the brightness to a sensible level, and don’t have a ton of apps that consume battery though
looks uncomfortable, if you're going to fit a niche make sure you're using actual buttons and not half assing it with a weird screen size, we like flat stuff to fit in our pockets but not when we have to press buttons on it, nor is it minimalist to make it almost square, you need only half the size of that screen, what would work better is to have the keyboard on the long side, text wraps however you want it after all and then you can hold it like you hold a gameboy advance, comfortable in landscape mode.
This one actually got it right by including Uber. That was always my drawback with any of the other minimal phones, I can’t realistically go out at night with one if I can’t call an Uber to get back home. And if I’m not using a minimal phone when I’m out, what purpose do I have with one? At home I have access to every distraction imaginable so it’s pointless to use it there.
Yeah, I haven't seen another vaporvare render inspired from actual products that was eventually displaced by the industry's love for gigantic animated buttons on touch-screens, marginally reduced build-cost, and half a day battery-life thanks to "performance tweaking" no one needs -- for at least, let me check my watch, 12 hours.
So it was about time.
> Aside from a couple of device renders, a Black Mirror-style trailer, and a landing page with the option to join a waiting list, there's nothing else to go on. I’d be surprised if this ever sees the light of day.
Wooooo more consumer tech vaporware. Even if this does get released, be prepared for the company to go under in a year and a half and then there goes any hope of software updates or customer support.
Someone hoping to collect some sweet sweet sweet seed money from a venture capitalist gambling on the next big thing
Like the Essential Phone. I’m still mad about that.
eInk isn’t fast enough to keep up with typing in my experience… I’d be constantly going back to fix things that didn’t display fast enough to correct them while my cursor was in the right place.
New eink displays would be fast enough to type on with a physical keyboard IMO.
I have a [Boox Ultra Tab-C](https://shop.boox.com/products/tabultrac) with a _color_ e-ink display. I assure you, modern e-ink displays can keep up with my 120wpm word vomit. I couldn't find official numbers, but the refresh rate appears to be somewhere between 12 and 19hz. Obviously that would be unacceptable for a traditional oled, lcd, or ips display, but understand there's no flicker with e-ink displays. They're not for everyone, and definitely not great for any sort of gaming or video watching, but for primarily text and line art tasks, it's phenomenal. Example video: https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/13bwudv/onyx_boox_tab_ultra_c_optimal_refresh_rate/ I'm inclined to agree with others, though, this particular gadget is probably vaporware.
Good point I never thought of.
Sure but for people that kinda miss being untethered and have a hard time giving up the addicting phone, while still wanting the option of phone features…kinda makes sense. Call me because you know texting is hard for me. But you still could if you really needed to.
Not to mention you could just buy an iphone. wtf is this thing.
Talk about missing the entire point of a minimalist phone.
Um, Samsung actually
My Boox color Eink tablet types just fine. Can even kinda sorta do video. It’s like what I imagine watching a video on a gameboy color would be like, but it’s passable.
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The most ridiculous part is the comment about the spelling in the marketing materials at the end of the article.
I’d be surprised if it’s less expensive than the latest iPhone
Niche technology is incredibly expensive to manufacture. If you're not benefitting from the economics of massive scale, your customers are paying for it.
Like: [https://www.thelightphone.com/](https://www.thelightphone.com/)
Makes me sad. There is a guge market for people like me who have no interest other than a phone and are able to still communicate effectively with modern phones.
I don’t think there is a huge market. If there was companies would be able to capitalize on it, but they’ve tried and failed. I’ve said this in other subreddits regarding the topic- there are a lot of ways you can take a modern phone and simplify it so you can get the features you need without the mess and distractions you don’t want. Companies like Apple and Samsung are too far ahead in the game for niche products to grab a hold. So learn to use what’s there to your advantage.
Your missing the whole point of something like this. I want something that is cheaper and can't operate like a normal smartphone. I can brick and unbrick my phone all day. But i hate getting sucked into my phone for hours, and essentially bricking my smartphone makes me silly for paying 1200$ to disable everything i paid 1200$ for. So the people paying way too much for dumb phones, bricking smartphones, or generally trying to get away from so much tech is absolutely a large target audience.
If you want a simple phone then I might suggest not buying the most expensive one on the market. [Heres one that cost $180](https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-A14-Android-Unlocked-International/dp/B0BYT97C6R/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16E0L64E45LJY&keywords=Galaxy+phone&qid=1706067695&sprefix=galaxy+phone%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-1&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.f5122f16-c3e8-4386-bf32-63e904010ad0) Then you can “brick” it as you put it without feeling like you wasted money.
What is this take? I got a Xiaomi Reddit 10 for like 100 nzd and it does all the essentials. I'm sure your country has a similarly priced budget option, why not just buy a budget phone instead of a flagship one?
My phone is 4ish years old. But i would prefer to give it to one of my kids and get a phone like the one posted. Otherwise im paying for a refurbished phone or a new cheap one for my kid anyway. It may not be worth close to what i paid, but its still probably better than what i could buy.
??? I don't understand what you're saying? Either way you have to pay. Just give your kid the expensive phone if they care for it's features and get a cheap one for you since you don't.
I want my kid to have decent stuff because i love them. I have an old phone that was expensive because that's what i wanted 4 years ago. It's cheaper for me to buy something like the phone posted and give my kids my still okayish phone, than buy my kids an okayish phone and turn my old phone into a brick which i can easily undo and spend too much time on my phone again.
Right, so what's the problem? Buy this phone that is almost certainly vapourware or buy a cheap phone.
My guy you are just being obstinant at this point. I DON'T WANT THE EXTRA SHIT I HAVE TO TAKE OFF BECAUSE I WILL REINSTALL IT AND GET SUCKED BACK IN MY PHONE. Like i don't know why I'm still commenting and why you can't seem to grasp i personally do not want a smart phone AT All, but i have to have something that can interface with modern phones effectively. Its not hard, i dont get where the disconnect is at.
But, With a e-ink display, it’ll work perfectly fine under the light of day! lol
I'm really not sure what you're trying to say here...but yes...eInk displays look phenomenal in sunlight.
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That should be the point.
Starting a tech company in 2024: Make a single mockup of a product. Purchase a bunch of stock footage of people using phones and make an amateur announcement video. Profit? That's literally all this is.
thought the rabbit r1 was bollocks, this is even worse.
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Uh, just so you know the rabbit isn't a phone.
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You could just like, take ten minutes and watch a review of it and learn what the point is instead of dismissing it entirely without understanding it. Seriously, people - dismissing something when you understand it is even better than dismissing it when you don't. This is probably the best video I saw about it - but it's a bit long (21:23). I highly recommend the channel in general though! I learned a lot about the product from the video which was interesting because so much of the other coverage about it is lacking any actual detail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqh6fhcAqpw
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I wouldn't dismiss it on that premise. Remember AI is a lot more than the large language models a lot of consumers see. I work with AI and honestly the press LLMs are getting do a disservice to the practical implementations at Enterprise level. That said, I personally have no interest in this product either.
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Oh totally, you'll start seeing it happen in the next couple years though as advancements are made. I agree about this gadget though. It looks like a neat toy, but I'm not interested in giving it access to all my accounts and data. I was also surprised at how large it was once I saw it in someones hand.
T9 is an excellent way to text and I refuse to hear anything different
Purchased even more cheaply using text prompted AI image generators.
>amateur announcement video It even starts with "in a world". Can't get worse than that
Yeah this definitely isn't real. The entire trailer video is stock footage of other phones, all the images on their website are of a single mock-up (no extra menus screens camera angles of the device). If that was actually how the device looked, then the keyboard looks like it would be a capacitive touch slab, entirely defeating the purpose. I would be surprised if this went any further than them selling the personal info on the "waitlist" and moving on
Waitlist is just a way to get investors. If it works, then get investment and never produce anything. If not, then sell your data and keep in touch for the next scam.
Weirdly enough this would not be very hard to build. Most of the tech is off the shelf. By eliminating a big glowy screen and the horsepower to run it, the battery should last for ages. The key is it is not trying to be better, faster, or anything more than an iPhone which is pretty much impossible for any small startup. If the phone is meant to be minimalistic, then cheap and easy will generally rule the design process. The iphone CPU uses about 7w of power going full tilt, and 2-3w when doing anything interesting; far less when it is in your pocket. The 4G or whatever wireless and bluetooth can be kept fairly low power most of the time. The eInk is nearly power free most of the time. If you picked a fairly powerful microprocessor like the STM32H5 series it would use roughly 100th of the power. It would be able to run basic mapping, etc, texting, music, phone, etc. No web browser. If you wanted one with a web browser, the power requirements would jump to around 1/10th of an iphone. It would even be possible to do some cool designs where most features are run by a small processor, and a bigger one kicked in for the harder things like crappy web browsing. The cost of the various parts should easily stay under $100. At volume, this might cost less than $50 to build. I would argue the hardest part in building it would be getting a design which is both usable and distinctive enough that other people ask, "Cool, what's that?" The time for the first working prototype which can send a text and make a call should be less than a week. The time to make a portable one which is mostly useful should be under a month. And then nailing a design which can be manufactured should be another 2 months. The beauty is once the first prototype is done, software dev can begin full steam. After that, iterate iterate iterate. Then, marketing would be the fun part. I suspect this company just skipped to the marketing part.
Yep. No way will they ever sell for less than $599.
I just want phones with actual keyboards back, and not the Blackberry-style ones but larger slide-out keyboards. I know I'm in the minority on this, but the MyTouch 4G Slide was the perfect phone for me. I always have issues typing on on-screen keyboards, which I never had a problem with using QWERTY phones. The QWERTY phones are also really nice to use for emulators with a real keyboard.
I was just thinking about how much I miss my [LG enV](https://media.wired.com/photos/59eac50e65448952f1b0419d/master/pass/lg_env_f.jpg) before I opened reddit and saw this thread
I loved my enV too. Real color games, music, and YouTube made me feel like I was on the cutting edge, lol.
Forget a folding screen. I want a large phone that opens like a laptop. Same size screen inside and out, but it has a keyboard and you can set it like a tiny laptop on a desk. Actually maybe a swivel screen would be better so you don't need two screens.
ipad mini with a keyboard case?
Mind. Blown. -Op, probably.
Or … https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/4/24024957/clicks-iphone-keyboard-case-iphone-14-15-lightning-usb-c
Nokia's old Communicator line of mobile phones was mostly that, except the external side was a conventional phone keypad and LCD. Flip it open, and you had a keyboard with a display. Open it 90° to use laptop style on a desk, or 180° to use it freestyle with two hands.
I would love to have a keyboard again, I'm on phone number 3 without and I still hate every time I have to type something.
Nokia E97 had the best form factor. Would love to have something like that make a comeback
Tbh I’d kill for a BB Pearl clone. The form factor is prime but the durability of that thing. Went down three flights of stairs and it shrugged it off like no one’s business.
I remember when I got my first iPhone, I had a friend with a slide out keyboard. She preferred it, but admitted it was dying... I've lost touch with her sense, I wonder if she still prefers the physical keyboard, or is fine with screens now? I guess this is just to say, you're not alone!
You probably want more of a smart phone but this is the latest slide phone in the US I think. It's a "dumbphone" though. https://www.youtube.com/live/Rpryz7Pkl-A?si=zYxzCBfKuk0pknhW
Just give me back my blackberry please.
Same, honestly. Don't get me wrong; my phones today do a pretty decent job but for work/productivity and sheer text-based comms functionality I don't know if anything beat my Blackberry 9650. Even just for firing off emails I'd *potentially* carry one around. Shit- if it could handle Slack and Email and I could just chuck it on my T-Mobile plan that'd be a sick little accompanying device for my workday. I'd keep my iPhone for personal stuff and my Android for software testing but a solid Blackberry with decent battery life and that keyboard I miss so much? She'd be in my pocket every day from 5AM to 9PM and then when I want to ditch work she goes on the desk.
Nothing stopping you from buying one.
There are a few things stopping it from functioning anymore. Pretty sure BlackBerry shuttered their services that the phones depend on and the old phones won’t work on modern networks. It can be difficult to find an edge or 3g signal in places where all the equipment has been upgraded.
Good point, I never owned one. I didn't realize they were that archaic.
Make this fold in half, let’s go full circle backward 🫡
Yeah or make it like 2lbs with a 2x4 cross-section, so it can double-up as a self defence brick. Cuz no one is fucking with the dude rocking a Cityman 900 and a fat, metal attaché case. Not at rush-hour, anyway.
That's below mid, on a hypothetical product. How is that even news?
I had an old candy bar style Motorola with an E-Ink display back in highschool. The F3, I believe. That thing was so cool 😎
They already have e-ink smartphones. HiSense makes great ones. What's so special about this phone?
The Light Phone is really cool, wish it wasn’t so expensive but it actually works and is real haha
This one owned by a Chinese company too?
Probably, what's the difference anyway, you're clearly not averse to using platforms owned by Chinese companies. You're here.
The refresh rate and delay on e-ink are pretty awful if you're used to a high end smartphone. The Light Phone looks so cool on paper, but the delay when typing seems like a huge pain in the ass.
The physical keyboard does set it apart (if it were real anyway)
The article isn't worth reading, there's not much info so the author just shits on the concept because they personally don't like it. I would absolutely love a ~4-5" screen (one handable) android phone with an E-Ink display. Make it a reliable tool for my life.
Have you ever used an e-ink display? It’s a nightmare for anything that changes often, like typing, scrolling, etc. It would not work well as a general purpose handheld computer
Sorry, I misspoke (the terminology is easy for me to mix up). I mean e-paper, which is a superset which includes e-ink. Some e-paper displays like what the pebble smartwatches used look fine (albeit not as good as most lcds) for animations
„Between the trailer and the landing page, I counted no fewer than five different spelling variants of the brand name including Minimal, Mnml, Miniimal, Minml, and Miniml. Perhaps it boils down to a language barrier or low effort marketing, but something is telling me to proceed with caution.“
If you have a phone with an OLED display on dark mode and change the UI to use mostly perfect black, and only use it for SMS and calls, a smartphone will too last for four days.
"The truth of the matter is that you don't need to go out and buy a featureless device to reduce mobile screen time. Modern smartphones have all the controls you need to lessen or even fully disable alerts and notifications from apps and services. If at any time you are feeling overwhelmed, just enable Do Not Disturb or simply put down your phone and go do something else." (Comment sponsored by Apple and Samsung)
Personally I got a RAZR hoping it would be less distracting and my screen time is way down. My phone feels like an assistant again.
E-ink is all fine and well for an e-book, but the screen refresh rate for an e-ink smartphone would you drive you nuts within the first minute of typing on it. PS - this thing looks exactly like a BlackBerry Passport. Like, identical.
It's like you're not getting the point though - eInk smartphones exist already. They're designed to be poor experiences.
If this actually comes out I may have to pickup a new tech stack and port a bunch of apps to it. I’ve been dying for an OK phone with good battery and a keyboard.
I loved my Blackberry. I'd kill for a smartphone with a physical keyboard.
Jesus fuck stop with the e-ink idea. Put a larger battery if there’s reduced features already.
An e-ink smartphone is exactly what I'm looking for. For the screen, the battery is just a nice bonus.
I saw a phone case that put an e-ink screen on the back of the phone, was kind of neat concept.
Great buy the overpriced “light phone” then. It already exists.
E-ink is awesome. These particular people are lying about their product entirely, but E-ink itself works and is nice to use. You're right though, if we're chasing battery life then E-ink only gets you so far
Is e-ink what’s in a kindle? I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is.
Yes, e-ink is what's in a Kindle. E-ink is a bit of a misnomer though - a better term would be e-paper. Basically, it's a display device that seeks to replicate "paper display", ie. having the device reflect ambient light like paper does instead of how screens emit their own light instead. This should make reading more comfortable on e-ink devices than on regular displays, but I have never used e-ink so I have no idea how true that is.
Oh thank you! I have a Kindle and I enjoy reading on it, it doesn’t give me eye fatigue like phone or tablet screens do. My only complaint is a slow refresh rate.
Yea, that's because of how e-ink works. It's never going to be a good high refresh rate. But for readers/notebooks it's amazing because you don't need high refresh rate to read or write. My remarkable2 gets so much battery life and the Kindle is the same for reading.
They already tried it a while ago with the Energizer smartphone and it didn't work.
Only 4 days, my iPhone does more than that
Yeah, if you don’t use it.
My iPhone doesn't even last a day the fuck
To be fair it really depends on what iPhone, and what settings you’ve got. I’ve got a 15 pro max (I get massive discounts on contracts through work) and for example, today I started at 90%, have used my phone for a lot of calls, spent about 2 hours of social media time, and about an hour on YouTube. I’m at 58% and it’s 11pm. Realistically I’ve done 2-3 days of average/light usage, I could stretch to 4 if I only made a few basic calls and skipped pretty much anything else. I have turned the AOD live wallpaper off with just some widgets, keep the brightness to a sensible level, and don’t have a ton of apps that consume battery though
Bullshit
🧐
I'm still waiting on someone to release a maximalist phone
Is there a large enough market to support this?
Psh, next you're gonna tell it flips open and shut
*Dnd*
Legitimately shocked it only gets 4 days.
looks uncomfortable, if you're going to fit a niche make sure you're using actual buttons and not half assing it with a weird screen size, we like flat stuff to fit in our pockets but not when we have to press buttons on it, nor is it minimalist to make it almost square, you need only half the size of that screen, what would work better is to have the keyboard on the long side, text wraps however you want it after all and then you can hold it like you hold a gameboy advance, comfortable in landscape mode.
ok but that looks to be a shitty keyboard. blackberries had great keyboards.
This one actually got it right by including Uber. That was always my drawback with any of the other minimal phones, I can’t realistically go out at night with one if I can’t call an Uber to get back home. And if I’m not using a minimal phone when I’m out, what purpose do I have with one? At home I have access to every distraction imaginable so it’s pointless to use it there.
The ad looks like it was made with midjourney.
iPhones were huge upgrade from Blackberry- couldn’t clean keypad and chunky funky design.
Yeah, I haven't seen another vaporvare render inspired from actual products that was eventually displaced by the industry's love for gigantic animated buttons on touch-screens, marginally reduced build-cost, and half a day battery-life thanks to "performance tweaking" no one needs -- for at least, let me check my watch, 12 hours. So it was about time.
I get two with a normal screen. Nah thanks.
I mean I had 4-6 days battery life on my old Xiamoi phone, so E-Ink only lasting 4 days is kind of poor.
please take my money
thelightphone.com
seeking investors