Nowadays, everyone has an Apple phone or Android. They can do anything that we can imagine, and our dependency on our phones is increasing with every passing OS-release. With the advancement of the smartphone, some may be craving simplicity.
Minimalist phones aren’t easy to come by anymore, but there are still some traditional phones out on my market. If you’re looking for a device that does the bare minimum of calling and texting or if you’re looking for a minimalist phone with some smart features, stay tuned.
Bare minimum phone
The Light Phone – this phone is a credit card sized phone that literally only makes calls. Talk about bare minimum, huh? This little guy can take forwarded calls from a smart phone app (no second number or different SIM needed) or it will work with your SIM card.
On The Light Phone website, the designers tell us it’s made to be used as little as possible. It’s made to encourage you to leave your smartphone behind and enjoy quality time doing things you love, undistracted. “Going light”, if you will.
The Light Phone will be dropping the Light Phone II July 2019 – where you can now send texts, calls and access to an alarm clock. Still, it’s designed to do the bare minimum so that you can be fully present where you are.
Features: No camera, no internet, 45-90 minutes talk and 3 days standby, 9 phone members on speed-dial, calling, texting (series 2), alarm clock (series 2).
Punkt – this fun device is made to give you freedom from the constant onslaught of designed-for-addiction notifications and other distractions. “being here, being effective” – Punkt is meant to help you stay focused on your task. Whether that’s work, play or anything in between.
Features: calling, texting, no camera,12.5 days standby battery and 4.2 hours talk, 16GB of storage.
It looks like a calculator, but is a well designed device to help you battle distractions.
New Nokia 3310 – this is your perfect dumb phone. Nokia reintroduced their classic 3310 in a new form and updated it for the modern age.
The battery life on this guy is pretty impressive and even has a 2 megapixel camera (I bet you’re impressed now, huh?).
Features: calling, texting, no internet, camera, 3G network, 22 hours of talk and 744 hours of standby battery (woah), 16MB + microSD.
Minimalist phones
Jelly Pro – Jelly Pro had a goal to bring you the worlds smallest 4G phone. And, they did. You can fit this little guy in your coin pocket, if you so desired.
This device runs the latest Android version and allows you to do most things that you can do on a flagship smartphone. You’ll probably get tired of texting on such a small screen, but it’s a nice minimal device to have with you on the weekends.
Features: calling, texting, internet, camera, 4G network, 3 days working time and 7 days standby.
Palm – this phone was designed to be the smartphone for your smartphone. Essentially, it’s a glorified Apply watch in that you can use your carrier’s add on plan to supply it with the needed sim card.
When Life Mode is turned on, your minimalist experience starts. It will shut off any notification to keep you off your phone. With this phone, it’s not a good idea to download every app your normal phone has, because then you’re defeating the whole point of the Palm. Palm is for when you need off your normal phone
Features: calling, texting, internet, camera, 4G LTE, 3 days standby and 3.5 minutes talk time battery, 16GB storage.
Blloc phone – a minimalist android experience. It’s a very customized version of Android that provides you with a monochromatic (black & white) user interface that’s easy on the eyes.
The Blloc phone unifies all of your messages apps into a single timeless so that your experience less clutter.
Features: calling, texting, internet, camera, 4G LTE, 64GB storage.