I consider my dumbphone experience over since, while my actual phone is still a dumbphone, my days of serenity, tranquility and peace are over since I got a tablet and am now staring into an Internet all day every day.
I’m still interested in the topic.
There are some dumbphones out there and they are all competing on the features. Timers, calendars, huge screens etc. Where do you draw the line? “Please include a such and such app.”
A phone is essentially a legacy device to connect to the proprietary old phone network. It needs to do what only it can do. Calls, texts, and cellular networking (like a hotspot or USB modem).
That’s it.
Phones that don’t receive texts are charming but hopeless because deliveries and government still use SMS. Vice versa if they don’t call.
After writing that I went almost four years with phones that still didn’t have hotspot and I was fine, and then I finally got one that did and I’ve found that I use it a few times a year. It’s a great feature that makes a phone better but it’s not necessary so the two things a phone needs to do is call and text. And then hotspot as a huge plus. And maybe it comes across as incredibly [“why don’t they eat brioche instead?”] since it seems like I’m talking about [luxurious] companion devices like a laptop, a tablet, or a game console to do web or maps or mail stuff on.
But that’s the fourth necessary thing. Being able to walk away. If the phone has an on-device app store that lets me install a browser, or install an app that from the help or about page or whatever opens a browser, that makes it a no-go. I so often hear “Why can’t I find the perfect dumbphone device for me it still needs to do this this this this and this” (usually [propriatery silo apps] that made [the Franklin Street folks] cry and I was happy and had lots of options because I only needed two things with hotspot being a nice-to-have third bonus feature. But now I need to also double check that the phone can let me be bored. That it doesn’t have a sneaky way to right-there-on-the-train put me on the web or pull me into its rabbit holes. That, if it even does apps, it’s something I have to decide to pack or not pack at home. For example, I’ve found a Termux app to be a great install for a weeklong trip so I can SSH home and check emails once a day. I do not want it for shorter trips and I don’t even wanna be able to install it on-the-fly. I want to be at home when I make the decision whether or not a given trip is gonna have it or not.