NEWS – As someone who owned a Windows Mobile phone before the first iPhone ever hit the market, you could say I’ve tended to surf the bleeding edge of mobile phone technology (for better or for worse). The last few years I’ve owned no less than four different folding phone models, but even though I love my OnePlus Open dearly, I can also see the detrimental effects that being glued to a screen all day and night has on my brain. Like most people, social media algorithms tend to serve up infuriating news (and an increasingly alarming amount of misinformation) along with funny animal videos, resulting in heightened emotions across the spectrum. The Minimal Phone is a potential newcomer that appeals to me for many reasons like the ability to disconnect from everything but important messages and calls from family and friends, so I dearly hope it actually gets made. It’s advertised to have a 4-day battery life, a greyscale e-ink screen, and an actual tactile physical keyboard. Renders posted on their Reddit page a few days ago teasing the UI design, which is built on Android.
I hope the price point is appealing when and if this makes it to market! I love the idea of returning to a physical keyboard as well, I miss those. If you’re eagerly hoping for something like this in your life, you can read more and sign up for their waitlist here: tryminimal.com
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Alright, Matt. You got me. I signed up for the waitlist to see what becomes of this!
Right? If it’s at a good price when released I’m going to really consider it, I’m on my phone way too much while with our toddler and I think I’d be able to be a lot more present with a minimalistic device like this!
I’m intrigued. I already try to minimize my smartphone usage, especially doom-scrolling, but that can still creep in from time to time. I’m curious how this will pan out and whether it will support some of the basic Android apps I’d need for work while still being minimal.
Agreed, ideally it will be able to access the entire Android Play store and the reduction of doom-scrolling is simply due to the limitations of a smaller black and white screen?