Overview
I got the
Minimal Phone by Minimal Company (it is a stupid name). Overall I quite like it. The hardware seems pretty solid, and for the most part the software is good. It is a first gen device, and it does show in some spots, but they also are running relatively stock android for both good and bad.
Background
Two years ago, I stopped carrying my phone with me all the time, and moved over to carrying a small notebook to keep track of things. Instead of going into my phone calendar, I write stuff into this notebook. I also repaired my PSP around the same time, to handle entertainment. In the past two years, I have moved more tasks off of my phone and onto dedicated devices to do those tasks. This left my phone as primarily used for communication. I have more thoughts on using dedicated devices, but I am waiting until I finish switching over to the final dedicated device before I do a write up on that. When I needed to replace my phone, going with a neo-dumbphone felt like a good fit for me.
Why I chose the Minimal Phone by Minimal Company
So there were a few features that I liked about the minimal phone compared to others:
- while more expensive than a cheap android that I do software limitations on, it felt like I was getting a device that worked for me, rather than doing a bunch of configuration to get one to work for me
- Minimal phone was significantly cheaper than the Lite Phone, and had Google Playstore access to add some apps not included that I may need
- RCS support (it is just running Google Messages)
- eInk felt like a good fit for me
- The physical keyboard intrigued me
Experience ordering the phone
I will say, that with it being a new company, there were several delays in receiving the phone. They had a manufacturing issue that pushed back my phone a month, and there was no communication about it until I reached out. It would have been nice if they notified me about this ahead of time, but being a new company, I will extend some grace. Shipping was handled by some no-name company, so tracking was sparse and it seemed to be delayed a few times and was quite slow (took 2 days from Hong Kong to Vancouver Canada, but then two weeks from Vancouver to the Canadian prairies).
Software Impressions
Overall, I have been pleased with the software. It is running stock android, with a custom app launcher, and another custom app to configure screen settings. They did not over commit on the software, and instead focused on just providing a few well polished apps. I think there is some room for future bug fixes and potentially some more first party apps, but overall I am glad they went in this direction. Since it is pretty stock Android, I feel that future OS updates should be easy (they did commit to 5 years support, but that also relies on the company lasting 5 years). The default Android settings out of the box did not render well on eInk display (scrolling is rough compared to pagination) but one I tweaked some screen settings it got better. Overall, some rough edges, and a noticeable negative difference when leaving first party apps (which is mandatory as first party is so small), but nothing deal breaking.
Hardware
The hardware has been quite good. The eInk screen puts less strain on performance, as nothing needs to be extremely snappy since the screen can't keep up. The physical keyboard has been good, although I do feel that the shift key and the alt key should be reversed. The battery was advertised as a four day battery, but in my use case, it has been a comfortable two day battery (ending the second day with about 25%). I feel that in the coming weeks I may get closer to a three day battery, as the novelty wears off and I use it less. The camera is pretty weak, but I have not liked taking pictures on my phone anyways, so I am not concerned about it. The display has been really nice. I have never really used eInk screens for an extended time before, but it just feels quiet if that makes sense. With it being eInk, it sometimes does not fully refresh the screen, but there is a screen refresh button if needed. Overall, I have been quite impressed with the hardware. There are a few layout decisions they made that I feel I would have chosen differently, but nothing deal breaking.
Summary
It is a first gen device and sometimes shows the rough edges, but no major issues and I have quite enjoyed it. We will see how I feel about it in a month or two, but I think this type of device is probably what I will continue using for several years.
The money quote. :-)
While I have a social media "compulsion", that is primarily while I am on my computer - not my phone.
I primarily use my phone to
I've used an e-ink screen on my Kindle Paperwhite for years. I love it for reading novels.
I've read a lot about dumb-phones on Reddit.
I think it is great that they are there for people looking to improve their sanity.
I have a problem with paying more for less, though I would pay a few shekels more for a regular smart phone that wasn't loaded with software I didn't ask for and can't remove.
I viewed it more as paying more to get something that properly fits my needs. I was looking at a $200 Samsung phone that I could configure to fit my needs, but be filled with compromises, or spend $400 to get a device that fits my needs out of the box, and have way less compromises. I felt that I was not paying more for less, but instead paying more for it to fit my needs and preferences better.
Part of not having my phone on me all the time is that I have had to learn to embrace boredom. If I know I will have significant down time ahead of time, I may bring my PSP, but also I have just learned to sit and be bored.
I didn't realize that the Minimal Phone had access to the play store, and I've looked into it before. May have to take a look again if my love affair with the Unihertz Titan 21 is short-lived once it is delivered in October.
1: Unihertz Titan 2 is an android phone w/ a 1:1 4.5" screen on the front, a tactile keyboard in style of the blackberry of yore, and a secondary small screen on the back. Beyond excited for it. Reviews have been great, check it out.
It is one of its better features. All these dumbphones come with what they think are the "essential apps" but everyone has a different list of essential apps. I remember a post on Tildes a few months ago about The Sidephone, which had such a weird collection of the "essential apps" (Apple Music on an Android phone). Minimal Phone takes the approach that having access to the play store allows people to define what their essential apps are and install them.
Well phone without banking apps is useless and I don't expect anyone's selection of essential apps to contain banking apps from our tiny country.
I would disagree with that. I haven't used a banking app on my phone for probably 6 months now. I just do a lot of my banking on my desktop. For depositing cheques (which I do somewhat regularly), I just have to go to an ATM at my bank, but there is one across the street from my grocery store so it is not too much of a hassle
It's personal of course, but it also highly depends on the banking system of the country. Depositing cheques simply isn't a thing here, in fact cheques haven't been a thing here for at least a decade, if not two.
Basically all banking here is digital, see the first half of this comment for a bit more. While you can of course do banking on a desktop computer, in order to log in you effectively need the app for many banks. I just checked for mine and in theory they provide a device that can be used for the second factor, but the process of requesting it is quite opaque.
So, long story short, having the ability to install a banking app really is a selling point ;)
I did not realize that some other countries have digitized (and to a sense it seems mobile-centric as well) their banking systems. Here in Canada, for banking using a mobile app is an option, and less so a requirement.
Yea, I should have probably mentioned this is in the EU. EU pushes (quite foolishly in my opinion) for every banking operation to be confirmed via 2FA using exclusively android or apple devices with respective apps, which are often quite picky about the phones they support.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. Was looking at it recently. I am not sure if I am ready to pull the plug on the iPhone, but I dumbed it down to a great extent. From monochrome theme, to drastically limiting notifications, to deleting any apps that are time wasters.
Yeah, I think there are kind of two things that lined up well for me to make the switch, that sounds like makes it harder for you. The first is I was already using Android, so didn't have to do that swap. The second is that I was needing a new phone regardless. Especially with iOS, you can do a decent amount of customizations to help. My wife has been using a combination of app screen timers, and greyscale with shortcuts to turn to colour for specific apps (like camera/photos).
Has she also used something like Brick to manually disable apps? I just got one yesterday and it's been great so far
She hasn't, she just gets me to set the parental lock password. There are a few things that she has struggled to properly configure how she wants it, but overall has worked well for her. I do think doing a trial run of software limitations, and then going with a hardware limitation once your phone needs replacing is the best approach, rather than prematurely replacing your phone.
yeah, brick is a hardware-based limitation. it's an nfc tag-like thing that you tap and it completely blocks you from being able to use the apps. It's been the ultimate focus maker for me. Like I feel like if my wife would set the parental lock password, the resentment and fear would almost kinda layer on top of my wife, whereas now, I can only hate this object.
Not to be a shill for Brick which it sounds like I'm being. I think I'm still just trying to sort out more and justify to myself this purchase
I have also been using the Minimal Phone as my main device for about 3 months now and just took it on a week long trip to Ireland! I plan to do a write up on the experience but the short of it is that its been great to use. I actually have 2 of them and plan to post my second one online for sale but if anyone on here is interested feel free to reach out!
I also just found out that the space button on the keyboard does not work in the Three Cheers app which I've never seen before so thats interesting. i had to type this up in a note and then copy/paste.
That is quite the bug. I have found that while the keyboard in general works great, there are occasionally some rough edges. I feel like some of the button layouts are not what I prefer, but otherwise it is nice. Also, with the slower refresh display, looking at the keyboard while typing instead of the screen helps (but I did switch the refresh to hybrid which has helped a lot as well).
Wow, this phone is fascinating to me!
When i first heard of the Lite phone, i thought it was cool, but its constraints were too much for me...I'm on a sort of digital minimalism journey, and would like to have a more basic mobile phone that is still solid...But now this Minimal phone seems much more like a middle ground. Very interesting!
The only thing i worry about is the screen being slow...i say that never really having ever had a kindle or any other eInk device. So, i guess i'd have to play around with it in real life to determine if it woulkd be an issue or not.
Also, i'm not a die hard fan of physical keyboards anymore. I used to love them back in the day, and very much hated when phone manufacturerers moved away from. (My partner is a superfan of physical keyboards...and would likely hop on this phone right away because of it having this keybaord!) but, if all other things being fine with this phone (like the screen ending up not being an issue), then the presence of a physical keyboard is certainly not a deal breaker.
As far as the cost, it actually does not seem outrageous to me. Yeah, i agree with comments that costs should be lesser if there are less things included....but i also can not argue with the premise that maybe paying a tiny bit more for "better suited/better fitting" device might be justified? So, am torn for what a phone like this should cost. In any case, if i had to choose between say some other neo-dumb phone vs Lite phone vs Minimal phone, there would be no contest for me to gladly pay for Minimal phone!
I guess i'm going to have to do a little more research on this phone!
EDIT: And, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this phone!!! :-)
I'm quite particular about my screens, I've sent monitors back for issues others don't even see. If I had gotten a switch 2, I'd have returned it over the slow color transition times.
Which is to contextualize when I say that the refresh/drawing speed on eInk displays doesn't bother me. When I pick one up though, I'm not watching video or scrolling web pages, I'm reading text. It is rather pleasant for static frames since it doesn't rely on beaming light into my face. On my old paperwhite Kindle, it takes a moment to display a new frame, but still nearer to 100ms than 1sec.
If smooth animations are important to you, then eInk screens may be a bother, and so the third party apps may be cumbersome if they are overly reliant on motion and animations. If you are already minimizing your phone usage though, then you may not even need to use a third party app that would cause such issues.
All this is to say, don't fear the eInk! Embrace the comfort!
Thanks so much; this was very helpful!!
It depends on what you try and do with your device. Before switching to this phone, I was running my phone in greyscale about 95% of the time. So I was use to not operating with colour. However, readability of images on an OLED with greyscale is significantly higher than on an eInk. I think it just depends on how you want to use your device. For me, I just want to be text-centric on my phone, so an eInk fits that well. I did get an email today that there is an update coming out soon to improve performance of the screen, but never make decisions on future promises (especially with a new and small company so unsure if they will be in business to bring those promises to fruition).
Saw this today and I thought it belonged here.
https://i.postimg.cc/9MHYHCTs/f21f36c74bc65993.jpg
That kind of captures why I want separate dedicated devices. Especially with music, I want to just sit and listen to music, but it is playing off of my phone or computer, so I end up just browsing the internet while I am at it, then 20min later I notice I haven't been paying attention to the music.
That's an interesting assessment. I've been curious what gap these new sort of minimalist phones try to fill. Especially since there is still a sizable market for feature phones that you can get for well under $50. And if they run KaiOS, then you can load quite a few essential smart apps like Instant Messengers or music streaming. (Fun fact: KaiOS is actually a fork of the old FirefoxOS that was developed to rival Android and was discontinued almost 10 years ago.)
I love e-ink and simplified devices. But if limited functionality is the value proposition, it would be interesting to compare these niche products with the lowest end options on the market.
I think the value is that they provide compared to a feature phone is a good texting experience without all the other stuff that a smartphone has. I looked into getting a feature phone, but my concern was on having a good texting experience, especially as recent Android updates have made group chats not a painful mess.
I think the proposition is less so that they are limited, and more so that they are tailored to suit the needs better. As I commented elsewhere, I could do software limitations on a low-end Android and get close to the same result, but it would be filled with compromises. Instead, going with a device like this while paying more, it has less compromises.