Why are so many people turning to ‘dumbphones’?

> But then my 5s is not much better than a Nokia. It can’t support iOS 14, which means that most apps are beyond it. And for some mysterious reason it will only send and receive messages, even via SMS, when it’s connected to wifi. And when I turn on mobile data, it promptly switches off.

So the actual problem is the lack of updates and lack of user freedom which can be provided with free software.

> But such is built-in obsolescence, pretty soon I’ll have to get a new phone.

Same as above. These problems are solved with GNU/Linux phones (Librem 5 and Pinephone) which run mainline Linux kernel and will receive lifetime updates.

Recently I have written a comment on HN about choosing a dumbphone [1], might be useful for you if you are going to use one.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30800379

Thanks for sharing

> Dumbphones can call and text and, if you have a computer, that’s really all you need.

Then you don't need a dumbphone either, you can also do that from a computer.