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Comment by mydriasis | Hacker News Reader

Not only will I not be upgrading to another smartphone, I'm two months in on my dumb phone. It's been an incredible and liberating experience. Not only am I not glued to the smartphone anymore, my phone bill is now $15 / month, haha.

If you're thinking about ditching your smartphone, now is a great time. There are lots of options out there.

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I’m not glued to my phone as I ditched most social media years ago. It’s still great to have as a travel camera (even night photos look good now), use google maps, have a browser on a decent screen when needed, and for podcasts when I take a daily walk. It’s social media itself that kept me glued to my screen. It’s also liberating to take pictures in a relaxed way for yourself and not worry about getting the perfect shot to share. It helps keep you in the moment.

This is where I've landed too. No need to give up the capabilities of a smart phone; some of them are legitimately very useful at times (maps, driving directions, being able to look up business hours or a phone number while on-the-go, authentication stuff). I just stopped using it to browse the web for entertainment. Having a very limited data plan, like 500 MB, helps with that and saves money. In his book Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport advises adding friction like uninstalling apps, not remaining logged in to websites, etc.

You should be able to do a lot better than $15/month for a dumb phone. I have a smartphone that I mostly use like a dumb phone, and my cost is $5/month for 500 minutes and 500 MB of data. The provider is Red Pocket, and it's an annual ($60/year) GSMA (i.e. AT&T) plan.

It's tempting, but I don't think I can give up Google Maps and the various chat apps I use.

If you have the willpower, an acceptable middle ground might be dropping your data plan. I've got a Pixel, but my plan is also ~~$15/mo~~ $25/mo. This covers more than enough for maps and music, but I've had to remove social media to stop auto-playing videos. I find it's the best of both worlds!

(Edit: Checked my invoice, and I'm not receiving one of the discounts I was expecting.)

If this $15/mo plan you have is available to US residents, can you please share details?

I am on mint mobile (an MVNO of t-mobile) for 5gb a month for $15. I think you have to do 6 months at a time to get the $15 a month but that isn't a big deal. My service is good but does suffers when I go places that are really crowded but that doesn't bother me.

I'm on the smallest Verizon prepaid plan. Just checked, and I'm misreading the specifics, as it's actually $25/mo for 15GB. Sorry!

Starts at $35/mo, and includes a $10 discount for autopay. I was expecting an addition $10 rebate, but apparently I'd need to add an extra line for that.

Thanks.

My phone bill is about $15/month and I have a smartphone. Lots of good prepaid plans

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