Hacker News Reader

Comment by pimterry | Hacker News Reader

Some scepticism here I see, but personally I think this is spot-on. I've been keen on a dumber phone for a while, but losing whatsapp & maps makes it a non-starter for any real use. This is an excellent middle ground. The aesthetic is cool, and building this on Sailfish but with Android compatibility is awesome. Big fan of the concept.

View on HN

Phone like this, especially with whatsapp, is something I can imagine giving to my kids once they are older. They would love the design 1000x more than what biggest players bring on the market these days. Maps & whatsapp cover basically 99% of the needs I want them to be covered (contact with optional video & navigation).

Full phone? No thank you, its enough to look around how it ends up.

The skepticism isn't around the concept (for some) - it's the bonkers $500 price tag when you can go get a 5G military grade waterproof flip phone with a very robust removable battery and much more impressive tech/stats for $200.

I’d be interested in this military grade phone, where can one acquire it?

There are several phones that fit the description, but I was thinking specifically of the Sonim XP3plus 5G.

Exactly. But clearly we - people who are cost conscious about getting their money's worth - aren't the target market for these "niche" devices. Which is sad, as there is a real market for a reasonably priced device like this that many would buy as a "second" phone (and maybe even make it their primary phone). Just look at all the Nokia / HMD kind-of "premium" "feature phones" (calling them "dumb phones" is silly) still sold for around $150 - $250. The only reason that they aren't as "popular" now is because the Symbian OS or KaiOS they use is lacking in many aspects. And HMD (and others) don't understanding the user needs (for example, selling such 4G phones that don't even have the ability to be a hotspot device).

For me, Id say that whatsapp is the phone. It’s so much better than pstn…

maps exist, you must have missed that... as for whatsapp, I have never used it once, and yet my phone provides "real use" (whatever that means).

Try to understand that the person you're replying to clearly has different needs than you do.

That person might have a narrow, blinkered view, in which maps on a phone are essential, unable to understand that other people don't care.

The more obvious lack of understanding is yours w/r/t the scope of what they wrote.

re-read my comment.. you're confused about what my response means apparently.

You are not a representative user, at least in a country where WhatsApp is dominant.

I guess you only saw whatsapp in my comment and missed the rest of it.

Only? It was half your comment. The point is that the amount of "real use" (I think we can all guess at a good-enough definition) of a phone without WhatsApp in a country where it's pervasive is not enough for most people. And what do you mean by "maps exist"? Paper maps?

Many countries don't use SMS, they use WhatsApp, for almost everything, from chatting with family and friends, to business contacts, to talking with your bank manager, to medical appointments, to 2FA, and even to transfer money.

That's what prevents most people on those countries from having a dumb phone, and forces even the most illiterate of 90yo great-grandmothers to learn how to navigate around Android or iOS, all the while placing uncountable many calls to their great-grandchildren because they opened up some random app by accident and don't remember how to get back to the only thing that matters: WhatsApp (talking from experience here).

A WhatsApp-capable quasi-dumb-phone would be a godsend for such places, provided it's cheap enough. At $500 this one definitely isn't, not when an ultra-cheap Android smartphone capable of running WhatsApp costs $90. But if this one sells well, cheaper ones may become viable down the line due to economies of scale. I surely hope that happens.

As long as Meta owns WhatsApp, don’t hold your breath.

They operate the service to get your personal data into the hands of their customers (advertisers) so why would they support a dumb client that is designed to be incompatible with their business model

WhatsApp messages are end to end encrypted.

It doesn't have the same business model as the rest of Meta (which by the way, is to get advertisers products in front of users eyeballs, optimized by their personal data. Not to hand said personal data over to advertisers or anybody else, which would be a bit dumb as it's Meta's crown jewels)

"Someone who has never used WhatsApp" is also known as "an American".

It specifically mention both Whatsapp and maps as being available, but to me the dealbreaker is blocking browsers. When I am out, I use the browser a lot, need to find if this is a good restaurant, or a good product to buy, what was actor form the 80's tv show?... Like I understand why the would not have one preinstalled, but preventing me from installing it??

No way, and then add the pricetag... I do hope it fails just because I don't want people to think that the solution to today's walled gardens is "differently walled gardens".

If that's what you need, you can simply buy a conventional smartphone. Conventional smartphones are available in flip-phone form factors, although I personally consider trying to browse the web from one to be a gigantic pain.

Yeah me too. It felt like it was designed exclusively for me, it ticks all the boxes in what a dumb phone should and shouldn't have in terms of functionality.

I'm perhaps misinterpreting your comment, but from the FAQ:

> Callback includes SMS, WhatsApp, [..]

> Callback includes Pure Maps, a popular Sailfish navigation app, and is compatible with several Android map, navigation, and transport apps, including Uber and Lyft.

For me, Maps and pods.

If it looked like a RAZR, I'd buy one today

Reply on news.ycombinator.com