Latest news with #LightPhoneIII
Engadget
09-05-2025
- Engadget
Light Phone III review: Minimalism stretched to the point of frustration
Like untold millions of smartphone users, I have a bit of a problem. I've been trying, with middling success, to be more mindful about how I use my phone. I'll often uninstall various social media apps (but reinstall them later), and I've disconnected all my work tools unless I'm traveling specifically for the job. I don't play games without intention or doomscroll very much. But I still find myself mindlessly reaching for it when there's a moment to fill, and I don't love that habit. I don't think I'm completely addicted to my iPhone; my Screen Time stats put daily usage around two to three hours. That's less than I've seen a lot of people post on social media, but it's still significant. I've been intrigued by the Light Phone III since I first saw some previews for it last year. As the name suggests, it's the third phone by Brooklyn-based startup Light, and the ethos remains the same. It has no "infinite scroll' apps like email, social media, a web browser or most everything else that defines a modern smartphone. It's designed for quick interactions so you can pick it up, respond to a call or message, maybe get directions or put on a song and then get back to life. However, there are a lot of improvements compared to prior Light Phones that made it feel a lot more viable to me. Specifically, there's a camera, the screen is OLED instead of E Ink and the wider, more responsive display is better suited to text input. It also looks cool in a minimalist way, and has some nicely responsive physical buttons in a world when those are becoming increasingly rare. I've been using the $599 Light Phone III since late March, and my plan was to fully commit to it — but the practicality of doing so was surprisingly difficult. Based on my experience, it's going to be a tough sell for a lot of people who use a smartphone for basics or things only specific apps can deliver. The Light Phone III isn't quite ready to be most people's only device, but I wish it could be. The Light Phone III is a well-designed device that can help you break your smartphone addiction, but it makes some major compromises. $599 at Light In general, the Light Phone III reminds me a little bit of the very first iPhone — a device with maybe 16 built-in apps and nothing else. Of course, the iPhone had time-wasters like YouTube, an email client and a web browser, but that device was not nearly the attention-hog that modern smartphones are. In the same way, Light picked specific tools that it feels most people will need while keeping everything as simple and bare-bones as possible. The idea is that instead of a device filled with apps constantly notifying you and trying to grab your attention, the Light Phone is focused on intentional use so you aren't constantly picking up your phone. That shows up in a variety of ways, from the basic block form factor to the fact that LightOS (based on Android, but you'd never know it) is literally white text on a black background. The only time you see color is if you open the camera or look at photos. But the most important thing is the extremely basic set of tools you can install on the device. Here's a full list in addition to the settings and phone / text messages apps: Alarm Album Calculator Calendar Camera Directions Directory Hotspot Music Notes Podcasts Timer If you want, you can literally just have the phone app, which also includes your contacts list and text messages. In 2025, that's wildly sparse. And you can see by the above list that none of these are things you're going to lose lots of time using. The austere approach doesn't just apply to the limited set of tools, either — it shows up in how each one is designed. For example, the Alarm tool doesn't have a snooze button. If you're using it as a wake up call, you had better get up when it goes off. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Before digging into what using this odd little device is like, let's run through its minimalist hardware. The Light Phone III is a chunky rectangle of a phone that's significantly shorter and thicker than what I'm used to. It's 12mm thick, compared to 7.8mm for the iPhone 16e or about 10mm for the Pixel 9a. But while the Light Phone III is about the same width as a modern iPhone, it's only 106mm tall, which is shorter than, say, the iPhone 16e (147mm). That makes the phone look a lot larger in images than it is in reality, because we're used to assuming a phone includes a 6-ish inch display. That's not the case here. The front is dominated by the screen, but I haven't used a phone with a display this small in years. It's a 3.92-inch AMOLED panel with matte glass and 1,080 x 1,240 resolution, and the rest of the front is filled out by two large bezels. The top one houses an earpiece and selfie camera, while the bottom has a surprisingly solid-sounding speaker. On the back, you'll find the modest 5-megapixel camera with a flash; the bottom 60 percent is where the user-replaceable battery lives. Another thing that makes the Light Phone stand out is its plethora of buttons, which is a rarity in the modern era. There's a power button with a fingerprint sensor on the top right corner, but unfortunately that sensor hasn't yet been activated in LightOS. The right side has a home button, with circular volume up and down keys surrounding it. Near the bottom right edge is a two-stage camera button, which is a rather surprising inclusion. Pressing it opens the camera app no matter what you're doing, and you can push it halfway down to activate the center focus point before depressing it all the way to take your picture. Finally, on the upper left corner is a button that turns on the flashlight; it's surrounded by a dial you can turn to adjust screen brightness. I have never felt like I needed my phone's flashlight enough for it to have a dedicated button, and of all the buttons this is the one I accidentally activated the most. But, the dial for screen brightness is pretty handy. The Light Phone is powered by Qualcomm's SM 4450 processor with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It also supports 5G networks in addition to LTE, and the phone is rounded out with the usual array of sensors: GPS, Bluetooth 5.0 and NFC. And, of course, there's a USB-C port at the bottom for charging and limited connectivity with a computer. Since the Light Phone's battery is removable, it's not nearly as large as the ones you'll find in most modern smartphones. You'll naturally be doing a lot less with this phone, though, so it's not a huge problem. I easily got multiple days of use from the Light Phone unless I was using navigation a lot. That drained the battery pretty quickly, so if you intend on using it for your GPS on a longer car trip, make sure you have a charging port for it while you drive. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Setting up a Light Phone III involves going to an online dashboard where you'll activate your phone. Once that's done, this is also where you can configure various tools and do things like add music and podcasts. There are minimal settings to fiddle with on the phone itself — you can adjust volume for various notifications like the phone ringer, alarms or media, or turn the hotspot on or off. There are the usual options for managing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections or updating the software, but it's a far slimmer menu than you'll find on an iPhone or Android device. From the dashboard, I added all of the Light Phone's available tools and dug into the process of moving contacts and music over. I was hoping that the phone would just show up as a USB device when I plugged it into my computer so I could drag some MP3s over, but, alas, that's not the case. Managing content on the Light Phone requires using the dashboard; it shows every tool you have installed and clicking on them lets you upload songs or import contacts. This was where I hit my first major friction point. I love music and am a bit obsessive over it, so being able to play songs on the go is absolutely crucial to me. I still buy music on Bandcamp sometimes and also have a big library of MP3s from the pre-streaming days, so I had plenty of tunes to add to my Light Phone. Sure, it wouldn't be the same as having access to the millions of songs on Apple Music or Spotify, but I was okay with a bit of a philosophical switch. After all, how many songs do you really need at a time? Turns out the big issue isn't having fewer songs — it's how minimal both the music player and song uploader are. On the dashboard, you can add songs from your computer, but they all get dumped in one giant playlist. You can re-order things there, but that's the only semblance of organization. I had hoped that the Light Phone's music player would have an iPod sort of interface so you could use tags to dig into artists and albums, but no such luck. You can search for a song, and if you tap it to play it'll play everything following — that was the only way I could approximate the experience of listening to an album. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Making things even more challenging is the fact that songs aren't necessarily uploaded to the phone in any semblance of order. So even if your files are properly named, that ordering isn't always reflected in the final upload. I resorted to adding an album and then using the web dashboard interface to make sure the songs were in the proper order. That's worse than the experience I had using an iPod in 2003. To have to do this in 2025 is wild . To be fair, the Light Phone creators told me that this software is a holdover from the Light Phone II, which could only hold 1GB of music, like an old iPod Shuffle. It wasn't really meant for browsing a large library, but instead was just meant to give you a quick selection of tunes in a pinch. And the company is actively working on a new player with artist/album sorting, custom playlists and letting you load files via USB-C. That would go a long way towards making it more useful. The good news is that sound quality was great and I could pair my AirPods Pro with zero issues. Another worry I had was how the Light Phone's mapping and navigation tools would hold up. I am perpetually lost and also recently moved, so I often rely on turn-by-turn to figure out where I'm going. While the Directions tool is quite basic, it's enough to get the job done. Opening it up simply shows two fields to enter where you are and where you're going (it can also pull your current location via GPS). There's also a selector for whether you're driving, walking or using public transportation. While the latter two options basically just return a list of directions, driving gives you a proper map view and navigation alerts. When I used it while driving around, the map view was mostly clear and the directions were accurate enough to get me to my destination. It's all powered by Here location services, which have been around for ages and seem pretty good in my corner of the US. Light pairs the Directions tool with a Directory that is its one concession to the search-powered world we live in. You can search for general terms (coffee) or specifics (Starbucks) and get a spread of results. Tapping on them shows some basic info like the address, hours, phone number and a basic description, and you can tap the map icon to send that place into the Directions app. It all works better than I expected for getting around, though both Google and Apple Maps are better at giving you real-time updates on public transit. I rely on real-time data for city buses, which makes the simple transit options on the Light Phone a bit hard to adjust to. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget This ethos unsurprisingly permeates every tool on the phone. As I mentioned earlier, the Alarm has no snooze button, but you can set multiple alarms. You can sync your Google calendar to the phone. But if you have a few calendars in your account (work, family, etc.), you can only see the default one. There's a basic Notes app, but you can't do things like attach photos to entries. I can't say I have a problem with any of this, because that's the whole point of the Light Phone — you know limitations are part of the equation going in. There are two crucial features I haven't gotten to yet: the camera and the phone. This is the first Light Phone with a camera; there's a 50-megapixel one on the back (images are binned and output at 12 megapixels) and an 8-megapixel one on the front for selfies. The company's blog shows off a bunch of samples and talks about the process they've used to tune the camera's output. Suffice it to say that these images are wildly different from the heavily processed results you'll get from most modern smartphones. In good light, the Light Phone's photos look decent enough but clearly lack the fine detail we're used to these days. It's the kind of camera that you can use in a pinch, but you'll find it lacking if you're at all serious about photography. For me the issue is less about the image quality, which has its own lo-fi charm, and more about the camera's responsiveness. Light included a dedicated camera button, making it exceedingly simple to quickly shoot an image. But, once you have your scene framed up and press the shutter button, it takes between one and three seconds for the camera to actually take the photo. That's an eternity and it makes the camera impossible to use for anything where movement is involved. I'm glad the Light Phone III has a camera. But it brings me back to a time when phone cameras were useful but filled with compromises. I could live with the aesthetics of the images if the camera was more responsive, but the lag just kills it. If I used the Light Phone full time, I'd probably use my proper camera way more often — which might be a good thing! But I'd definitely miss the convenience of taking quality photos in a pinch from my phone. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Some 15 or 20 years ago, cell phones were mostly meant for talking and texting, remember? The Light Phone III is a great device for phone calls, and a mediocre one for texting. In my testing, calls were clear and easy to hear on both ends, and the built-in speaker is surprisingly usable when you don't feel like holding something up (please, stop using speaker phone so much in public, people!). The contacts section of the app is, of course, minimal: just names and phone numbers. As such, this cannot replace an address book or modern contact list. For most people I care about, I need to store at least a phone number, address and email. There's of course no need for an email address on the Light Phone, but an address field would be great so you can quickly pull up directions to a friend's house. If the Light Phone's music player was a letdown, trying to text was the fatal flaw that killed my dream of using this device full time. Compared to the Light Phone II, this new model is significantly easier to text with. The more responsive and wider OLED screen means the keyboard is similar in size to the ones you'll find on an iPhone or Android device. The messaging app also does some smart things, like automatically sending links and photos people share to your email address so you can engage with them on your computer. But there's no autocorrect. And if you haven't tried to text on a phone without autocorrect lately, let me tell you — it sucks. Nathan Ingraham for Engadget The internet is full of people complaining about bizarre autocorrect mistakes, but what goes unnoticed is how it hangs out in the background actually makes the majority of our messages far clearer. If I try to text at a speed similar to that on my iPhone, my messages are riddled with typos. Even when I slow down it's still very easy to misfire, necessitating frustrating edits to fix things. There's a spell-check feature built in, so words that I biffed were at least underlined. A long press on them gave me a few options to correct things, but the time it took me to compose and send messages was significantly longer than on a modern device. The keyboard layout itself is fine and took little time to adjust to, but I never felt comfortable because I was always making and fixing mistakes. The other half of this issue is more philosophical. Back in the day, we used texts to send quick updates to people; having lengthy conversations was not the norm. That changed even before the advent of smartphones and I have friends whose speed at texting using T9 was impressive. But still, phones just weren't meant for that. At this point, though, whether it's in WhatsApp or Telegram or Signal or your phone's built-in messaging system, we have ongoing conversations that go with us everywhere. The Light Phone is a return towards using messaging for quick check-ins and updates, perhaps as precursors to an actual phone (or in-person!) conversation. But trust me when I say that keeping up with a group conversation will be an exercise in frustration with the Light Phone. I can live with the minimalist interface, limited emoji selection and inability to send anything besides plain text and photos if I could type faster — but I can't. You'll need to fundamentally re-think your relationship with how you use messaging on a phone. Which is kind of the point of this whole exercise. I can blame the music player or lack of autocorrect, but ultimately I was not ready for how radically different the Light Phone III experience is. There were a host of practical considerations that kept me from fully buying in. I need two-factor authentication apps for a lot of services I use. If I wanted to go to a concert, I'd need a smartphone for tickets. I don't deal with checks often, but I can't remember the last time I deposited one at a bank instead of on my phone. I'm going on vacation soon and want to be able to take good photos without dragging my camera around. I could figure out the necessary work-arounds for almost all of these things. Maybe the updated music player Light is working on would be enough for me when it comes out. I'd probably get used to the keyboard eventually, to some degree. I could use my 'real' camera more, probably leading to better and more thoughtful photos. I could get a work phone through our parent company to use for authentication. The point is that while there are ways around these things, implementing them involves a ton of work. And unfortunately, now that eSIM has taken over, it's not as simple as just popping a SIM card into my iPhone if I needed it for some of these things and then dropping it back in the Light Phone for day-to-day life. And because I wasn't able to fully give myself over to the Light lifestyle, I didn't really get to experience its benefits in a major way. But, for a few weeks, I left my iPhone at home when I left the house as much as possible and there was something freeing about the complete lack of notifications and general siren-call for attention that I usually deal with. It's something that has stuck with me even as I shifted back to my iPhone for daily use. I might not be ready to fully break my addiction to my smartphone, but as they say, the first step is admitting you have a problem. Too basic for most people? Maybe so.
Hype Malaysia
04-05-2025
- Hype Malaysia
6 Latest & Upcoming Tech Drops: Good Suction, Plugging It In Everywhere, & Happy Kitties!
In this listicle, you aren't living clean if you're not getting good suction, good pussycat, good digital hygiene, and plugging it in everywhere. Have you lived life if you haven't experienced the sudden clarity of thought after smart living? With these thoughtful gadgets and gizmos, break out of the simulation and enter real existence, the kind that makes it worth having a midlife crisis. From AI-powered fridges to minimalist phones and vacuums that know your floor better than you do, these gadgets are here to upgrade your space—and maybe even your standards. 1. PETKIT Purobot Max Pro Messy clean-ups no more! A smart, hands-free solution perfect for multi-cat households, with a 210° wide-angle AI camera featuring night vision and pet recognition, allowing you to monitor your cat's bathroom habits in real time. The touch-free waste sealing system allows you to dispose of waste with a single pull—no contact, no hassle. Triple odour control technology combines a sealing flap with N50 2.0 and N60 deodorisation to keep your home fresh around the clock. Safety is top-tier with the xSecure system, offering 360° sensors and an anti-pinch design to protect your furry friend. Its 360° sealed drum and waterproof mat prevent leaks and make cleaning effortless. PETKIT redefines convenience for cat parents with its most advanced litter box yet. Pricing: Special promo at USD$599 (estimated RM2,620) Special promo at USD$599 (estimated RM2,620) Availability: Pre-Order on Official Website (Estimated shipping August 2025) 2. Light Phone III Break free from endless upgrades with the Light Phone III, a minimalist smartphone designed to last and prioritise your well-being. With its black-and-white interface, it strips away digital distractions to help you focus on what truly matters. Crafted with a sturdy metal frame and Sony's SORPLAS recycled plastic, it's a sustainable choice that doesn't sacrifice style. The phone blends simplicity with smart design, featuring a point-and-shoot-inspired camera and an intuitive clickable wheel for a tactile, user-friendly experience. Running on LightOS, it offers only essential tools—like Music, Directions, and Notes—as God intended, with possibly more on the way. The Light Phone III is technology without the technology, if that makes sense. Pricing: Special promo at USD$599 (estimated RM2,620) Special promo at USD$599 (estimated RM2,620) Availability: Pre-Order on Official Website (Estimated shipping August 2025) 3. Anker Nano Travel Adapter Stay powered up no matter where you are with a sleek and compact all-in-one charging solution for globetrotters. With four interchangeable plug types (A, I, G, and C), it works in over 150 countries—ideal for everything from backpacking adventures to international business trips. You can charge up to five devices simultaneously via one AC outlet, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports—one of which supports 20W fast charging, enough to boost an iPhone 16 to 50% in just 28 minutes. At 43% smaller than similar models and featuring foldable, retractable pins, it's built for easy packing. The safe 2-pin to 2-pin setup minimises shock risks, making it a reliable travel companion for tech-savvy explorers. Pricing: From RM From RM Availability: TBA 4. Bespoke AI Side-by-Side Refrigerator Too much fridge space can be a good problem to have. At 594L, the Bespoke AI Side-by-Side Refrigerator looks sharp and has a 9-inch LCD AI Home screen, becoming the hub for all your Samsung devices, reachable with Bixby voice commands. With Multi-Device Experience (MDE), taking calls, playing music, and even receiving recipe suggestions are never far away. AI features like Auto Open Door, which activate with a light touch or voice command when your hands are full, simplify daily routines. Energy-conscious users will appreciate the AI Energy Mode, which helps reduce power consumption by up to 10%, optimising the fridge's energy usage based on real-time conditions. The built-in UV deodoriser and filter enhance freshness by maintaining air circulation and eliminating odours daily, ensuring a cleaner, fresher fridge environment. Pricing: From RM8,999 From RM8,999 Availability: Pre-Order on Official Website (ships 23/04/2025) 5. Bespoke AI Laundry Top-Load Washer Laundry is many things, but not fun, but it can be more convenient. The Bespoke AI™ Top-Load Washer (13kg-21kg) simplifies laundry with three key AI features: AI Wash, AI Energy Mode, and AI Vibration Reduction Technology Plus (VRT+™). AI Wash automatically adjusts settings for fabric type and load size for optimal results, while AI Energy Mode reduces energy consumption by up to 20%. VRT+™ minimises noise and vibration for a quieter wash. Ecobubble™ technology combines BubbleStorm™ and Dual Storm™ to clean more efficiently, using less energy and water while caring for fabrics. Compatible with SmartThings for remote control and monitoring, and with a 20-year warranty on the Digital Inverter Motor, this washer offers both ease and durability. Pricing: From RM1,899 From RM1,899 Availability: Official Website 6. Bespoke AI Jet Ultra A suck that really vacuums, possibly one of the most powerful sticks, boasting up to 400W of suction power. Its HexaJet Motor features a hexagonal stator, a second-stage diffuser, and a thinner impeller for optimised airflow, allowing up to 100 minutes of cleaning in Min mode. With AI Cleaning Mode 2.0, it automatically adjusts to six cleaning environments by detecting brush load and air pressure. The vacuum's Multi-layered Filtration System captures fine dust, while the Active Dual Brush and Slim LED Brush+ ensure efficient cleaning with reduced battery use. Pricing: From RM3,599 From RM3,599 Availability: Pre-Order on Official Website (Ships 23/04/2025) Gan contributed to this article.
Observer
11-04-2025
- Observer
Can dumber phone cure ‘Brain Rot'?
Dear readers, I have a confession: I am suffering from an ailment that the younger ones call 'brain rot,' the inability to think deeply after too much scrolling on my phone. These days, it's tough to even finish a book. Plenty of people have this problem. So many, it has birthed a category of minimalist tech products striving to rid us of distractions, from the Ai Pin, the now defunct artificially intelligent lapel pin that took notes, to phones with only basic features. The latest example, the $600 Light Phone III, from a New York City startup, is a stripped-down phone that does barely anything. The newest version, which began shipping in March and is set for a broader release in July, can place calls, send texts, take photos, show map directions, play music and podcasts; and not do much else. There is no web browser. There is also no app store, meaning there's no Uber to hail a ride, no Slack and no social media. There isn't even email. 'You use it when you need to and when you put it back it disappears in your life,' said Kaiwei Tang, CEO of Light, the startup that has developed multiple iterations of the Light Phone over the past nine years.I was curious to see if the Light Phone could cure me of brain rot, so I used it as my primary phone for a week. There were moments I enjoyed it. While waiting for a train, resting at the gym or eating alone, I was not tempted to stare at the phone screen and I felt more mindful of my surroundings. Phone calls sounded nice and clear. The maps app did a fine job navigating me around town. It reminded me of simpler times when we used phones primarily to converse before putting them away to focus on other tasks. But over the week, the downsides of a dumber phone chipped away at my enjoyment; and overall I felt more stressed and less capable. I suddenly found myself unable to get into a train station, look up the name of a new restaurant or control my garage door. Some of that has less to do with the Light Phone itself, which is a so-so product and more to do with how society as a whole has become dependent on advanced smartphone features. Here's how my week went running errands, commuting and going out with a lower-tech phone. GETTING STARTED When I set up my review unit of the Light Phone over the weekend, the phone, which looks like a black rectangular slab, was pretty bare-bones. The phone's menu was a black screen showing a white-text list of its features: phone, camera, photo album and alarm. To add more tools, I had to use a web browser on my computer to access a dashboard, where I could install features like a maps app, notepad and timer. Now that I was ready to go, I was determined to live, at least for a while, without my iPhone. COMMUTING TO WORK On Monday morning, I started my commute to work, taking a train from Oakland, California, to San Francisco. When I arrived at the station, I realised I couldn't enter without my iPhone because years ago I had converted my physical transit pass, the Clipper Card, into a virtual one stored in my smartphone's mobile wallet. The Light Phone lacked a mobile wallet to load the virtual transit card, so I sheepishly went back home to get my iPhone and ultimately showed up to the office a half-hour late. TEXTING FRIENDS AND TAKING PHOTOS I added a few of my closest friends to the address book on the Light Phone and sent them text messages explaining my experiment. Typing on the device's keyboard felt sluggish in part because there was no autocorrect feature to fix typos. As a result, conversations were terse. Hilarity ensued when I sent people photos. Poorly lit and grainy, the images looked as if they were produced with a phone camera from at least 15 years ago. RUNNING ERRANDS One afternoon, I had to drop off an Amazon return at a UPS Store. I chose the most convenient shipping option, which involved showing a QR code for scanning. The problem? The Light Phone had no email app or web browser to download the code. Instead, I loaded it on my computer screen and snapped a mediocre picture with the phone. When I brought the package to UPS and presented the photo, I held my breath, hoping that the image was clear enough. The UPS employee held the scanner up and, after three attempts, I heard a beep and a shipping label printed. What a relief, but also, what a hassle. Bottom Line While I admire the goal of the Light Phone, my experience demonstrates there's nothing we can realistically do or buy to bring us back to simpler times. So many aspects of our lives, including getting around town, working, paying for things and controlling home appliances, revolve around our highly capable smartphones. Tang, Light's CEO, acknowledged that the Light Phone was not for everyone but added that parents have considered buying the phone for their children to be less distracted in school. The company is also working on adding more tools, such as mobile payments and the ability to request a Lyft car. — The New York Times
New York Times
06-04-2025
- New York Times
Can Using a Dumber Phone Cure ‘Brain Rot'?
Dear readers, I have a confession: I am suffering from an ailment that the younger ones call 'brain rot,' the inability to think deeply after too much scrolling on my phone. These days, it's tough to even finish a book. Plenty of people have this problem. So many, it has birthed a category of minimalist tech products striving to rid us of distractions, from the Ai Pin, the now defunct artificially intelligent lapel pin that took notes, to phones with only basic features. The latest example, the $600 Light Phone III, from a Brooklyn start-up, is a stripped-down phone that does barely anything. The newest version, which began shipping in March and is set for a broader release in July, can place calls, send texts, take photos, show map directions, play music and podcasts and not do much else. There is no web browser. There is also no app store, meaning there's no Uber to hail a ride, no Slack and no social media. There isn't even email. 'You use it when you need to, and when you put it back it disappears in your life,' said Kaiwei Tang, the chief executive of Light, the start-up that has developed multiple iterations of the Light Phone over the last nine years. 'We get a lot of customers telling us they feel less stressed out, they become more productive, they become creative.' I was curious to see if the Light Phone could cure me of brain rot, so I used it as my primary phone for a week. There were moments I enjoyed it. While waiting for a train, resting at the gym or eating alone, I was not tempted to stare at the phone screen, and I felt more mindful of my surroundings. Phone calls sounded nice and clear. The maps app did a fine job navigating me around town. It reminded me of simpler times when we used phones primarily to converse before putting them away to focus on other tasks. But over the week, the downsides of a dumber phone chipped away at my enjoyment, and over all I felt more stressed and less capable. I suddenly found myself unable to get into a train station, look up the name of a new restaurant or control my garage door. Some of that has less to do with the Light Phone itself, which is a so-so product, and more to do with how society as a whole has become dependent on advanced smartphone features. Here's how my week went running errands, commuting and going out with a lower-tech phone. Getting Started When I set up my review unit of the Light Phone over the weekend, the phone, which looks like a black rectangular slab, was pretty bare-bones. The phone's menu was a black screen showing a white-text list of its features: phone, camera, photo album and alarm. To add more tools, I had to use a web browser on my computer to access a dashboard, where I could install features like a maps app, notepad and timer. Now that I was ready to go, I was determined to live, at least for a while, without my iPhone. Commuting to Work On Monday morning, I started my commute to work, taking a train from Oakland, Calif., to San Francisco. When I arrived at the station, I realized I couldn't enter without my iPhone because years ago I had converted my physical transit pass, the Clipper Card, into a virtual one stored in my smartphone's mobile wallet. The Light Phone lacked a mobile wallet to load the virtual transit card, so I sheepishly went back home to get my iPhone and ultimately showed up to the office a half-hour late. Going to the Gym I ran into a similar snag one evening at my rock climbing gym. To get in, members use their phones to log in to the gym's website and generate a temporary bar code that gets scanned at the entrance. Because the Light Phone lacked a web browser, I couldn't create a bar code, so I had to wait in line at the front desk. Texting Friends and Taking Photos I added a few of my closest friends to the address book on the Light Phone and sent them text messages explaining my experiment. Typing on the device's keyboard felt sluggish in part because there was no autocorrect feature to fix typos. As a result, conversations were terse. Hilarity ensued when I sent people photos. Poorly lit and grainy, the images looked as if they were produced with a phone camera from at least 15 years ago. 'Retro!' one friend said in response to a blurry photo of my daughter. 'Wow, that's bad,' another friend said about a dimly lit photo of my corgi, Max. Light's founders said they were proud of the Light Phone camera, which has a nostalgic feel to it. Running Errands One afternoon, I had to drop off an Amazon return at a UPS Store. I chose the most convenient shipping option, which involved showing a QR code for scanning. The problem? The Light Phone had no email app or web browser to download the code. Instead, I loaded it on my computer screen and snapped a mediocre picture with the phone. When I brought the package to UPS and presented the photo, I held my breath, hoping that the image was clear enough. The UPS employee held the scanner up and, after three attempts, I heard a beep and a shipping label printed. What a relief, but also, what a hassle. Lunch Date On another afternoon, my wife and I went out for an impromptu lunch date. I backed the car out and then had to ask my wife to use her iPhone to close our garage door with the app MyQ. (Our physical garage door opener stopped working years ago.) Then, we were trying to remember the name of a new sushi restaurant we had recently read about on a food blog. I couldn't help dig up the blog post on the Light Phone. Eventually, we made a guess and ended up at the wrong restaurant. It was nice, though, to have lunch together without the temptation to check my email. Bottom Line While I admire the goal of the Light Phone, my experience demonstrates there's nothing we can realistically do or buy to bring us back to simpler times. So many aspects of our lives, including getting around town, working, paying for things and controlling home appliances, revolve around our highly capable smartphones. This Light Phone experiment reminded me of glamping: paying a lot to have an artificially crummier experience. I can't think of many people whose jobs would let them realistically use a Light Phone as their only phone. Too many of us rely on tools like Slack and email to communicate. The Light Phone might be better suited as a secondary leisure phone, similar to a weekend car, for people to unplug when they are off work. But even then, the camera quality may be a deal breaker for some. Mr. Tang, Light's chief executive, acknowledged that the Light Phone was not for everyone, but added that parents have considered buying the phone for their children to be less distracted in school. The company is also working on adding more tools, such as mobile payments and the ability to request a Lyft car.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
The minimalist Light Phone III is officially available for purchase
Light, the company behind a pair of minimalist handsets, just released the Light Phone III. This is the perfect device for those who are tired of modern smartphones, with their easy access to doomscrolling and their abundance of wonky AI tools. The Light Phone III features a sleek black-and-white OLED display, which is a new design element. The previous models included e-paper screens. The big draw, however, is not what this phone has but what it doesn't have. There are no third-party apps. There's no access to social media, the internet or even email. It's intended to be, first and foremost, a phone. It's not completely bare. This model includes an embedded NFC chip for making payments, a bare-bones music player, a podcast player, a messaging app, a flashlight, voice notes, a calendar, a timer and an alarm. It also includes a simple camera system that was inspired by point-and-shoot models. There's a two-step shutter button with center focus and a fixed focal length. The company calls it 'genuinely fun.' The Light Phone III has a navigation app, which is likely the most useful part of modern smartphones, but with a twist. The company paid for private access to navigational information, so Google won't get ahold of any tracking data. Other specs include 6GB of RAM, up from 1GB in the Light Phone II, 128GB of memory and a newer Qualcomm chip. It includes a fingerprint ID on the power button, a USB-C port and some loudspeakers at the bottom. The battery is also user-replaceable, which is a huge bonus. It's larger than previous generations and I find it to be pretty cute. It's around the width of a modern iPhone, but much shorter. This was on purpose, the company says, to make it easier to text while holding it vertically. There is a spot of bad news here. The Light Phone III costs $800, which dwarves the price of the second-gen model. It was available for much cheaper as a pre-order bonus, but those days are gone.
