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H8crilA
Animats
I've had several CAT phones. I have two S41 phones right now. Their biggest weakness is the little rubber covers over the ports. Those are the first to go. They need a better solution to that problem. Wireless charging, at least.
Also, I've had two of them bulge from battery expansion, just from leaving them plugged into power most of the time. Battery repair has several week turnaround, which is why I ended up with two of them, one back from repair, unused in its box.
Plus, putting silver in the case rubber to "avoid infection" is just silly.
a1369209993
> Plus, putting silver in the case rubber to "avoid infection" is just silly.
Pattern matching on silver+rubber+infection, I think this might be intended to prevent 'infection' of the rubber (by rubber-eating bacteria). I can't find a citation offhand, though.
cjbgkagh
Same reason you’d wear silver underwear. It’s not for the benefit of the underwear.
samstave
Has anyone tested a 'submersible phone' (whatever water-proofing level that may be... and wireless charging whilst submerged?
andrew_
My S10e has been in the Gulf of Mexico, several feet down for a few minutes at a time, more times than I can count. I boat and fish extensively, and the phone hitches a ride in my pocket pretty frequently. Two years later, it's still going strong.
Razengan
Obviously not quite a phone but would the Apple Watch count? Says the Series 7 can go down to 50 meters.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205000
Oh but you can’t use the touchscreen in water.
867-5309
Linus Tech Tips challenge accepted
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aqfamnzc
I have an S41 missing its USB cover too, and have always wondered if it's still splash or water proof without it. I did find a picture of a replacement port online, and it looks like that part has a rubber seal which seems promising.
andai
>infrared sensors
Thermal imaging! How cool is that!
https://www.catphones.com/en-gb/features/integrated-thermal-...
kipchak
There are a couple companies (Seek, FLIR) that make attachments for iOS/Android also, though having it integrated is definitely nicer.
ChikkaChiChi
I purchased one a few years back. The lack of range and incredibly low frame rate make it virtually useless for anything more than a few feet away. I think it's meant mostly to upsell to the more expensive handhelds.
Frankly, I'm shocked we haven't seen an alternative in this segment
unwind
Or how hot!
0x38B
Clive (yt: bigclivedotcom) uses his CAT and now Blackview phones to check electronics for hotspots, etc. He reviewed them in depth:
- "One year test of the CAT S61 thermal imaging phone." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7mNzhZN9A
- "Independent Blackview BV9900 Pro 4-month review (non shill)." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5n7oE2K__4
I would love a phone with a FLIR sensor but definitely don't need it.
kevincox
If you want a long-lasting phone the best thing I am aware of is to go to https://androidenterprisepartners.withgoogle.com/devices/ and you can filter by supported lifetime.
kennywinker
I did that, out of curiosity, and I'll summarize what I found in case anybody else is interested:
First, it looks like the very best options for long term support is this guy https://androidenterprisepartners.withgoogle.com/device/#!/F... (Point Mobile PM30) with "Security updates until March 2028". That's 6 years of support, if a little suspicious since it's from a company with a single device on the market.
After that it looks like Samsung offers support for their devices until "February 2027", and one other company, Zebra Technologies, offers support until "March 2027". Going to 2026 adds a few more brands (Motorola, Xiaomi, Google Pixel).
So the bulk of phones have support for 4 years, there's decent options with 5 years of support, a single device with 6 years, and nothing beyond that.
Two data points for contrast:
1. I just bought a 10 year old PC that's still useful, can run the bleeding edge of operating systems, and can be upgraded and repaired easily - I expect it to have another 5 years of useful lifespan ahead of it.
2. The iPhone 6S, released in 2015, is still supported by Apple. That's a 7 year old phone. iOS 13 (released in 2020) dropped support for the iPhone 6/6+ (2014) and 5s (2013) so 6 years and 7 years respectively.
A final note: all of this is about software support - none of this is actually about useful lifespan. Two years ago my phone crapped out on me and I used a friend's old iPhone SE (1st generation, 2016) for a couple months - it was trending hard towards a trash can. The battery lasts about 2 years before it needs replacement, the glass screen breaks easily and aftermarket replacements have touch input issues, and running the latest iOS on it had things moving slower than LA traffic.
My hope is that phones hit / have already hit the end of easy performance advancement, and a focus on longevity might start to take over. But I don't think that's likely. There is pressure from things like large institutional buyers to make generic PCs last long and be endlessly repairable - it's not really clear that pressure exists or CAN exist under capitalism, for phones.
GeekyBear
> 2. The iPhone 6S, released in 2015, is still supported by Apple. That's a 7 year old phone. iOS 13 (released in 2020) dropped support for the iPhone 6/6+ (2014) and 5s (2013) so 6 years and 7 years respectively.
If you include years where you get a security update, but not an OS update, as Android device makers do, the 2013 5s got another update at the end of last year.
fsflover
If you want lifetime software updates, consider GNU/Linux smartphones, Librem 5 and Pinephone. They run mainline Linux, which will receive updates even if the companies behind the smartphones disappear (actually, the second company already doesn't do any development).
More details: https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/community-wiki/-/wikis/Freque....
kevincox
The state of affairs is definitely dark. However the best way to improve this in the current system is to spend money on the phones that promise and deliver long support lifecycles.
joecool1029
>A final note: all of this is about software support - none of this is actually about useful lifespan. Two years ago my phone crapped out on me and I used a friend's old iPhone SE (1st generation, 2016) for a couple months - it was trending hard towards a trash can. The battery lasts about 2 years before it needs replacement, the glass screen breaks easily and aftermarket replacements have touch input issues, and running the latest iOS on it had things moving slower than LA traffic.
The screen doesn't break that easily unless you drop it face down on a sidewalk or accidentally close it in a rat trap (don't ask). Tip for buying screens if they do, get working pulls or buy from a vendor that does high quality refurbs on OEM screens. I've had good luck with the 'premium refurbished' from injuredgadgets, their batteries have held up (even if the battery health % never goes down) as well. Ifixit's aftermarket screen had poor colors and one of my batteries turned into a spicy pillow in about a month of use, so I can only recommend them for guides and tools.
As for speed, I don't use them as a primary anymore but unless your battery is shot and iOS is throttling it, maps and payments don't seem to lag. Data speeds will be unimpressive, it can't aggregate carriers. Otherwise it works fine. For me it's a great utilitarian secondary device, basically the phone that always 'just works'. Absolutely usable, in fact there are use cases where it excels simply because it can be used with wired headphones while plugged into a charger at the same time and I can't think of any other supported device on the market able to do that.
yepguy
I just looked into this issue over the weekend, since my current phone is now EOL. The newest phones from Google and Samsung just upped their support lifetime from 3 years of software updates[1][2]. Their newer phones now get 3 or 4 years of feature updates, and 5 years of security updates.
Not as impressive as Apple, but it's a welcome improvement. Soon it might actually make sense to buy older Pixel or Galaxy models without worrying about them going EOL just a year or 2 after you get them.
[1]: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705 [2]: https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-android-updates-114...
fencepost
Just recently bought a Samsung A53 5G in part because of the extended update time frame. I was going to get the very similar A33 but it's not available in the US.
The only real lack that jumps to mind is no wireless charging, but it does have a feature I enabled immediately - capping the battery charge to 85%. With that and the updates there's a pretty decent chance that I actually will still be using the same device 4-5 years from now - possibly without the battery replacements needed on my previous phones.
the_third_wave
If you want long-time software support on an Android device make sure to get one which is supported by AOSP-derived distributions like LineageOS. As soon as you get the device install LineageOS (or something similar) on the device and you're set (OTA updates and all - I get weekly OTA updates on a Samsung SIII-neo from 2014). Get a relatively popular device to increase the chance of the thing being supported for as long a time as possible.
shp0ngle
Well, it’s just, people that care about longevity buy an iPhone.
And the capitalism kind of works there - iPhone is still #1 phone brand, and even rising in marketshare a bit recently. That’s despite being a bit overpriced.
And they are the richest company on Earth, or something on that level.
People do want longevity, but there seems to be something stopping Android manufacturers from that. I don’t know nearly enough about mobile drivers and mobile OS to tell you what.
shp0ngle
Why is fairphone not in the list? From what I understand, they offer very long updates
(it’s just not a very good phone for the price, but they try to push updates as long as possible, from what I heard)
edit: yep still getting updates 7 years later
https://www.gizmochina.com/2022/03/15/fairphone-2-launched-a...
also the phones get 4 years of regular warranty.
They are available just in Europe though
kevincox
I don't think this is a comprehensive list. I don't know what the exact requirements are but based on the domain it seems related to Google Enterprise policies.
notatoad
is fairphone an android partner? i thought they shipped some sort of de-googled AOSP-based operating system
baq
got an iphone se for that reason.
Zondartul
As a fellow CAT S41 user, I can confirm that the phone is basically invulnerable to dropping, although one of the rubber pads did break off after a couple years of opening and closing it. My compass doesn't work, probably due to exposure to strong magnets. Gps and cellular internet still work perfectly, I can browse modern websites and watch youtube without much trouble. The battery lasts forever. The camera is kinda meh and I regret not getting the variant with a FLIR camera.
If they can make the flip-phone variant hardy enough to play football with I'll definitely buy it. But chances are, my S41 will still be working by then ;)
samstave
>Play football with...
Basically any phone can work as you play football - because your hands are free to browse the web.
mdp2021
> hardy enough
They have a page about the ruggedness of their products - "built rugged, perfect for construction sites, farms or extreme, outdoor environments"; "Made to military specification (MIL-SPEC 810H) - Drop-proof, dust proof and shockproof"; "[drop] tested onto concrete from up to 1.8m (6ft)"; "waterproof" with Ingress Protection level 8 or 9.
digitalsin
Personally I've gotten good enough spirals with a Samsung phone that I feel confident during neighborhood pickup games.
hoistbypetard
With my Galaxy, I can get a pretty good spiral when I throw it down field, but haven't had any luck so far when I punt it. I suppose I need more practice.
bo1024
> Also the phones rather quickly fall out of the supported Android version range
This was my first concern. Otherwise seems awesome.
shp0ngle
yeah if you care about getting updates, don’t get CAT phone. They stop putting updates very quickly.
Much shorter time you get updates than even Samsung, forget Apple.
kekebo
Or if you care about unlocking the bootloader / getting root (at least based on the S60).
Latter was possible but non-trivial, with a good chance of ending up with a brick. IIRC installing a custom OS to get recent security patches never worked (it was abandoned on Android 6).
slingnow
I know the #1 reason I buy a phone is to get updates for it. The rest is window dressing.
samstave
Uh, can you just get a cat phone for all the HW -- and manage your own android dist on the phone?
2000UltraDeluxe
I used to go through two phones per year simply because I'm clumsy. After two years, I'm still on my first CAT.
There are definitely downsides, but the durability is something else compared to other phones.
djur
Can they be flipped open one-handed easily?
ranger_danger
Nope, I have this phone and it's quite bulky (about 3 Note8's worth of thickness) and requires two hands to open.
r2sk5t
We have push-to-talk, group chat, and live video software for similar devices: Kyocera DuraXV https://kyoceramobile.com/duraxv-extreme/ Sonim XP3 Plus https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/
Both flip phones are based on AOSP (https://source.android.com/) and we've had to deal with custom implementations of soft keys, and push to talk headsets. Even Kyocera's implementation varies between the ATT version (https://kyoceramobile.com/duraxe-epic/att/) and the Verizon one.
This phone is made by https://bullitt-group.com/ and they very smartly license the CAT brand. We have not worked with them yet, but I'm guessing it would be relatively trivial to support the phone.
Without good soft-key support, these phones are unusable. Any questions, please LMK.
tauntz
> Without good soft-key support, these phones are unusable.
Depends on what you mean by "good". I worked with PTT for a long time (disclosure: Motorola WAVE), Android devices with HW buttons, wired PTT headsets and buttons, wireless PTT headsets and buttons, you name it. It's a world of pain and _lots_ of edge cases and testing but in the end, there was always a way to beat any device into submission and get it working for most common use-cases. Any questions, LMK :)
r2sk5t
I can affirm that beating devices into submission is possible :-) We support iOS too with PTT headsets, Airpods, and other BT headsets and that gets interesting in different ways.
Based on my experience, it seems hardware vendors are not treating soft-keys as a core requirement and are generally bolting support on and in some cases omitting it. It's as if the requirements didn't include third party app support beyond the carriers PTT products that they OEM.
tauntz
Indeed! Add to this older Android OS support, Classic BT devices, BT LE devices, combined LE - Classic devices (and each with their own firmware quirks), audio routing, undocumented APIs ..and the list goes on and on. PTT is a wonderful world :)
dzhiurgis
Just curious why something like Apple doesn't support it out of the box? Is there some sort of regulation that won't let them or just plain ignorance of customers?
I guess we got softcore version where you can ask Siri be kind enough to attempt to send a voice message, which absolutely sucks for unsupported languages.
r2sk5t
Apple has been highly supportive of what we're doing. I mentioned Apple because it's difficult in different ways and there are many edge cases; especially with BT & wired headsets.
xmonkee
The CAT phone definitely looks a lot better.
r2sk5t
Our important requirements: * Android > 10 * fast enough processor * strong soft-key API/SDK support * loud speaker * all day replaceable battery * retail cost < $250 * mobile device management software (MDM) * PTT headset support https://kleinelectronics.com/p-o-c-ptt-over-cellular/shop-by...
grenoire
Looking at the reviews on the T-Mobile website, you can't type using the number pad. That's an insane oversight!
12312er13r
Google have been delaying reviews of apps that accept keys.
Go on, plug a keyboard (or use a phone with a qwerty keyboard. ha!) and try ctrl+t, or ctrl+w on firefox android to manage tabs...
If you are on any version past 78, it won't work.
I guess google call it bot-enablement-features. or they just really hate people with disabilities. ...it you remove these functions, app reviews fly trhu in comparisson.
thankfully they don't seem to impact keyboards which all still support ctrl+a/c/x/v... the day that is gone i will probably even consider apple.
_rami_
Is there any source / data on that? I haven't noticed such a difference between our apps.
enthdegree
This is a dealbreaker if true.
This link says it comes with a T9 keyboard called “Kika” and other installable T9 keyboards exist: https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/qfr6rc/one_mont...
SamBam
Wait, what? So how do you type? Minuscule touch keyboard on the screen?
Edit, yes, here's a video.[1] The thing is also a lot bigger and thicker in the hands than I realized.
40four
That video clearly shows the user typing using the number pad. So no worries there. I agree, if that were not possible, that would be a little bit silly. This is a perfect example of why I never trust reviews. People are either just really stupid, or they are fake/ paid for.
joshstrange
I think they meant letters, in the video I only see him typing numbers from the phone keypad. I think they person you replied to is talking about T9/pressing-the-number-X-times-to-get-a-letter type things.
SahAssar
At https://youtu.be/GVzuT6eYZUA?t=107 he types with the keyboard
Watching that video the phone was a lot bigger than I thought, I was hoping for something compact but this thing is really chonky.
djmips
You know after watching a couple of times I realized the chonkyness is partially an optical illusion. The bevel on the top of the screen makes it look like a huge box from the camera angle you bookmarked in your link.
SamBam
If you look at the screen, the only thing he "types" at that timestamp is one "#", then he presses the screen with his thumb, then a types "##########"
I'm pretty sure you never see him typing letters.
hinkley
It definitely big, but there are some clues in the video that the presenter may be a fairly short person as well. So the fact that it looks huge in his hands may have something to do with his hands and not entirely the phone's fault.
ranger_danger
They're wrong, I can do T9 typing with the numbers just fine on mine, and switch to a touchscreen keyboard if I want to also. Just wish it was faster to switch between them.
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daviddaviddavid
When Sprint/T-Mobile forced me to get a new flip phone because my Kyocera would no longer be supported, I had to decide between the Alcatel Go Flip, the Cat S22 and a Sonim XP3 Plus. I went with the Sonim and I am very happy with it.
https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/
The Alcatel had many bad reviews. The Cat seemed huge and defeated many of purposes I have for having a flip phone in the first place. The Sonim has incredible build quality, no apps, internet works fine. I have no complaints. I haven't tried using Google Maps on it yet, but if that works I will love it even more and ditch my Garmin GPS.
hammycheesy
I'm also rocking an XP3 Plus! I bought it around September because I was looking to curb my screen time. I ruled out the S22 for similar reasons.
I find that in rare cases I need to bring my old smart phone with me (traveling, mainly) for things like airline tickets, movies on planes, maps in new areas.
Otherwise day-to-day I am exclusively using the XP3. My screen time is now at an average of <10 min per day, and my battery life is between 5-6 days on average.
Super happy with the experience, and I bought back so much more time and sanity by not staring at my phone for hours per day.
jamestanderson
What's your experience with group texting? I've been looking for a dumb-er phone, but I need good group texting support to stay in touch with my family. I've tried phones like the Nokia 3310 and Nokia 225 TA-1282, and have been disappointed in the way they handle group texting.
daviddaviddavid
Group texting works fine for me. It auto converts to MMS and sending/replying works as expected. On my old Kyocera, a group text would seemingly send individual texts in a loop over the recipients, which always seemed broken.
The one maddening thing about texting on my Sonim is the KT9 predictive texting. Short, high-frequency function words such as "am", "of", "the", etc always have way decreased preference compared to larger, less common words that start with those substrings. e.g. If I type "amethyst" just one time, that word will always be preferred over the much more common "am".
ranger_danger
From what I can tell the XP3 does not support the Google Play Store nor unsigned apps, while the S22 does both.
kk6mrp
I got one also but it has a lot of rough edges compared to the Kyocera ones. That and it is larger.
scottrogowski
I'm currently reading Digital Minimalism from Cal Newton and have started preparing for a 30-day digital declutter. So I was really excited to read this title and immediately disappointed after clicking - the Cat phone has a web browser. If you have access to the entirety of the internet in your pocket, it is hard to limit yourself and no little trick or hack is going to actually help - in my experience.
I'll go ahead and take advantage of this post to ask, what do other digital minimalists on HN use for their phone? I'm looking for something with messages, maps, a camera, and WhatsApp with no access to a browser or an app store. The most difficult item on that list is definitely WhatsApp. Unfortunately, if you travel a lot (which I do) it's not really optional. Outside of North America, EVERYTHING happens on WhatsApp. I've started looking into custom Android ROMS but that feels like an extreme step for what must be a common problem?
thope
I never switched to smartphones to not have internet in my pocket, and so I sticked to Sony Ericsson phones. Currently I use a 2010 Sony Ericsson Elm (J10i) which gives me SMS, phone, camera, and a few utilities : calendar, alarms, calculator, flashlight. Dimensions are 110.00 x 45.00 x 14.00 mm, I recharge once every ten days or so
barbs
I could be wrong, but I imagine the number of people who need internet access for Maps and WhatsApp but NOT a web-browser would be pretty small.
That said, I could possibly recommend the Nokia 2720 flip, which I've been using it as a secondary phone for work, primarily just for calls and messages. It runs KaiOS and has WhatsApp and Maps installed, although it does also have an internet browser. That said, it's quite clunky to use with the numberpad, and you might be able to hack it to disable or remove it. There's a dedicated KaiOS hacking community which might be able to get you there[0]. Looking briefly, I think there's a hack that allows you to set a proxy for the web browser, so maybe you could set that to something useless?
I commend your efforts, and am curious to read that book you mentioned!
robgibbons
You could just delete the apps you don't want.
scottrogowski
This is actually really helpful. I'd be concerned that deleting the browser would result in other apps breaking but that's probably a risk worth taking.
conception
The atom filled this niche for me - https://www.unihertz.com/products/atom
It’s a full phone, with a web browser, and you can do all the normal phone stuff with it but it’s size dissuades you from doing so. It’s functional to text or Spotify but annoying to spend a lot of time on the web with it. So in a pinch you can but you won’t want to.
john-doe
Same thing (Jelly 2). Just had to learn "glide typing" but it's the best phone I ever had.
101011
I think KaiOS is probably the closest thing that you can find. It will also have a browser, but trust me when I say that on most phones it's so slow and unusable that you won't be tempted to use it often.
I had a similar issue for myself, only my strongly desired application was Spotify (instead of WhatsApp). Ultimately I weaned myself off Spotify through a phone with KaiOS and ultimately I took the plunge on buying the Light Phone II.
It's a real bummer that there are so many limited solutions for things like this. FWIW, the contracted software company that worked on the Light Phone OS put together a blog post detailing how they used Android to build their phone here:
https://medium.com/sanctuary-computer-inc/building-lightos-w...
> All of that is to say: when we refer to the LightOS, we are referring to “our custom fork of Android 8.1 that embeds a platform-signed React Native app as the default launcher” (amongst other drivers and low-level customizations).
sanderjd
I've been thinking about this too. I don't think this really exists. I think you really just have to use self control to avoid using the browser.
dotancohen
> you really just have to use self control
maxerickson
I don't understand how what you are describing can also be minimalist.
It's some kind of aesthetic, but people used to do fine without digital maps or messaging.
sanderjd
Those things are useful tools but not mindless time sucks. You can't doom scroll for an hour in a maps or camera app.
maxerickson
Which 'useful tools' is going to be pretty personal, not universal, which is why I acknowledged that an intentionally limited device is probably some kind of aesthetic.
It's hilariously tedious to argue that WhatsApp is obviously required and then some other social communication tool is obviously a waste of time.
leksak
Similar demands here, albeit a wee-bit different,
Messages (or perhaps preferably Signal) Maps Camera BankID Calendar.
12312er13r
This phone selling point hides behind the fact that probably most apps won't run well on it :)
i handle corporate phones for a few ONGs. Blackberrys with keyboard are still somewhat supported on android, but even gmail (gmail! the main app from the main company behind android) have bugs that break main functionality (reading email!) because they do not care to test the odd screen size.
one of the largest use bases on tiktok are contractors. My guess is that this phone will be sold as a way to provide a work phone to employees which won't break and won't allow them to waste too much time.
CAT phones (and all cheap/rebranded phones listed as "corporate ready" by google) are already know for that to be honest. They are all behind android release versions even on launch day.
ranger_danger
Try it before you poo poo this phone. Every app I've tried runs perfectly on mine, even my favorite 3D pinball game (Zen Pinball).
loeg
I like that they describe Android 11 not as the world's best operating system, but as the world's biggest operating system.
seltzered_
Oddly, this seems like the perfect phone for elders that from my experience have:
- dropped the phone into the toilet, on ground cracking the screen, etc.
- can't figure out how to end a call.
- get addicted to reading garbage news on their phone instead of trying to use a laptop for thinking about news, writing, organizing instead.
steve_adams_86
We talk a lot about kids and smartphone addiction but yeah, elderly people go crazy for them too.
My wife’s parents sit on Facebook just scrolling through photos endlessly. They do have other things they get up to, but I think their screen time is easily 3-4 hours per day.
My elderly dad is guilty of too much screen time but he gets my partial endorsement because he’s hacking on Linux and hates the news
jlkuester7
People, talk to your parents about addition to Kernel hacking before it is too late!
happyopossum
None of those are exclusive, or even more common in elderly people than the general population. Let’s not ascribe negatives to people based on any single factor such as age, sex, or race, ok?
corrral
That kind of thing happens to me all the time. iOS c. version 6 was a refuge from it, mostly, but they've since added so much more stuff to it (and replaced the home button with a gesture) that I find myself doing things by accident on there all the time, too, now.
It's much worse for my parents, because when they do something by accident (or when some designed-by-assholes program decides it needs to replace your usual screen with some "helpful" full-screen message about an update, on launch or on trying to take an action) it takes them far longer to figure out what's happening and how to undo it. Often they just give up after a while.
tonguez
“can't figure out how to end a call.”
“None of those are exclusive, or even more common in elderly people than the general population.”
you’re right, old people are generally just as good with technology as young people. there are no generalizable differences between any groups of humans.
seltzered_
fair point, though I'll note my assertion was based on personal observation, frustration, and setting up interventions out of concern.
r3trohack3r
Not just elders. Im 30 and I’ve long thought about buying a phone that is inconvenient enough to use that I don’t build habits around it - but still has mapping software, gig economy apps, and short-term rental apps to get myself out of a bind in the few cases I need those.
This phone is really tempting me. Bonus points that it’s built the way I feel devices should be: rugged. It would go well with my Panasonic Toughbook. Just not super eager to re-enter Google’s ecosystem.
jmull
I guess even in 2022 there are still some socially acceptable prejudices to express.
coryfklein
My biggest impediment to downsizing my cell phone: maps and navigation. In my vehicle I need to have at least a moderately sized screen in order to navigate safely. And the device needs to have mobile internet access.
How do folks who are downsizing their cell phones work around this? Do you use a non-phone GPS in your car? Do you keep a larger cell phone around for "when you need it"?
zhobbs
It's a pretty recent version of Android, it probably supports Android Auto. So if you have a newer car or an aftermarket Android Auto device it might be best of both worlds.
IE6
Anecdotally I have noticed that Android Auto is not supported properly on these oddball devices. I had a Unihertz Titan for a while and Android Auto refused to work properly and would just show a black screen. Of course with a Pixel phone it works fine.
Nition
Unfortunately not. It's running Android Go Edition, which doesn't support Android Auto.
ZoomStop
Tech like Android Auto could solve for this in a natural feeling way. Did these CAT phones lack mobile data?
LarryDarrell
The thing is, I don't want Android smushed into a less useful, more fustrating to use, form factor. I want a dumbphone that calls, texts, and has a wifi hotpspot.
No battery draining screen, no app store, no navigation... if I need any of that, I can use the hotspot and a tablet/old phone...
torvald
And some type of encrypting would be nice. I find it very exciting that The Punkt phone is picking up Signal at least.
https://boingboing.net/2021/04/08/the-best-dumbphone-gets-si...
ranger_danger
The S22 encrypts everything by default just like regular Android these days. And you can still run Signal or just about any other communication app you want.
nfriedly
It looks like fairly weak specs for an Android phone (4x Cortex A53's @ 1.3Ghz & 2GB RAM)[1], but I guess that's not really the point.
On the upside: it supports a lot of LTE bands, including all of the primary bands for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, & T-Mobile in the US, as well as bands used in many other countries - so if you can get one unlocked it should work on most carriers.
Also, there are some complaints about battery life, but the battery is user-replaceable, so you can just get two and swap them out as needed.
AdamH12113
I've been looking to reduce my smartphone usage, and I would be really tempted by this if it weren't limited to T-Mobile. The ability to make a hot spot and run a handful of 2FA apps really seals the deal.
nfriedly
I mentioned this in another comment, but based on [1], it looks like it supports a good range of 2G/3G/4G bands. So if you can find one unlocked, then there's a good change it will work on your carrier of choice.
wffurr
T-Mobile coverage and speeds are great. Also it's a GSM phone and probably works with other carriers if you purchase it outright.
pjerem
> T-Mobile coverage and speeds are great.
Not in EU :D
CharlesW
I don't know how pricing compares to local brands, but T-Mobile is majority-owned by Deutsche Telekom. I imagine this explains a related benefit:
"With our Magenta plans, you get unlimited texting and data in 210+ countries & destinations. No international data-roaming charges. No setup. It just works the minute you arrive."
Tijdreiziger
No problems in the Netherlands. They like to pride themselves on being the country’s best network.
ranger_danger
T-Mobile lets you unlock it after a short period of time of having their service. I'm using mine on AT&T now without issue.
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I have been using CAT phones for a few years. They really are tough, work pretty well with gloves, do not care much about water, etc. Can recommend, and the infrared sensors are worth it just for the wow effect alone :). From the downsides - some of the smaller things break faster than you'd like (e.g. laser meter, or rubber covers for the USB port, or the painted/glued layer on the back in one of the older models). These downsides do not invalidate the main purpose(s) of the device. Also the phones rather quickly fall out of the supported Android version range, but this seems to be a common problem with all Android phones.