LoFone E Ink smartphone offers WhatsApp, Spotify and navigation despite focus on minimalism
www.notebookcheck.net
The LoFone is marketed as a minimalist 'dumbphone' that comes with an economical E Ink display and completely dispenses with distractions such as social networks. Unlike most direct competitors, apps such as WhatsApp and Spotify will still be available.
  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    2 months ago

    I don’t really see the issue. Minimalism is a sliding scale.

    Just because the design goal was for it to be more minimalist than a typical Android/iOS phone doesn’t mean they have to go full-on “NO. It’s only for phonecalls and maybe SMS!”

    Playing music isn’t particularly “maximalist”, and WhatsApp certainly isn’t (people in the US need to understand that WhatsApp is basically SMS for most of the world). Maybe maps is, but it’s optional anyway so who cares.

    This device looks very cool to me. But there’s no way it won’t cost an absolute fortune, which kills it IMO.

    • KuroiKaze@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Even in USA nobody ever SMS me. Messenger and insta are primary with WhatsApp and signal sometimes being relevant and wechat for the Chinese community.

      • nexas_XIII@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Crazy, most people use SMS with Messenger as the go to for big groups for me (in USA). No one I know uses WhatsApp

          • nexas_XIII@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            I’m just giving anecdotal evidence, just like you gave 🤷‍♂️ I’m not promoting one way of communicating vs another.

  • Wotan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    01·
    2 months ago

    I am afraid there is nothing like minimalism when we talk about mobile phones. It is basically all or nothing. I mean, it seems like everybody only thinks about social media apps but I don’t care about social media, I want my phone to run apps that control my smart home appliances, contain my public transport tickets, my ID card, my air tickets and other such convenient stuff. Most of these apps basically only exist for iOS or Android and some of them only work when downloaded from the official stores. So any phone achieving minimalism by using custom OS is just unusable for me and is equal to a dumb phone.

  • solrize@lemmy.worldEnglish
    412·
    2 months ago

    Minimalism and smartphone don’t belong in the same sentence. Sorry! Just make a 1990s style dumbphone with physical buttons and a removable battery before you talk about minimalism, please.