The more things change, the more the remain they remain the same.
A company has begun selling a “dumb phone” that supposedly helps people get over their tech addictions. The Light Phone 2 has no apps, no camera and none of the fancy bells and whistles that that have become commonplace in modern phones. The phone, does, however, let users make phone calls, send text messages, and set alarms. The Light Phone 2 at a price tag of $400 (Rs. 26,000).
That’s a pretty steep price to pay for a phone that had features that were last seen in the Nokia 3310, but Light 2 claims it’s more than phone. The company bills its phone as a “phone for humans”, and says it’s a phone that “actually respects you.” “By allowing you to leave behind your smartphone, it encourages you to spend quality time doing the things you love the most, free of distraction. We call this ‘going light’,” says the company.
And while the Light Phone 2 is short on features, it does have the sleek minimalist looks that often accompany expensive devices. The Light 2 has a Black and White matte screen with E-ink, and has a minimalist, clean interface with small fonts and a white background. The phone itself is 4G LTE, and about the size of a credit card.
Light Phone 2’s minimalism is a pretty radical idea, especially in a time when smartphone makers are trying to stuff their phones with as many features as they can possibly hold. There have also been several studies showing how having too many apps on your phone can lead to stress and discontentment. But it’s unclear if it’ll catch on, beyond a small audience — many people might just rummage into their cupboards and get out their old phones, instead of dropping $400 on a new phone that does pretty much what phones did a decade ago. But the very fact that this phone exists shows that smartphones, after all the frantic growth of the last decade, might just be coming a full circle.