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Comment by alex_suzuki | Hacker News Reader

I have two kids, with the elder one approaching the age where smartphones are starting to appear in their peer group (~10-11 yrs). Does anyone have a recommendation for a flip phone with coolness factor? Maybe ruggedized, with a compass built-in (non-GPS), something with “tool” aesthetics. The hard part is denying your kid something that the other kids are using to actively communicate amongst each other (peer pressure).

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Respect for keeping a smartphone away for so long. I've seen kids in a babywagon playing games on a smartphone already.

Depends a bit where you live I think. Here in Switzerland smartphone ownership among kids is less prevalent than say in the US. There's mostly consensus that we're not doing the kids any favors. But the peer pressure is just there. Also it doesn't help that some schools use WhatsApp for in-class communication.

Depends on where you live.

My nephew didn't have an smartphone until he was 12-13 I think.

He had a tablet at home and a switch though.

There is a region-wide push to prohibit smartphone usage for primary school children (<12yr)

i cant really recommend a specific phone but "dumb" android phones do exist, so they can tkae pictures, send texts etc. to their friends but you can prevent them from scrolling through tiktok

What would be ideal IMHO is a flip phone that can also do WhatsApp. Not my favourite messenger, but it’s what’s being used.

https://josebriones.org/dumbphone-finder suggests

TCL Flip 2 - https://www.tcl.com/us/en/products/mobile/flip-series/flip-2 ("Access to email, web browser, and popular tools like calendar, calculator, notes and more" and the specs say it has A-GPS).

Nokia 2780 - https://www.hmd.com/en_us/nokia-2780-flip?sku=16WNDR11A01 (note: supports apps via KaiOS, including YouTube, Google Maps, and a web browser; review at https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/i-replaced-my-iphone-with-a...)

Nokia 2760 - https://www.hmd.com/en_us/nokia-2760-flip?sku=GPNKN139DCGBB (same note)

I learned about the finder from the paper "Swapping 5G for 3G: Motivations, Experiences, and Implications of Contemporary Dumbphone Adoption" at https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3637402 . Its list of "dumbphones" includes this rugged flip-phone:

Sonim XP3plus - https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/ . Has GPS/A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo.

For non-flip phones, the recommender mentions the Punkt MP02, https://www.punkt.ch/en/products/mp02-4g-mobile-phone/ , which includes Signal,

and the Mindful phone, at https://greentouchstore.com/products/mindful-talk-and-text-m... ; the latter is based on Rabbinical Guidance ("Based on their policies the phones will not feature any internet or entertainment apps besides Text message app and Offline Music Player")

In the kosher category is also the Fig Flip II X - https://figkosher.com/products/fig-flip-ii

There's the Light Phone II - https://www.thelightphone.com/ ("a premium, minimal phone. It will never have social media, clickbait news, email, an internet browser, or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed.")

Mudita Pure, https://mudita.com/products/phones/mudita-pure/ . Uses an e-paper display, designed for low EMF, and includes a meditation timer.

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