Hacker News Reader

Comment by rapind | Hacker News Reader

I actually spent some time looking into dumb phones a couple years ago. My favorite would be the motofone. It's got an e-ink display, which is great for battery and sunlight, and 2 antennas which is also great if you heaven forbid make actual calls with it. Also, pretty sturdy, small, and light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone

Beware though, if you txt a lot, you won't like it. Not enough real estate for the crazy font they use.

There are also these printed cell phones showing up. Do a google for "card phone". Pretty interesting.

View on HN

I had a Motofone (also called F3) for the last 7 years. It started with a two week working battery life. It's a pain to text message on since it only shows 4 or 5 characters on, but it just worked as a reliable phone. Finally switched to an iPhone 5 after it became vital for me to have full Internet access 24/7 for work. If it weren't for that, I'd still have my F3. I love it as much as I love my iPhone 5.

You can still find some of them on eBay. I'd offer mine, but I'm keeping it as an emergency (911) phone for my car.

F3 to iPhone 5 has to be the biggest jump I've heard of lately. I've been meaning to pick up a dumbphone myself, maybe I'll grab an F3 - I remember when they came out, I was dying for one. It's a bit like buying the... junker of your childhood dreams.

I used this phone for about 6 months. The screen made it hard to navigate the menus and got in the way of even simple things like adding someone to your address book. The battery life was good but it was not significantly longer than the battery life of other dumb phones (since the screen is mostly off it doesn't make a huge difference).

Eventually I traded it in for a cheap nokia with an lcd.

I've been using the Motofone for three years now and I love it. The texting doesn't bother me either. It's also the lowest common denominator of phones that call and text, so we test all our dumb apps against it.

Do you happen to have a recommendation for an e-ink phone that is favorable for SMS?

Other than the F3, nope. There's not a lot out there (supposed to be an android one coming soon though).

http://www.eink.com/customer_showcase_cell_phones.html

You'd think there'd be more considering how ideal it is for outdoor visibility and battery longevity.

Googling for "card phone" doesn't actually bring up a lot of card phones. I see more prepaid cell phone cards and banks with mobile apps. The first card phone for sale isn't until page 2, and it's an eBay link.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com