[jabbany]

As others have mentioned, this is not really a dumb phone. Sure it puts some more _friction_ into using modern Internet connected services, but you can still basically do everything a modern phone can do (it has a full modern browser). Heck you even get the modern experience of ads everywhere despite the limited screen and memory (the ads are all modal pages)!

In fact, much of the review centers around "smart" features -- things you'd probably need an Internet connection for -- rather than phone features.

For reference, here's a video that shows how KaiOS works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFMu6a7jL54 . I'd say that's pretty smart for a phone! Low resolution non-touch screen, sure. But it has modern website support in case you need it + plenty of communication and SNS apps...

If anything, I'd guess most people are more comfortable ditching the "phone" part of a smartphone (no calls or SMS support) so long as it has Internet. Limiting yourself to no more than WAP-level Internet support (no CSS or JS support at all)? That's the true dumb phone experience.

[INTPenis]

You can do some things but I wouldn't stretch it and say you can "basically do everything a modern phone can do" because in my country I can't use it to identify myself, I can't do banking on it, I can't ride the bus, buy tickets for trains, make payments and a lot of other very essential things that are now in our smartphones.

[jabbany]

I can't do most of these things even on a smartphone in the US!...

- identify myself: The state I'm in has not rolled out any support for electronic IDs so short of "taking a photo of a DL (which the Nokia also would allow for) and hoping for the best", I can't do this with a smartphone either.

- ride the bus, buy tickets for trains: Ditto for transit. No phone-compatible NFC integration at all means I still need a good old fashioned transit card. Train tickets can be bought digitally via the browser, which probably doesn't count (and the Nokia could also do this).

Also:

- banking: While there are dedicated apps, I don't see how the Nokia would prevent you from doing this via the bank's website or over the phone. Banking apps are not particularly more secure than the website and usually don't offer anything beyond what is available there.

So really a lot of the features mentioned are not that commonly available even for smartphones!

[INTPenis]

Yes but the US is a poor backwards country compared to some. No offence, that's just how it seems to many of us.

And then of course there are those who'd say the US is doing it right because we're so cashless that people are protesting against this new way of life.

I personally don't care. I think if we ever get to a point when an authoritarian rule is threatening our liberties then cash, traceable train tickets and pet store purchases are the least of our troubles.

[jabbany]

My point really is just that as a matter of reality there are plenty of people who don't expect these features out of even smartphones, let alone non-smart phones. Unlike things such as "loading a page with JS/CSS", "playing video" or "having a camera" which I doubt you'd find anyone disagreeing are basic features of smartphones.

There's also nothing inherently preventing these features from being implemented in a basic phone like in the article, technologically speaking. The features aren't supported because the market to support them is too small or nonexistent.

As one point of reference: Because NFC support is spotty on phones, subway systems in many Chinese cities allow scanning a QR code to pay fares by phone. There's no reason this could not be implemented as an app on this "feature" phone. It's not there because the places this phone is sold don't have a market for this feature.

[pibechorro]

Authoritarian rule doesnt persist via tanks and stormtroopers knocking on your door, it persist by leveraging minor daily convenience, necessities, which mold compliance. Social credit system.

If you cant take the bus to work, if you are denied healthcare because of xyz, if you are denied access to credit, or the grocery store, etc.in a cashless economy.. then most people are controlled without any violence.

This is one of the main reasons many are against an increase of centrally managed services such as universal state healthcare, ubi, etc.. because once they control exclusively a necessity in your life, they can leverage it to ram anything they want or deny you sevices. Freedom lies in choice.

[multjoy]

>This is one of the main reasons many are against an increase of centrally managed services such as universal state healthcare

Huh, who'd have thought that treatment at the point of use is simply a way for Big Government to control me.

I shall insist on paying thousands of pounds for simple and routine treatments in future. That will show them.

[nabla9]

Feature phone is the correct name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_phone

[GoblinSlayer]

No way, feature phones don't run stuff like WhatsApp and YouTube. A typical example is Motorola RAZR (2004 version). The author has a smartphone with a numpad instead of a touchscreen.

[jabbany]

It's the blog's author that calls these dumb phones. Just trying to keep with the original post terminology.

[GoblinSlayer]

And it's full of modern trendy Google things.