[josephernest]

Pro tip: don't buy the new versions "Nokia 3210 2024" and similar models. I did, two times, with slightly different models, and they are of exceptionally poor quality: dead after one year, very buggy firmware. The customer support is an AI with no real answer. They recommended to install an app "from the Google Play app store" which is nonsense for a dumbphone.

They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name Nokia, but I am sure no Nokia R&D team was involved in these products.

[numpad0]

They clearly don't have the old code base, workforce to hypothetically adapt it to VoLTE, or factories to manufacture the phones. New Nokia TA-xxxx phones use MediaTek/Unisoc(Spreadtrum) SoC and MediaTek MAUI software rebranded as "S30+". Which means those are reskinned Chinese phones.

Old Nokia had RM-xxx or RX-xxx model numbers, so it's also clear that some of their corpo structure did survive.

[close04]

> They are very cheap noname phones, branded with the name Nokia

I thought only HMD [0] had the right to put the Nokia brand on a phone, and had several former Nokia executives in their leadership able to validate whether a device is "worthy" of that brand. Which made sense since Nokia as a company and brand still exist albeit in a different field, and junk branded with this name can tarnish the image.

Edit. I see HMD may transition away from the Nokia brand. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMD_Global#:~:text=The%20compa....

[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/hmd_is_dropping_its_nokia_branding_...

[kevin_thibedeau]

Corporate quality standards only work if a company is MBA-proof. Something no western company can withstand. Sooner or later, a financial genius will point out the margins that can be made on white label products and it snowballs.

[wholinator2]

I'm curious what would need to change to fix this? Because enshittification has become so ubiquitous and terrible that it's in the dictionary now. Is it regulation? Antitrust? Obliterate every board and private equity firm? There must be an actionable set of steps out of this because we had to have stepped into it somehow

[kevin_thibedeau]

Unconventional corporate srructures are the only possibility. Co-ops that empower rank and file employees is one way to keep the financial engineers from raiding the henhouse.

Having a leader who isn't driven by lust for profit helps a bunch. Sam Walton was that way and Chouinard of Patagonia has tried to build an ethical legacy through a trust. Walton failed. It remains to be seen if Chouinard does the same.

[jcul]

Yeah I bought a Nokia 2660.

After probably a month or so the hinge brackets broke from normal use.

Nokia refused to refund / repair it saying that only a drop could have caused it.

I replaced it with an AGM M8 which is a great dumbphone.

[ninjin]

Thank you both for the warnings. I have been looking for a "dumb" phone and arrived at the Nokia and now I am eyeing up the AGM M8 FLIP Security+ [1] instead.

[1]: https://www.agmmobile.com/products/agm-m8-security

[0_____0]

I'm noticing that the pricing is completely different on my desktop and mobile - I'm seeing the M8 Flip Security+ for $79 on mobile and $116 after sale cuts on desktop. I don't think it's a currency issue, I think it's a "my VPNs are set to exit IPs in different countries" thing. High in CA (with currency set to Global US$), low with Swedish IP.

[ninjin]

Try AliExpress, the prices there look unbeatable and are from AGM official stores at that.

[stuaxo]

Interesting, it has the same stylings as the old Samsung flip phones - which were horrdendous to develop for on J2Me because of various bugs and the tools not giving you any good ways to get debug data from them.

[jcul]

Yeah I wanted to like the nokia, but it was such a cheap plastic-y build. Nokia refusing to repair it did leave a bad taste also.

Funny enough the software on the nokia and the M8 was very similar.

I also had the CAT S22 flip, but I couldn't warm to it. It's really heavy and bulky, runs android so can be a bit sluggish, not amazing battery. I even rooted it and removed some of the bloatware it comes with, but it just isn't a great phone.

I had no issues with the M8 Flip, I got the normal version, not the security plus. Even though the camera is not great, sometimes it can be useful to be able to send an image over MMS. It's nice and light but still feels quality. Good loud speaker etc.

It has call recording, optionally automatic, which is important for me. It takes an SD card and I was able to transfer contacts as a vcf file, podcasts, and even exercise videos after some conversion. Not that the screen was amazing for watching things, but for following an exercise video would work in a pinch.

I think something like this worked.

    ffmpeg -i "$INPUT" -c:v libx264 -profile:v baseline -vf setdar=dar=0,setsar=sar=0 -c:a copy "$OUTPUT"

Another thing I found cool is the ability to selectively lock the screen. It's kind of painful to have to type a pin if you just want to use the calculator or something. It has the option to choose which menu items are protected by the pin. So for example, things like call recordings, media, sms I would have locked, but not some other things.

I'm actually not using it at the moment, I moved to a jelly star by unihertz, which I love, but it's a very different offering. Though I am considering going back to the M8 for a few months.

[jtbayly]

Can you use the M8 on carriers other than T-Mobile? I’m seeing several places that say T-mobile only.

[jcul]

It's probably worth double checking the bands they support.

I had the M6 before and I had issues where it would have coverage but calls would go straight to voicemail.

Maybe it was just an issue with that phone, I returned it.

I never had any problems with the M8 Flip.

[ajford]

Haven't used the M8, but I just set up an AGM M9 on Mint Mobile two days ago.

That said, that's kinda cheating since Mint is a T-Mobile MVNO and I haven't tried it outside my usual T-Mobile service area.

[Piraty]

i can confirm. I have bought and used both Nokia 2660 Flip and Nokia 8210 4G , both are HMD rebrands. Firmware is very buggy and battery failed after less than 2y .

[neilv]

I tried a Nokia-in-name-only modern dumbphone (a compact one without the retro styling), and it did what I needed, which was mainly SMS 2FA.

Until a manager for a tempting job wanted to do the first call on the phone. The call quality was so bad, it bombed the interview for me. So I kissed my privacy goodbye, and bought an iPhone.

(I've since switched to a GrapheneOS phone, which works well, with less violating.)

[wholinator2]

What about a dumb phone ensure that call quality is terrible? Could you not have found a better dumbphone if you really wanted to stay with it?

[neilv]

I spent some time looking. There were some pricey "designer" ones, but they generally got poor reviews. Maybe it's easier to do a design-school exercise, than to get the phone guts engineering right. Also, mandatory VoLTE eliminated a lot of high-quality legacy devices that would've worked fine.

[jaidan]

Why not consider a smart phone that has good hardware, supports VoLTE and doesn't use Android or Apple? I've been daily driving a Furi FLX1 for over a month now. You can make it as smart or dumb as you like and you can even use it to charge another phone!

[Paianni]

I have a 235 4G and I'd say the firmware is 'quirky' but not particularly buggy in the five months I've had it.

[secondcoming]

I bought an XR20 a few years ago and it's still running fine, and still receiving OS updates.