[Syonyk]

Yeah, look at the Sonim XP3+/XP5+ (depending if you want a flip phone or candybar).

Rugged, Android-Go powered "Call/SMS/MMS" devices, week and a half on battery if you leave it on constantly, hotspot, and you can, if you insist, sideload apps. Just, don't expect any modern Android app to be usable on a 240x320 screen with keyboard input only. If you use a Bluetooth mouse, it's marginally less-awful, but still, don't expect much to work.

I did get KDE Connect working - that allows you to send text messages with a real computer keyboard. It's not as nicely integrated as the Apple iMessage ecosystem, but it does allow for sending texts without having to T9 the whole thing. Alternately, the better option is to just move longer conversations to email or an actual phone call.

One of these shouldn't run you much over about $150 (in the US), and they work fine on the super cheap MVNO operators out there.

My writeup from about a year ago: https://www.sevarg.net/2023/12/30/more-flip-phone-sonim-xp3-...

[sourcepluck]

Ohhh snap, I'm glad I asked, I had not seen that one during my browsing. It looks like it really does hit all the points, wow. Investigating it right now! Cheers!

Update: not available outside US, or you can get it shipped but it's locked to US carriers (which seems nonsensical...)

Anyway. I'm back looking at the Cat B35, and I think that does the job. Thanks again!

[Syonyk]

There are some carrier unlocked versions available. Or at least used to be. They seem pretty universal - I'm running a T-Mobile one on an AT&T MVNO right now, and it wasn't too big a hassle to set up. Unfortunately, I think these are nearing end of production, supplies seem to be limited lately.

[sourcepluck]

I think it's a tad risky, as in, if I've an issue, returning it is an extra effort. Plus I'd be paying a fair bit extra for postage in the first place.

I think the best bet for me over here (Ireland) is to research the CAT phone that is dumb enough and not too expensive.

E.g., the CAT B26, for example, looks promising https://www.productindetail.com/pm/cat-b26

[wkat4242]

Be careful. CAT phones were made by Bullitt which went bankrupt early this year. Forget about support.

https://www.androidpolice.com/bullitt-say-goodbye-to-rugged-...

[sourcepluck]

I had spotted that, although thank you for pointing it out, it is indeed relevant.

My experience is that support can, under certain circumstances, be over-rated. Depending on your use case, of course.

If it's an Android-based phone with no support, and if you're not obliged to run specific mainstream apps on it, you can still keep them going for years and years with the magnificent F-Droid.

Source: just moved off of the Galaxy J-2 Prime I'd been using for maybe 5 years, and I'm not sure if it was supported even when I originally bought it, around 2019... I was on Android 8, or 6, or something ridiculous, I can't recall now.

With F-droid, and absolutely never logging in to a Google account, and deleting and disabling everything I safely could, and a couple of APKs like Signal, and some very judicious memory usage, I'd a functional phone, and learned a lot too.

Only moved off it because a family member got a new work phone, and was just going to not use the old one. Yoink!