Escaping the display isn’t straightforward. After I examined the Mild Cellphone III in March—a cellphone designed to strip away apps and deal with the fundamentals—I rapidly discovered what number of little issues I wanted my smartphone for, from accessing my dwelling’s safety cameras to authentication apps so I may sign up to net providers on my laptop computer. Generally it is simply not straightforward to go chilly turkey. However that is the place the Minimal Cellphone steps in.
That is an Android cellphone with a bodily keyboard and an e-paper touchscreen. It appears to be like like a Kindle had a child with a BlackBerry. Not like most anti-smartphone merchandise that supply a curated suite of fundamental cellphone features, the Minimal Cellphone helps you to entry any app by way of the Google Play Retailer like a traditional Android cellphone. However the expertise is hampered by the tiny, 4.3-inch e-paper display that wants fixed refreshing. The keyboard may also gradual you down. This irritating smartphone expertise is kind of the purpose.
I bought into mattress one night time, prepared for my normal bedtime doomscrolling ritual. As my spouse was zooming by way of TikTok, I checked out my cellphone and wailed to my spouse, “I am unable to doomscroll!” I heaved a sigh, put my cellphone down, and went to mattress. This isn’t to say that I magically awakened the following day with the very best sleep of my life—utilizing your cellphone earlier than mattress can have an effect on sleep—however it did show one factor: The Minimal Cellphone did its job of reducing my time spent on social media.
Ghost Metropolis
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
The distinction in construct high quality between the Minimal Cellphone and the Mild Cellphone III is stark. The latter mixes glass and steel, whereas the Minimal is sort of solely plastic. It feels light-weight, and I’ve to say, somewhat low cost. It does not assist that instantly after unboxing it, the cellphone’s again was already grubby with smudges, virtually like I had simply eaten a bag of Cheetos (I want). Possibly that is why the corporate sells Dbrand skins to cowl it up.
On the correct edge is an influence button with a fingerprint scanner baked in, and it is pretty dependable. The underside homes the USB-C charging port and a headphone jack. On the left edge is the SIM tray, which helps microSD playing cards for storage growth if 128 GB is not sufficient. The amount buttons are divided by an “e-paper refresh” button, in all probability the button you will press essentially the most.
That brings us to the 4.3-inch touchscreen, which is … not nice. That is largely as a result of once you scroll or transfer by way of net pages and menus, there’s a variety of ghosting—a faint picture of the earlier textual content you had been looking at. Even one or two scrolls and you may need to hit that e-paper refresh button liberally to take away these artifacts—that rapidly turns into an annoying step.
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
It additionally does not assist that the monochrome display does not play effectively with lighter colours on choose web sites, although pages with largely black and white textual content, like WIRED.com, look high quality. Fortunately, I had no issues studying the matte display in any lighting state of affairs. You may regulate the display’s coloration temperature and brightness to fit your eyes, and there isn’t any glare.
Shifting all through the Android 14 working system can really feel somewhat gradual, however that is largely simply the velocity of the e-paper display. From a efficiency standpoint, it appears to chug alongside high quality with the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset inside. Granted, I don’t advocate making an attempt cellular video games.
The house display exhibits an inventory of shortcuts to core apps, like Cellphone, Messages, Digital camera, Calendar, and Calculator. There is a Notes app, and it defaults to opening Google Maintain. (You may take away and add new ones by long-pressing the app identify within the drawer.) I’ve used the cellphone like another I check, even utilizing Google Maps to navigate and Google Pockets for tap-to-pay at bodily retailers, although you will have a subpar expertise with some apps greater than others.
Lite Cellphone
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
You will not need to do sure issues on the Minimal Cellphone. Watching movies, taking part in video games, and scrolling by way of social media don’t mesh effectively with an e-paper display and the gradual refresh price. YouTube movies and Instagram Reels alike really feel such as you’re looking at a strobe mild, with the display flashing with each body. Press and maintain the e-paper refresh button, and you will find an “extremely” refresh setting that makes this somewhat higher, however the high quality considerably diminishes, and the whole lot appears to be like like a blob. (I often saved it at “hybrid,” which switches to extremely when scrolling or when a video is taking part in.)
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