I have seen several reviews by users with extensive developer experience and by users who have put a lot of effort into customization in order to meet their particular needs, so I figured I would post my own (lengthy, sorry) review after several weeks of use, just in case there are others like me out there who are considering the Kompakt expecting to use it more or less as intended based on advertisements. I wanted an e-ink phone and was very excited about having a physical switch to “disconnect.” I was fully prepared for a phone with no browser, no email, no social media, and no capabilities beyond maps (with driving directions), e-reader, texting, and voice calls. I had no expectation that I would be able to integrate or sync my existing contacts or calendars. Full disclosure: I did sideload Signal, Brave, and Proton Mail; I use Signal to text with family overseas, so this was essential, and I rarely use the browser or email functions but was uncomfortable being totally without those capabilities in an emergency.
Overall, I think the phone does a good job of creating a conceptual shift–I check my personal email morning and night, browse social media from a desktop over my lunchbreak or in the evening, and my relationship with technology (and its intrusions) is much better.
Having said that, here is what I wish I had known ahead of time:
- I had to switch carriers from AT&T to T-Mobile because AT&T would not support my phone. Despite some workarounds posted by other users, there was no fool-proof out-of-the-box solution and at the most basic level, I want my phone to call and text without having to do anything complicated and that was simply not possible for me on AT&T.
- The Maps app is virtually useless to me except as a digital version of a paper map. As a pedestrian going to a commercial business, it works, but it cannot locate a residential address unless you already know where it is on a map and can drop a pin and request routing. This may be an Open Street Maps issue, but I have tried the suggested inversion of street name and address, which is common in EU, but that does not work either. Unless the Mudita team can address this problem in a future update, you should expect to have to sideload an app like Waze if you want to be able to reliably use the search function and locate an unfamiliar destination based on the address.
- Messaging apps like Signal do not produce notifications the way that the SMS messaging app does. The phone will ding/vibrate but nothing will appear on the lock screen, so if you miss the initial audio/tactile notification, you will have no way to know that you have a new Signal message. I found myself checking my phone more as a result, since I cannot tell at a glance whether anyone has tried to contact me. I understand that the goal of the device is to reduce dependence/intrusion, but as long as SMS messaging produces notifications, it seems like a real miss to not have other messaging apps do the same.
- The e-reader does weird stuff–every time I turn a page, the entire screen blinks multiple times before resolving the text into something readable. E-books are still readable, it is just extremely annoying and I have never experienced such a visually jarring effect on any other e-ink device I have used. According to the Mudita OS K roadmap, “User-selectable E Ink refresh display modes” are planned for 2026, so it is possible this may resolve in a future update.
- The music player app does not sort things by album or artist automatically, so expect to spend time manually creating folders for artists or albums.
In summary, the phone does most of what it is actually advertised to do, and a lot of user complaints stem from owner frustration that the device fails to operate like an e-ink version of their regular smartphone with a physical privacy/do-not-disturb switch. On the other hand, it doesn’t do a particularly impressive job of doing the bare minimum advertised functions either. I can call and text, listen to music, read a weird flickering e-book, and access an e-ink map of wherever I am (which cannot “find” most destinations by address). The keyboard has predictive text but does not have autocorrect, so expect to do a lot of backspacing while typing (as a dyslexic, the loss of autocorrect is painful). If the e-ink display issue were improved in an update and the Map app were fixed so that I could actually search by address, the Kompakt would be a great way to combine a Nokia brick phone with an old-school iPod, a Kindle, and a Garmin–which is what I was expecting after reading through the company’s website. As it stands, it is a perfectly adequate talk and text device, but is unpleasant for reading more than a page or two and useless for navigating to a destination in an unfamiliar place. I had hoped for a more privacy-focused alternative to my prior setup, which was an iPhone with the display set to grayscale and all apps deleted other than email, Brave browser, talk/text/Signal, iBooks, camera, maps, and VLC music player.
My hope is that future updates will bring the Kompakt closer to my (I think not unreasonable) expectations and I will be able to transition to it 100% of the time, but until Maps are functional, Signal produces notifications, and the e-reader screen flashing improves, I will still need to rely on other devices and will have to resort to the iPhone any time I am travelling. Could some of the issues above be addressed by loading a different keyboard, running inkOS, or adding Waze or other apps? Possibly, but at that point it defeats the purpose (for me, at least) of having the Kompakt, since it ultimately turns the phone into a regular Android phone with an e-ink screen, and if that is what I wanted, I would have purchased a Minimal phone, Boox, BigMe, etc. Overall, I see a lot of potential in the Kompakt but it has not yet been fully realized, and I hope the Mudita team continues to make improvements, since the concept is a really good one and I look forward to enjoying this phone in the future.
