I’ve wrote my initial review after 7 days with Kompakt, and have gathered more thoughts to share over the last 7 months. In those months I have been using Kompakt as my full time phone device. There are good things and there are things I still need to find good solutions for.
The Good
The most general conclusion I have is that removing an ever accessible window into abyss (aka smartphone) from my daily life has certainly improved my life in more than one way.
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More focus.
I’m working from home and my job requires brain power, so it the difference is very noticeable. I procrastinate less, it is easier to start working on a task, switching context though annoying seems to be easier (I assume because I have less of unconscious context switching caused by smartphone usage). -
More reading.
Not solely a Kompakt thing, because I’ve also joined a book club last year, but I also read more outside of the club, I’ve read multiple books from the Kompakt, and I really liked having a book with me while on vacations (without having to carry a paper book). The e-ink screen is just perfect in this regard. -
Less multitasking.
There is no email or slack on my phone, meaning that I never see work stuff outside of working hours. I generally find it easier to disengage and not to worry about it. If there is a message waiting for me somewhere it can wait more (I’m teaching people to call me if they need me, apparently not an easy thing to learn nowadays, but I’m patient, otherwise I wouldn’t get an e-ink phone). -
More mind-wandering.
Switching to Kompakt made me realize that recently I wasn’t letting my mind enough time to wander freely (long dog walks used to be my mind-wandering time but I don’t have a dog any longer). Now any walk or bus ride is a mind-wandering time.
Things I’m not totally happy with
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Traveling got harder.
I feel that I rely on my partners smartphone whenever we need to find a place to eat, to navigate, to order a taxi or to find an info about literally anything. This is annoying and burdening. Planing everything ahead is not realistic (and not our style). Sometimes there is simply no alternative to using a smartphone (QR-codes, NFC tags and apps are everywhere), and while abroad it is especially hard to find workarounds (even if they do exist). -
Camera quality is limiting.
Making photos with Kompakt is good when I need to document something. But making pictures for memories doesn’t really work. I still take my old iPhone if I plan to make photos. This is something I expected to be the case, so I don’t really complain. I might get a small camera to solve this in the future. -
Some things are just inaccessible.
Sometimes there is an app and nothing else (no web alternative, nothing). I joined a fitness group recently but to pay and book sessions I need a god damn app. I hate it, but that’s the reality. I’m using my partners phone for it (again).
I feel that switching to Kompakt freed me in some significant ways and I’m loving the change it brought. At the same time it made me more dependent on my partners smartphone which I think is not ideal (for starters it means she has to have one which is not fair). I’ve been thinking that getting a simple tablet could resolve this dependency (it is less portable and therefore less of a danger than a smartphone), but I don’t like an idea of getting another “smart” device (knowing it will end up like this I’d get an actual dumbphone, not Kompakt). I tried running android emulator on my laptop, but this solution proved to be unreliable (it is also doesn’t help for traveling case). I thought about trying something completely different (like Xiaomi Qin F21) as well but I don’t want to give up reading capabilities of the Kompakt.
I also can’t omit the fact that there is a very basic feature that is just broken in Kompakt. The audio jack issue makes it non-existent for me basically. (I am not planning to purchase another headset just because of it.)
Conclusion
There are great things to be said about Kompakt and I like it in many ways. It is still a challenge to use it as a daily driver in a modern world though and figuring out what works takes time and trials. For me it is still work in progress, but one thing I’m sure about – I’m not getting back to a smartphone.
Looks great! Will try it out