Mudita Kompakt review: my experience as a smartphone veteran

Mudita Products
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Hello everyone, though I generally don’t like to write reviews about the products I buy, I have such strong feelings about this device that I decided to write one for the Kompakt. Now even though I have sympathy for the Mudita team in general, I will not mince words in this review. This review will thus be written from the perspective as a paying customer that expects a smartphone to deliver a near hassle-free experience, much like other phones. Since a lot has been written about the positives about the device (which I agree with), I want to succinctly summarize my issues here that do not meet my expectations.

Why the Kompakt
For a couple of years I have minimized my smartphone usage. I have no social media and previously used the Jelly Star. However this phone was a tad too small for me and its battery life is poor. Though I looked at the Bigme Hibreak Pro I wanted a smaller device and appreciated the software/hardware connection Mudita is trying to make with the e-ink screen.

Hardware
-The screen is not 300 PPI despite the competition. This might be due to the screen size, but I expect better in 2025
-The speaker is not to modern standards. Not sure if this is due to resonance in the phone itself or the quality of the speaker, but the performance is not good.

All other issues (camera, no warm backlight etc are to be expected from a minimal device and do not hinder usage.)

Software
1: Phone: 10/10 app
2: SMS: 10/10 app
3: Calculator: 10/10
4: Calendar: Does not sync with external services: unusable for me. I know this will be updated so I expect it become a good app.
5: Camera: needs video
6: Chess: 10/10
7: E-reader: 3/10, no turning of pages with the volume buttons. Contrast seems to be impeded because the screen is always in performance mode (or so it seems).
8: Recorder: 10/10
9: Maps: Barely used but fails to find GPS indoors. Not up to modern standards.
10: Music: 10/10, enough for a minimal experience.
11: Meditations: 10/10
12: Notes: 10/10
13: Weather/10/10, absolutely perfect for me

Notifications:
Notifications are poor on this device. Now I don’t use notifications but you cannot separe ring and notifications volume. Apparently this was introduced in Android 13 but we are in 2025 so I expect this feature to be present. Furthermore, putting the phone on silence does NOT mute vibration. The phone cannot be used in formal settings. Unacceptable. Any solutions are more than welcome.

Things that annoy me
-Logo on lock screen instead of nothing or a clock.
-The flashing of the pin screen after unlocking with the fingerprint.
-Phone easy to unlock with your finger in your pocket because you don’t have to press the power button before the fingerprint unlock.

Unacceptable things
The keyboard is borderline unusable. It often skips presses. It feels rushed and really damages the experience.

Vanilla experience now: 5
Vanilla experience with major issues fixed: 8+

However, for me the vanilla experience is not workable as a primary phone. I need Whatsapp at the very minimum. So I sideload apps. However, there is no app manager to manage notifications! This is extremely annoying and would also help the vanilla experience. However, most apps are horrible to use on an e-ink screen and there are frequent crashes with some applications. Alternative launchers are also generally a bad idea. I see people asking about banking apps, uber etc on this device and I would simply say: forget about it. Yes sometimes and in some situations you can make it work but it will be a very frustrating experience. If you are not willing to make sacrifices to make this your primary phone, you will be disappointed. I use a second phone at home for non-daily use apps and I can very much recommend this approach to anyone wanting to use the Kompakt.

Things that annoy me when sideloading
-You cannot rearrange apps
-You cannot replace Icons of apps! Basic stuff for most phones but not a thing here. Perhaps an exercise in dealing with perfectionism, but also an area for room for improvement.
-I cannot delete apps from the phone.
Non Vanilla experience now: 6, perhaps a little higher
Non Vanilla experience with major issues fixed: 8+ (or higher?)

Additional software
Mudita center is not the fastest but it does its job. No problemo here.

A general message to the Mudita community
Upon receiving my phone I was surprised at reading a number of complaints, with a lot of complaints about missing features. I thought about these complaints and did not recognise the same need for a lot of these requests. And then it struck me: where does a minimalist phone end and a feature phone begins? Is it the camera? Is it having 5g? Is it having a browser? It’s simple to make a feature phone: just cram in everything that is possible on a hardware and software basis. Such a phone will never disappoint anyone because people can always find what they are looking for and disregard what they don’t use. Minimal phones do not have this luxury. There will ALWAYS be things left out that will disappoint people. There is NO agreement on what a minimalist phone experience needs to be…yet. This goes for Light Phone too! What I am trying to say: know what you are getting yourself into; you will probably need to make sacrifices! At the same time I believe there needs to be a roadmap by the Mudita team. I know you want to ship out phones before announcing any potential feature requests (which makes sense business wise because people could decide to cancel their order or return their phone because their seemingly important feature is not yet announced or not part of the phone), but I urge to take a position of leadership and to not be afraid of what the Mudita Kompakt experience will actually be like in the end.

But I also accept that I chose to buy a product that has a very limited market (as of now). I bought a phone that does less than a 10 year old phone, with a screen that was never designed for a phone, on purpose! So I will ride it out no matter what, because nothing brings me a bigger smile than dumb ideas done great and Mudita has at least shown the willingness to achieve the latter. This is my review and now if you will excuse me, I will go for a walk because the sun is out.

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As you might infer from others’ and my earlier posts, some of us cannot give the Kompakt SMS app 10/10 now.

Although I remain hopeful that Mudita will soon eliminate these deficiencies, the SMS app today lacks these BASICS:

  1. No ability to start a message to a group
  2. No ability to see a list of participants in a group message
  3. No ability to block incoming messages from those not on the contacts list
  4. No ability to combine a photo with text (must be sent separately)
  5. No ability to shoot a photo to send in a message (must already exist in gallery)

USA-based cellular carriers typically include unlimited texting on almost all plans, and this includes both SMS and MMS.

I live in the USA and received the Global-optimized Kompakt 14 days ago. Deficiencies #1 and #2 were obvious right away, given that we use group messaging here daily.

I suspect that most other USA-based Kompakt customers ordered, unlike me, the North America-optimized version, so I am like the canary in the coal mine with respect to group messaging.

Mudita should anticipate a firestorm of complaints from USA-based customers who receive the North America-optimized Kompakt, if Mudita has not addressed #1 and #2 by the time that they receive their Kompakt cellphones.

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I enjoyed reading it. I have a very similar opinion. It might sound masochistic, but the limitations that Mudita offers are a liberation for me. This principle of voluntary self-limitation can be applied in many areas such as Food, Fun… since the old Czech proverb says “Too much of everything is harmful”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that I don’t expect improvements to existing dysfunctional or unfinished elements.

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Sorry to keep you.

(To be clear, I’m just joking. It just sounded funny to sign off that way.)

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@anon4838315

Thank you for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and honest review. We truly appreciate the depth of your feedback, both in terms of what’s working well, AND where the experience falls short of your expectations.

As you rightly pointed out, building a minimalist phone means making deliberate trade-offs. There’s no universal blueprint, and user needs vary widely. We experienced this from the JUMP when we first announced Mudita Kompakt. Everyone had a different opinion about what THEY thought it SHOULD BE. That said, your reflections on where the Kompakt stands today, especially in terms of hardware performance, software polish, and sideloading limitations, are incredibly valuable to us as we continue to improve.
We are already working on it.
So, we hear you when you’re asking for clearer roadmap and leadership in defining what mindful tech can and should be. However, it means so many different things to different people.

Thank you again for supporting what we’re building, and for embracing the idea that sometimes the most meaningful innovations come from doing things differently, on purpose.

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Duly noted and good points. We need urgent clarification on these matters. Luckily for me SMS is a dead medium here and I simply need it to receive SMS for verification purposes.

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It was meant to be funny indeed haha. The point I was trying to convey is that we are all very involved in this phone but in the end it’s just a phone. The purpose of buying this phone was to not have my phone an important factor in my life and now that some things end up being frustrating I think me and other people are making a phone an important factor in their life again but in a different way. Because let me tell you, before I bought this thing I really did not anticipate writing a huge amount of text because apparently the phone on silent does not mute the buzzer. So I put out my frustrations on this forum and now it’s up to Mudita what they do with it.

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Thank you for your reply. I expect the upcoming survey to clear things up a bit.

p.s. I tried to include different replies in one post but made replying difficult so I separated my responses, please excuse me.

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I salute you for doing it.

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I agree. Life is about creating opportunities and accepting the limits of your opportunities. Life is about balance, neither scarcity nor abundance.

In fact, it’s funny…Michal has founded a company that makes some of the biggest and most widely played videogames, yet also founded a company that wishes to pull us away from the digital world. The concept of balance that Mudita offers seems to grounded in its founder. This phone might be imperfect, but it feels personal…it feels…somewhat human. And now I will shut up :stuck_out_tongue: All of your positive comments on my review is stroking my ego a bit too much haha, though I have so many more ideas!

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The dual device approach is working for me. Leace the smartphone at home or in a bag and use it as a tool.

Keeping it out of reach is the key to not checking it by habit, only with intention.

I have taken the Kompakt out of my pocket by habit only to realise to my relief that it wont lead to doomscrolling (usually just checking the weather and checking for missed SMS-messages)

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I am beginning to believe I will be in a dual device approach to using the MK as well. I had originally wanted to ditch my Motorola, but I am seeing that may not be possible. Thinking I will put a second sim in the Motorola and use it as a connected phablet.

I am still very excited to get my Kompakt, but some expectations are being lowered.

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It’s the most logical IMO and truthfully not an issue. I did it before with the Jelly Star and barely ever ran into trouble.

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Final thing I miss: LED notifications…the led is already there.

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My other minimalist cellphone is a Sunbeam Wireless F1 Orchid. I loved being able to look across the room at it sitting in its cradle to see whether I missed any calls or text messages. The LEDs on the cover told me yay or nay. In contrast, I must pick up and unlock my Kompakt every time that I want to see whether I missed any calls or text messages. The red/green LED at the top of the Kompakt could save me that trouble.

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I’d actually prefer just the LED showing notifications and to see details when I unlock the phone. Otherwise it should have a clean lockscreen (without branding).

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100% agree. Group messaging seems like an absolute requirement even for a minimalist phone. The lack of group messaging is the only thing holding me back from ordering the Kompakt right now. Currently using the Lightphone II.

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yeah but only from your usa-point of view.
Here in europe no one uses this. So I totally understand that this was no focus for a plolish company.

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I’m confused, can you receive group messages at all? It sounds like you can’t Start a group. That, I wouldn’t mind

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I’m in the UK, so still in Europe, just outside the EU. I think most phone users who care for things like emojis, sending images (for free) etc. are already using a messaging app e.g. iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram etc. I would imagine that’s also the case in EU countries, no? I think I remember reading on this forum that RCS won’t be coming to the Mudita. So, given that the only practical option is to use one of these other messaging apps anyway, how important is group SMS?

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