My journey with Mudita continues - Review Kompakt

Mudita Products
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Now, after a few days, the first report from me on the Mudita Kompakt.
After my return to the ‘dumbphones’ began with the release of the Pure, I have a certain amount of ‘suffering’ behind me :slight_smile:
No need to say anything more about the Pure. It would have been my dream phone if it had worked.
Then came the Punkt MP02, you can still find my report on it and the comparison with the Pure here in the forum.
I was very happy with the Punkt until the keypad started giving me problems. The error then also occurred with the second device. When I think about how much money I’ve spent on minimalist phones in recent years…
It’s funny, my old Nokia phones still work :slight_smile:

I really thought long and hard about whether to buy the KompaKt, as I didn’t really want a smartphone-like phone. But because it was so minimally equipped and I liked the look of it so much, I ordered it after all.
On Tuesday the time had come. After being completely without a mobile phone for a few weeks (how nice that was), I was delighted to be able to pick up the compact from the post office. I had the afternoon free and was able to devote myself to the device in detail.

Even unpacking it was a real pleasure. The packaging was as beautifully minimalist as I had already loved it with the Pure.
‘More Offline - More life’ I love it :slight_smile:

Then off with the SIM card and an additional SD card, into the device and started for the first time. Wait, no, I didn’t put the protective film on before starting and put the Kompakt in the great cover in sage green. I love the cover and the colour. I love sage, have grown some myself on the balcony and use it for teas and incense :slight_smile:
My meditation cushion and my joga mat are also sage green, so they fit perfectly.
But now… The Kompakt has been started and set up. I connected it to the WLAN, downloaded the update and then connected it to my Linux laptop and started the Mudita Centre. I quickly imported my contacts and I was finally ready to go.

I sent a few text messages and received the replies without any problems.
I made phone calls in which I had crystal-clear sound and was also understood very well by the other person. I played music, which even sounded very good through the built-in loudspeaker.
I tested the maps, and here too, I had a GPS connection on the balcony within seconds. Top!
The weather is displayed for my city and updated regularly, which also works perfectly.
Then the next morning I finally used the Meditation app. How I missed this app from the Pure.
The timer on the MP02 was horrible. The sound couldn’t be changed and often the sound couldn’t even be heard, apparently a bug with the MP02.
With the Kompakt, however, everything was as I knew it from the Pure. I set the timer to 15 minutes, sank the ghost and after 15 minutes I was gently brought back. Great!

I have been using the Kompakt since Tuesday afternoon and currently have a battery level of 86%. About 6 days of battery life left. If that’s not fantastic, I don’t know what is.

What did I particularly like and what didn’t?
I really like the design of the Kompakt. The size is just right, what annoyed me (and many others I know) is that there are only such huge smartphones. As a man, where should I put such a thing? Certainly not in my jeans pocket. The Kompakt is perfect. I also love the fact that it’s a bit thicker. It feels great in the hand and looks very robust.
And, like the Pure, it exudes a certain calmness for me. And compared to other phones, it somehow has soul. Do you know what I mean? It’s a device where you can feel what Mudita wants to achieve with it. There is a mission behind it all. Digital minimalism, being more mindful of the moment again, focussing on things that are happening around you, not walking around like a zombie with your smartphone.
Putting your phone away when you don’t need it and being in the here and now. More offline - more life!

I think the selection of apps is more than enough for what the Kompakt wants to be and for the idea behind it.
After some testing to give feedback here, I only have the phone and SMS function, as well as the meditation timer and the music player available. I don’t use anything else.
As I have already written in this forum, I live a very analogue life and reject any app compulsion. I make my bank transfers on paper, I take analogue photos, I still have an analogue telephone with a dial, I always have a notebook (Field Notes) with me and my calendar is a Hobonichi Techo.
I work on old bicycles and like to repair old things like typewriters. Digital is really the exception for me. Or as a poster in my favourite bookshop once said ‘Digital can go fuck itself’ :slight_smile:

I have the Kompakt to be available for my wife. It’s important for her to know whether I’ve arrived at work safely or to call me briefly during a break.
Personally, I could live very well without a mobile phone.
But I digress…

What don’t I like so far and where are there problems with the Kompakt?
As already mentioned in the forum, the music player is unfortunately really a joke, and not a good one :wink:
All my songs, approx. 40 GB of music on the SD card, are simply displayed in a long list. In between a few podcast episodes. Finding something specific is not possible.
Mudita, please revise the player very quickly. As I have already linked in the forum, there are many good open source players where you can see how it works. Either you sort the songs and albums yourself in a separate folder structure or the player recognises the ID3 tags and displays the albums, artists etc. accordingly.

Then there is the aforementioned problem with the German-language keyboard. The bar with the umlauts does not always appear when you hold down the ‘A’, for example. You then have to minimise the keyboard and maximise it again, then it works again. This is another point that should be fixed quickly.

As already mentioned, a proper navigation function would be useful for people who want to use maps, preferably with a selection for cycling, driving and walking.

Apart from that, I’m absolutely delighted with the device and can only recommend it to any digital minimalist.
And think about whether you really want to install so many apps via sideloading. Do you really need certain apps, or does the company just want us to believe that you need them? Don’t you have a bank where you can get a tan generator instead of a smartphone app?
Do you have to buy train tickets via an app just to have the QR code on your mobile phone? Isn’t it enough to buy the ticket on your PC and print it out?
Does it have to be Whatsapp or is there another way to stay in touch with your loved ones?
I have communicated very clearly that anyone who needs to reach me urgently should call me or send me a SMS.
I check Telegram and emails once or twice a week. So only the less urgent communication like holiday pictures etc…
It works really well.
The slightly older ones among us have all lived without these devices and survived wonderfully.
So why not at least take a small step back with the compact?

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hmmm interesting. ive been trying to figure out how i should approach my time keeping and appointments. is there a particular type of the Hobonichi Techo you like?

While i agree that the music player i hope gets a few feature updates, ive never personally seen this phone as a music player. in fact one of the reasons i choose this phone was to not use a phone as a music player. instead i use an actual digital music player, much better sound, much better desgined for music. no attachment to having a phone hung around me. while i use an old one i already have, i had considered the Surefans F20 which is a nice little player with a pretty minimal UI and physical buttons, it can be flashed with rockbox making it pretty powerful.

My only personal nitpick is that SMS is not private and prone to government snooping, which is why i have signal. however youre not wrong. do i really need it? maybe not.

i had looked at the punkd because of its signal support, but it seems they use a custom client that they really dont keep updated. so it was out.

i agree with a lot of what you said, the phone works well. i think it needs some quality of life improvements over certain settings and apps but otherwise doesnt need extra apps (except maybe if they can figure out signal D: id be on board for that)

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Ditto for me, which explains why I was happy to confirm that Session works on my Kompakt!

When I learned in the last year or so that the U.S. federal government keeps every SMS ever sent (at least among those of us in the USA), I became more careful about what I put in SMS/MMS messages.

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I love Hobonichi! Tomoe River Paper is simply awesome for writing with fountain pens! I’m also a big fan of Traveller’s Notebook since they have so many customisation options.

Re: German keyboards: if sideloading is an option for you, you could try HeliBoard. I’m currently using and liking to so far.

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@marko WOW! Thank you so much for writing such a thoughtful and detailed review. We’re truly grateful to hear how well the Kompakt aligns with your lifestyle and values. We’re already working on improvements to the music player and navigation features, and these updates will be delivered through upcoming software releases. Your feedback is incredibly valuable and helps us shape a better, more mindful experience for everyone. Thanks again for being part of the journey.

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Love this review and was really waiting for yours because we had the same experience with the Pure, absolutely LOVING it and trying to get it to work but never reaching that goal. I am confident I will love the phone as much as you!

How do you find the texting experience? Want to get this feedback from a person that meditates etc cause I think they are more patient, I just have the feeling the texting is not as bad as people make it out to be, they just lack patience, how has your experience been texting?

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I’m not the OP, but am one of the people who has been a bit critical of the keyboard. I’ll give you my thoughts anyway :slightly_smiling_face:

It’s definitely not terrible, there is just some lag, and occasional issues with accuracy. I don’t need crazy speed when sending texts, I just find it irritating when there are random double keystrokes or skipped keystrokes when I know I hit the key correctly (because I’m already going slowly). Basic auto-correct would be helpful and assist me to put my phone back in my pocket more quickly, which is ultimately a goal of mine. For reference, I think I prefer the typing experience on my Kindle (so not even comparing it to a modern smart phone).

In my opinion, some basic auto correct, auto capitalization, adding apostrophes where they’re obvious, etc would help the experience a lot and not be hard to implement.

For example, in the middle of a sentence, typing the word “I’m” requires 7 keystrokes, assuming that you make no mistakes, though often you might. Sure, we can say it’s only 7 vs 3 on an iPhone, but when you’re typing a few sentences, it feels like these small things add up to a worse experience than it needs to be.

Also, the haptic feedback has quite a bit of lag, so the vibrations don’t match the timing of when you press the actual key, which isn’t great.

To be clear I believe all of this will likely be improved over time, that’s just my honest take on it after 1 week with the phone.

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One more thing to mention - sometime it works really well with no lag for a while, then the next time there will be more lag and issues I mentioned above. I don’t know if it’s related to RAM or something else - but also good to acknowledge there are stretches of time where the keyboard is working nicely.

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Watch day 1 I am complaining about the keyboard LOL, good write up though definitely great feedback that the Mudita team and implement. That is what is great about this forum it really helps the team make the device better, but that is going to require patience from us for sure, but I totally understand if people do not want to wait, that is their choice in the end

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Way better typing experience than any contemporary Nokia bar phone, but I was never a fast typer on a phone keyboard, I preferred swiping. I miss autocorrection capabilities though. This would help in many cases where all you can do is press backspace couple times or try to move the cursor around…
I’m also not sure why there’s no all-caps mode. I know meditation and stuff but sometimes you gotta emphasize something, not necessarily e-yell. :wink:

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I thought there wasn’t as well - but actually double-tapping shift enables caps lock. Sometimes it takes a few tries.

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Indeed, thanks!

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So, after almost a week with the Kompakt, here are a few more comments:

-Phone calls and sending and receiving text messages continue to work without any problems and to my complete satisfaction :slight_smile:

-The meditation timer works great and has helped me to get back into my meditation routine. Thank you for that :slight_smile:

-The alarm clock doesn’t work properly. Sometimes it rings, sometimes it doesn’t (I’ve overslept once) and this morning it rang at 5:50 instead of 5:45.

-I’ve already written about the keyboard. The umlauts often don’t work and typing is very slow. I installed the Futo keyboard to be able to type properly, although I didn’t really want to do that. Typing with Futo is like night and day. Everything works and typing is much, much faster. So the reaction time from typing until the letter appears.

I’m a very patient person and I try to slow down and focus when I’m texting, but typing with the Mudita keyboard was really unusual because the feedback (vibration and the appearance of the letters) was really unusually late. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but other keyboards do it better, as I said.

-The music player, as I said, is unfortunately unusable, but they are working on it.

But I have to be honest, if Mudita didn’t have such a great credit with me and I was so behind the idea of Mudita, I would be really angry! I would probably have sent a smartphone from another company straight back if, of the few apps that are installed, basic things like the keyboard and the alarm clock don’t work properly and an app like the music player is almost unbreakable.

I really hope you get this sorted quickly, because otherwise the phone is really fun and has a very reassuring effect on me!

And I still have over 40% battery (the Kompakt has been in use since last Tuesday).

So, as with the Pure, I’ll do my best to help with feedback and I’m looking forward to the journey with Mudita and the Kompakt :slight_smile:

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SO with texting there is a delay but does the letter you are typing show up or does it skip over letters sometimes? With the light phone it is slow as well but it never misses letters when I input them so I don’t mind if there texting is slow, I am just wondering why texting is such an issue, I am hoping this is sorted out in an update sooner than later. @urszula how do you find your texting experience? Although u are using whatsapp not the messaging app on the kompakt right?

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The letters appear, but as I said, a little later and it feels strange when you want to press the next letter and then the vibration for the first letter appears as feedback. But as I said, it sounds worse than it is and I only really noticed it when I installed the Futo keyboard, which has virtually no delay.

I only installed Futo because of the problems with the umlauts.

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Yeah I have this experience every day with the light phone 2 lol, I have gotten use to it and its not an issue, can you turn off the vibration when you text?

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You can, and I did this for a while. Not sure what was worse, because the lagging vibrations served as a reminder that I was typing too fast for the keyboard (and I experienced many keys skipping at faster speed). So I turned it back on.

But then switched to FUTO keyboard, experience is 1000x better, and I have vibrations back off again for battery life.

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Yeah the delay does not bother me, the lp2 does that so I am beyond use to it lol, I am going to avoid sideloading anything as long as i can, the only time I might break is if I have to go on a work trip and require slack

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Hold up. It’s been almost a full week and you’re at 40% battery?!!

I would drag my body through a pile of thumbtacks just to have a phone that lasted three days.

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Yeah this is one of the biggest draws for me to this phone, never having to worrying about battery, with my lp2 I am constantly making sure it has enough, will be nice to have a phone where you can forget to plug it in for literally a week and you will be fine lol

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