Hey guys, I hope my review finds you well !
I’m by no means a professional reviewer, but I’d like to share with you my experience with the Mudita Kompakt.
Hardware 9/10:
I found the built quality to be very nice ! My expectations weren’t very high, as plastic phones have various finish and material type. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised.
The presence of a 3.5 mm headphone jack is veryyy nice to see (even if I might not use it very frequently, it’ll be there when my headphone’s battery are depleted).
USB-C, a nice modern versatile port. Wireless charging, which works fine. SD card slot, I’m in love.
I found myself liking a lot the offline + toggle on the phone. I also got the case with the phone, finish and feel is very good !
The case also prevents any unwanted touch of the power button/fingerprint scanner and prevents toggling the offline + switch accidentally, so I strongly advise you get one if you don’t already.
What I would’ve liked to see is a higher IP rating. I never plan on swimming on my phone, but accidents happen and it’s a nice peace of mind to know that your phone is waterproof (at least IP 67)
Camera 8/10 :
The dual LED flash works great and is pretty bright.
The camera quality of the pictures can be surprising if taken still and if you give the phone the time to understand what it is surrounded with.
Thus, I you take it while walking or moving, your results will may vary. I’ve had great shots and bad shots. The style of the pictures remind me of older early 2000’s Kodak, even more if the picture is taken using the flash. (I don’t complain, I like that old nostalgic look 
).
I think we can expect a more stable experience as the weeks will go by, the team will optimize it better.
Speaker quality 6.5/10 :
Not the best sounding speaker on a phone, but does the job. Are you really going to listen to music on a phone speaker ? No. So it ain’t that important. Call quality on speaker is good and clear. That’s the only important part. Plus, you’re paying 439$ USD, you can’t have iPhone quality at that price and that’s to be expected.
Phone call quality 9/10 :
I called my mom (mama’s boy 
), she didn’t even see any quality difference coming from my previous Nothing phone 2.
My girlfriend noted that I seemed a bit further sounding than before, but she heard me just fine. So call quality ? On par with higher end smartphones with some optimization.
Messaging 9/10 :
Messaging works great ! I don’t use group messaging very much, so I can’t talk for that.
Keyboard 5/10 :
My experience with the keyboard is mixed. Sometimes it works just fine and others it gives me some headache.
It kind of lags pretty often, and I would like autocorrect to give better suggestions. We talk French in my region of Canada and I found that text suggestions for autocorrect often excludes accents (à,é,è, etc … ) and punctuation (‘)
That said, we’re on an early version of software, so I think it’s going to get better with time.
Native apps 8.5/10 :
Alarms works as it should, I’ve had none of the issues mentioned by others in the forum.
Calendar works fine, would like to see Google calendar sync and more flexibility on setting reminders as 5 min reminders aren’t useful for me
Calculator well, it’s a calculator.
Maps does it job of showing your surroundings (doesn’t give directions, but I don’t want it to, I like to use my brain to find my way ),
Recorder is fine.
E-reader does what it needs.
Meditation is nice, but I’d like to have timer/stopwatch options in a clock app that said.
Music needs some work, I got over 3000 songs on an SD card and no way to filter them out in the app or at least see them by folder.
Weather is very nice. It’s probably my favority one. Well integrated in the control panel too.
Note does what a note app should do.
I’m, in most case, satisfied by the native apps provided with the phone.
UX/UI 8/10 :
The user experience is pretty good. Apps are responsive, and we get used to navigating the phone (took me 5 min to find out where the hell were the settings ). The lock screen needs some improvement to be more useful for the user. The addition of a widget for media playback on the home screen and lock screen would enhance the experience. (pleaaseee make it for any media playing on the phone and not only for the music app as I think a lot of users will sideload Spotify or other music streaming service)
For the rest, I think Mudita made great choices, keeping the phone’s interface clean and easy to use.
I saw some posts about adding a notification tray and notifications on the lock screen. I have to somewhat disagree, the whole purpose of buying a minimalist phone is to keep it minimal. Furthermore, I don’t want to get distracted by wanting to look out at every icon popping on my phone. Because as soon as we get an icon on our device, we’ll be tempted to look at it. By not showing any icon of notification, it makes taking the phone wayyy more intentional.
Network and Bluetooth stability 6.5/10 :
Cellular connection is good, not anything revolutionary, but not bad. I’ve seen better reception with other phones and also worst. solid 8/10.
Bluetooth connectivity is where things aren’t optimized yet. I got a lot of audio products which I paired my Kompact to and the stability of the connection isn’t very good. Audio often stutters and isn’t fluid. It seems worst in places where other devices are present (a cafe for exemple). I would sadly rate it a 5/10 for now. BUT as it is mostly due to the software, it can become a 10/10 as time goes by and updates are sent.
My global rating of the device : 8/10
I think Mudita nailed it on the need for a minimalist device. You got the possibility to sideload apps that you truly want (in my case, Spotify and Sony music center) while still maintaining the peace of mind of having a device that doesn’t disturb you every freaking 3 min. E-ink screen is fantastic and soft on the eyes. Everything on the phone does what it needs to do. Nothing less, nothing more. They achieved, if you ask me, a great ration between price/quality for this device (Again 439$, you can’t expect titanium). With time and updates (if done correctly), this phone will become an icon of what a minimalist phone is and should be.
Suggested improvements:
- Bluetooth stability improvements
- Keyboard improvement on responsiveness and autocorrect suggestions/capabilities
- Group messaging (possibility to start a group chat)
- Music app needs some love (filter by artist/album/song/folder, and possibility to create playlists)
- Camera improvement and stability
- Phone call quality improvement (even if minor)
- Transform Alarm app in Clock app (add timer/stopwatch in the app)
- Google Calendar sync for the Calendar app
- More flexibility for reminders before events in the Calendar app (C’mon 5 min, that’s mostly useless if I have an appointment that needs a 30 min car ride)
- Lock screen redesign (What I would suggest is keeping the logo in the bottom part and putting a clock in the top part, maybe with the exterior temperature. NO notifications icons)
- Media playback widget on lock screen and on home screen.
I just want to add one last note on my review, I read a lot of people on the forum complaining that they can’t sideload some apps, or that they don’t have notification, or that whatever isn’t like their last phone. BUT IT’S THE PURPOSE OF THE KOMPAKT. A minimalist phone is meant to, sometimes, lead you to discomfort because you don’t have access to somethings like a Web browser or your banking app and your smartwatch may not work. It is meant to free your time from your screen while maintaining basic functions (which it does wonderfully).
So maybe, just maybe, if you’re side loading 15 additional apps on that poor’s phone 32gb storage, you’re NOT ready for a minimalist phone.
Just think about it, are you really ready to make the move ? On my part, hell yes, I am.
Thanks for reading,
Gabriel
