i don’t really do reviews but i’ll write my thoughts here…
i’m not meaning to discredit sandra’s review either, but its a good springboard for me to address some of the issues she had.
also, one other thing to note…i have been on a punkt phone for 6 years now, the mp01, and now currently the mp02.
i supported the pure within 5 minutes of the campaign, but that was when the punkt mp02 was so buggy, it was hardly usable.
since then, punkt has made massive strides with software updates, that its nearly flawless now. probably wouldn’t desire a new phone anymore…
however, i am still thrilled i supported mudita with the pure. here are my initial thoughts, and drawing some comparisons to the mp02.
ALSO also, i have only been using the phone for a day basically, and if there are ways to fix certain things i address through options or settings that i missed, someone please let me know!
CONS:
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i’ll start by giving my biggest gripe. the squeaky loud creak sound when hitting the down arrow navigation button gets very obnoxious. it sounds like the housing is too tight and pulling against that button. makes me feel like the ‘click’ feeling when you press it, won’t last. think of turning your windshield wipers on when its not wet outside and your wipers are squeaking against your windshield…that’s what it sounds like.
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had problem with phone recognizing my SIM card, and initially phone wouldn’t operate with SIM card installed. It would just be on an infinite crash loop. I tried my wife’s SIM and it worked. Went to the T-Mobile store and got a new SIM card, and then the phone started working properly. not sure why it couldn’t read my SIM, but no biggie.
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texting (as much as i can tell now) defaults to ABC (caps) which is kind of annoying. every time i text, i have to change it to lower case.
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have had some issues with texting through mudita center…it appears my messages send, but when i look at my messages on the pure, it will say they didn’t send, and ill need to resend them through the phone. overall, whether on the phone or the mudita center, if a message fails to send, it takes a while to find out. there should be confirmation the message sent for sure.
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editing contacts doesn’t allow dashes between numbers (ex. 818-888-0000). it says its the wrong format. this is kind of annoying because when i imported my contacts, they all have dashes. if i make any edit to the contact entry, such as editing the name, or entering more information, it won’t allow me to save the changes unless i delete the dashes. it appears i dont HAVE to edit out the dashes though to be able to use the contacts…it just flags you if you happen to edit the contacts.
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would be nice to be able to turn the screen completely off. don’t really like always having a display on.
NEUTRAL (what i expected):
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slightly slow response, really ONLY due to e-ink technology. its 20 times better than the light phone 2 for sure. didn’t expect it to be much quicker than it is, and if you desire faster response, e-ink is probably not for you.
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the overall feel and build of the phone is a little plastic-y for me. the punkt mp02 is much nicer as far as weight, and how the buttons feel (mp02 feels like a well oiled machine).
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pretty large in size in comparison to the mp02 (not unexpected from all the pictures mudita has posted though, it’s exactly as it has been presented)
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i agree with sandra about long sms tones, there could be some shorter, single tone sounds for messages.
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need to a guide to figure out tethering. its not showing up in my normal wifi networks. seems initial setup may be a little more complicated for the wired tethering.
PROS:
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totally easy, fast, and straight forward set up (aside from my SIM issue)
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layout of buttons are great! i think the center button command as “doing the big thing” is exactly right, and didn’t take any getting used to for me.
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importing my contacts was flawless.
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old school ‘abc’ texting works fine. i am OK with no predictive texting. with a simple phone, sometimes predictive texting can take more time than you think. the mp02 has so many wrong predictions and bad grammar that i end up spending way more time fixing the message than i save by using predictive text. however i always try it because sometimes it IS faster! i’d rather it just not be a temptation to use, unless its nearly perfect.
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sound quality is totally fine for me. while it might be a tiny bit high in the treble and stuff, it is loud enough. that’s what i care about most. the mp02 is sometimes too quiet, although its a little warmer. i think the sound quality of conversations is as expected. the speaker is really loud too. it could benefit from some EQ changes, but not necessary.
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font and text is not too small for me, and easy to read.
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buttons are not too small, and i don’t find myself hitting the wrong button often at all.
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there are little UX/UI things that i think are great, and you can tell the team put a lot of thought into specific things. such as…
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when pressing the menu, the default selection is on the ‘contacts’, which is right for me.
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ease of adding new contacts.
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being able to “mark as unread” on text message threads, so you can read it, and then mark as unread if its a message you need to get back to later, and don’t want to forget about it.
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love the do not disturb/3 selection slider on the side. love that you can set the middle spot to allow for ‘favorite’ contacts to interrupt you only. perfect for napping when on call for work, and don’t want to be bothered by anyone but the boss.
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the rings and tones are great overall.
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you can pick different alarm tones, which is nice (punkt mp02 only has 1 alarm sound-a rooster crowing, which is jarring)
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you can set how long the snooze is, which is sooo nice. the mp02 snooze defaults to 5 minutes only, and can’t be changed…i prefer 10 minutes.
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flashlight wasn’t necessary, but super nice to have and useful!
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‘dark mode’ is a really nice option. its basically inverted black and white. makes the phone look better in my opinion but there is more screen bleed from the e-ink in dark mode, however it’s in beta mode and may get even better!
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the button’s backlight is nice
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the 3.5mm headphone jack, allowing to use all types of headphones/headsets
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had no problem with speaker placement at all
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glad there aren’t emojis - can do an oldschool heart — <3
this is all i can think of for now. i’d say overall i am very pleased with it, and its almost exactly as expected. for this initial roll out, and basically the first software version, i am super impressed with how nice it is to use.
im sure ill run into some buggy things over time, but like i said i am impressed so far, and im confident future software updates will smooth everything out.
if only that down arrow didn’t squeak like crazy…
ps. if anyone has specific questions i didn’t address…let me know!