I just wanted to share my love for this phone and thoughts about it! As a younger person who works on a computer all day, I can say this phone fit effortlessly into my life. It let me take one step back from all the digital things that I already have PLENTY of access to otherwise. Now they just can’t follow me into bed or while I’m out.
Favorite things:
- The e-ink! I love that with all the led screens I’m looking at every day, this gets to be one less. It’s just satisfying how bright and legible it is in the daylight and so nice to look at in the evening.
- I love not checking my email, or anything else! Like I said I work on a computer every day. I’m lucky that my job doesn’t have emergencies but if there was one, someone would just call me. I loooove not being connected to my email 24/7!! I can find out about a stress inducing work problem when I GET to work, not while I’m still in bed!
- Reading! this is the only leisurely activity I do on my phone, and it’s perfect. I’m suddenly reading all the time which I NEVER did before. Some people have complained about the screen quality for reading on this phone but I only see it as perfect. I only have used my local library’s app though, and I like to bump up the text-size quite a bit.
- The battery! Holy cow, I love that this phone’s “low battery” state (when the red light comes on) still lasts literally a whole day, aka the entire battery lifespan of any smartphone I’ve had. Sometimes I’ll accidentally fall asleep while reading and it doesn’t matter because the phone still has like 3 days left!
I used to go jogging and listen to whatever BS music, YouTube essays, podcasts, anything I could to desperately fill my mind during it, while also using a running app for time. It felt SO right when I finally went out and jogged without anything. I just literally counted in my head to keep track of how long I was running. It felt meditative and a great example of feeling more present in my life. I realized I never needed any of it, but I just didn’t have the self control to exist silently with myself before.
Overtime I turned off more and more of Mudita’s base apps, I just haven’t needed them. I also like that the clock and calendar app can be used from the time and date so I don’t have to look at them either! Now my app screen is just calculator, camera, notes, weather, and library. I love that!
This phone is a joy for me. I love taking photos and finding out how they look later. I like that it’s a bit slow. I like that it’s inconvenient for me to web search.
My setup:
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Side loaded:
- duckduckgo - I keep it turned off and only access it from my settings when I really feel the need to use it, which is not often.
- futo keyboard - the built-in keyboard was pretty laggy for me, this one improved things, but I do still make typos pretty often. I just take it as a reminder to slow down though
- Local library reading app - for reading!
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For times that are less convenient with this phone, I just bring my previous smartphone turned off in my bag whenever I know I might need it. Like when I go out of town, then I bring it with me it for maps, googling, Venmo, better photos etc. It’s perfect that I can use hotspot easily. I’m too busy on trips to get distracted by it anyway!
Downsides:
- I cracked it!!! I cracked the screen after only 1 month. I didn’t know e-ink screens are more delicate, now I do! I’ve cracked many a phone in the past though so I’ve already accepted and gotten used to it, and more careful. I bought a case when I bought the phone but it was just too grippy and difficult to get in and out of my small woman’s pant pockets, especially since the phone is already thicker than others.
- I find their maps app pretty unusable where I live in the U.S., but like I said, it’s not a daily need so I just bring my old smartphone in rare situations I know I’ll need lots of navigation. And my car now has ok-ish navigation built in it too!
- I wish I could receive videos in text messages since I know the phone’s capable of playing videos. I’d rather watch a terrible laggy video than not know what my friend sent at all haha.
- I actually wish there was a specific camera button on the side or some shortcut because it takes me sooooo long to open the camera and get it to take a pic that I do often completely miss whatever I was trying to take a photo of
Overall, I’m so happy I gave this phone a try. I’m excited to keep using it and stick around to see future iterations of it as well!