I wanted to see what everyone thinks of light’s new flip phone. The price point, colors, and form factor are all very tempting to me. Buuut, the options for email (via browser) and e-reading are still very important in my life. I think this shows that light knows the trends on the market, cause I’m seeing many younger gen zers want the retro “aesthetic” of a flip phone, and a growing popularity in “luddite clubs” and a disconnection in favor of real, analog, human expiriences.
I really hope mudita is watching. I’d love for their new phone to follow light’s footsteps with the boldness. I would love to see some interesting product design that follows mudita’s principles, but is still eye-catching and fun to hold/look at.
I don’t know - I think Mudita staying e-ink is more interesting than LP3 or Light Flip. I have a 3 - stays mostly in the drawer. I bought early - so cost is nowhere near the $800 or so these days. I have an LP2 that I love and take running.
Just to say, two different companies, two different vibes. Not sure they are competing with each other as much as offering viable alternatives to the existing ecosystem. I do not see a flip e-ink screen being that handy or desirable.
I pre-ordered a Light Flip – for delivery in April of 2027.
But, I hope to see Mudita provide American-standard voicemail support (which all Light cellphones have) in MuditaOS K v1.6.0 so that I can buy another Kompakt and cancel – for a full refund – my Flip pre-order.
Three votes for the Light Flip:
5G as well as 4G/LTE
Single international version (vs. North American version and Global version)
As @Minimalmann79 learned from Joe Hollier at Light, opening the Flip will NOT automatically answer the call, which lets a user see who is calling before answering the call or dismissing the call.
Five votes against the Light Flip:
The display likely is no brighter than a not-readable-in-bright-sunlight 600 nits, which is what Light told me the Light III’s display can provide – in contrast with the Kompakt’s sunlight-readable E Ink display.
You cannot install APK files (e.g., found at Aurora store or F-Droid) – in contrast with what Kompakt users do daily.
You cannot see who is calling without opening the Flip – unlike the Kompakt as well as the Sunbeam Wireless cellphones (which have an external screen that will even display a photo associated with a contact who is calling you).
There is only one notification LED (the star in the corner of the cover) – vs. the Kompakt with separate indicators for missed calls and new SMS messages (and eventually voicemail messages waiting!), and vs. the Sunbeam Wireless cellphones with distinct LEDs for missed calls and new SMS messages.
Per a Light employee on GitHub, Light does not know when LightOS (on which the Light Flip and Light III are based) will have a Contacts tool and specifically such a tool that supports synchronization with a CardDAV URL. This is what my household uses to automate maintenance of a single source of contacts – with pictures, notes, postal addresses, multiple telephone numbers, etc. – in contrast with the super-simplified storage of contacts in the LightOS Phone tool. There is no way that I am going back to MANUAL maintenance of contacts specifically for the Light Flip! In contrast, I know from my previous ownership of a Kompakt that the sideloaded DAVx5 app works well enough (but is not E Ink-friendly) on a Kompakt to let me “single-source” my household’s contacts AND calendar.
Design-wise, I am with you. Mudita could try to do a flip phone, that would be very interesting.
Software-wise, I love Muditas approach, and you can see with the community apps how much that helped in making the device better. I don’t want a small company in New York be the only ones that can give my phone basic apps.
And, while I love flip phones, the truth is that most modern flip phones are super big (because the inner screen needs to be bigger to show apps correctly). I don’t know if there is a way to make them as nice of a form factor as the Mudita Kompakt.
I used a Cat S22 for about 3 years. They’re not that bad honestly, and the light flip is slightly smaller than it, based on the measurements they provide.
The Light flip looks cool but yeah until they solve the fundamental problem of “it’s Android but we don’t let you sideload whatsapp or signal” then it’s going to be super niche. I’d be 100% on board if i could get Signal on this thing, but since I know it’s a “maybe” I’m just going to ignore it. That’s the reason I bought the Kompakt in the first place - my friends and family use a messaging app and I have to use it too.
Artificial limitations bother me the most about these things. Ship them in the ideal config, but let people hack on it if they want. Don’t make it hard.
