Hi there,
recently my smartphone died and I had the choice of trying to fix it for $200 + 20 hours of fiddling with tiny screws, broken screens, while waiting 12+ weeks for replacement parts (the smartphone was 3.5 years old…) or buying another phone now.
After spending two weeks without a phone I bought the Punkt MP02, because it is marketed as having a Signal client called Pigeon. I am not very happy with it.
When I first got the Punkt I considered cancelling my order for the Pure, but now I’m glad I didn’t. On day 1 I had problems with blocking buttons, because a tiny amount of sand in my pocket got inside them. Then I noticed that my phone would restart in my pocket with the keyboard locked, because the on/off button is not locked and long-pressing that button will eventually restart the phone. This is very annoying for me, but it saved me from throwing out the phone when the keyboard didn’t respond to any presses (happened twice so far, resolved by reboot).
I got the phone mainly, because it was marketed as having a functioning Signal app. Registering the number in the Pigeon app (basically a dumbed-down version of Signal for Android) requires filling out a captcha, which is not possible to pass without trying 1000 times ( I gave up after about 50 times). Even if I would have succeeded, it wouldn’t have been possible to link my Signal app on my laptop, which is more important to me than having Signal on my phone.
Another gripe I have with the Punkt is that I cannot see if I have unread text messages without unlocking the phone.
Also: no removable battery. It’s basically Android and it shows through in many ways that make the phone less useful than I would have hoped for. The user interface is to cumbersome for me and I believe it is the result of having to bend Android to make it look minimal, but if it was designed as minimal from the start it would be so much better.
I also miss the ability to play music on my phone.
I have serious doubts about the longevity of this phone and will be looking to sell it asap.
What I like though: It has T9 and even though it’s not perfect, it works better than those HMD Nokias with KaiOS. Also, the size is incredible, I like small phones! I also like the colour (ligh blue) and that I can charge it with USB-C. The separate desk charging station with 3 outputs is also absolutely gorgeous!
I still can’t wait for my Pure! And while I read in the reviews that the Pure is not perfect either, the fact that it’s open source, has a removable battery and doesn’t reboot spontaneously in my pocket is a big plus over the Punkt. I’m still going to fix my 3-year old Android now though, because I realized that it will be a satisfying camera for the next 3 years to come, even in airplane mode.
I hope this rant will be useful for someone.
Keep up the good work Mudita!
Michi