There are a handful of minimalist phones appearing, but the Kompakt caught my attention in particular because:
I’ve had excellent experiences with CD Projekt/GoG and their DRM-free philosophy, so the decent reputation and trust developed over time has carried across to Mudita.
Relatively open device without artificial restrictions on its usage by the end-user, such as being able to freely curate apps through sideloading. I much prefer when users are permitted to do as they wish with their devices despite potential issues vs a locked-down experience no matter how polished.
The desktop application supports Linux
3.5mm headphone jack
(Almost) not missing out on established features and protocols that are virtually necessary in modern life where I live, such as NFC.
Unlike the Pure, not shackled to the point of failure by EMF related conspiracies, or by beliefs stemming from nocebo/somatization/misattribution of symptoms which the Pure marketed to, intentionally or not. Read this bullet point as ‘IEI-EMF’ if you don’t appreciate when people make claims regarding the source of relevant symptoms, especially if you are about to link a study that has substantially different exposure intensities/durations/frequencies vs normal cellular usage.
However, it really blows my mind that there’s no 5G. It’s been around for half a decade now, right? Even the LP3 will have 5G.
My intended purpose of a minimalist phone is to be mindful of when I use devices unnecessarily. I want to reduce screentime, so what I need is essentially a hotspot that happens to allow for phone service, messaging, maps, payments, and rideshare hailing & NFC transit passes. If I need to use any other feature or application, I can pull out my laptop or similar, and I know I’ll only be pulling out a whole laptop when I absolutely need to.
With a device limited to 4G, I then have to carry around an entire other dedicated hotspot for work. What’s the point of even advertising hotspot capability if it is stuck at a few tens of Mbps and totally useless for work?
This would have been an instant dealbreaker for me if it weren’t for the fact that no other option comes close (a Kompakt is superior to the alternative of having nothing). I’m just going to have to deal with the compromise of carrying around the extra hotspot in my laptop bag.
Am I the only one who thinks this is a strange miss? I can’t even search for “5G” in the forums because the search term is too short.
4G speed doesn’t bother me at all, but its nearing end of life does
Worst case it will be phased out in 2030, but at least that’s 5 years without smartphone
It does not seem like a big issue for the device. 4G is more than fast enough, especially for a phone with an e-ink display that cannot play videos. And I don’t think 4G will even start to be phased out for at least another 5 to 10 years. https://www.androidpolice.com/when-will-4g-lte-become-obsolete/ I am a little more concerned with whether or not the older Android 12 will continue to be patched for security vulnerabilities for the next 5 years that I plan to own the phone. Also whether the included 3GB of ram will still be as snappy over time handling the processes of the phone. Overall though, I still think this phone is a good choice to be less distracted in this ever distracting world. I am excited for the phone to start shipping out soon to everyone.
Because of hotspot for a laptop when working remove. I can get that. But honestly, it might be a special case of high bandwidth needs. Teams, Sharepoint and file transfers are fine on 4G, I’m mostly working on 4G for years.
But, a BTS can be overcrowded and contention may drop throughputs down. Applies to 5G as well especially given that it’s not being deployed the way it was intended due to the costs.
I’m aware it doesn’t matter for you, but I already described how 5G reduces screen time in my use case so even as a rhetorical question it feels like it may be missing the point a bit. Or I haven’t explained it clearly enough.
I do remote work. I enjoy working outdoors or at a cafe or similar. I need fast Internet access on my hotspot to get my work done. The hotspot feature on the Kompakt is slow, making me sit on the computer for a longer time to finish my work.
This affects anyone who uses the hotspot feature to varying degrees. For people who don’t use the hotspot feature, this missing feature is irrelevant.
You can purchase standalone hotspots from your cell carrier. This might even benefit you more in the long run since it separates work and play on seperate devices.
And I was just sharing my own thoughts the same way you shared yours.
Thank you, it is refreshing to see a post that understands that my issue is specifically with the hotspot. Yes, my remote work has higher bandwidth and speed requirements.
Keep in mind 5G should benefit even those who don’t have the same requirements as long as they are using the hotspot. An order of magnitude greater speed (in my area, very roughly 20 vs 200 Mbps) allows for even basic web browsing navigation to be noticeably more fluent.
Yes, file transfers can be perfectly fine on 4G if they’re not large. Even with that in mind, if I am already paying for 5G service and it could easily be 5-10x faster, it’s only the price difference of a Chipotle burrito bowl.
You can purchase standalone hotspots from your cell carrier. This might even benefit you more in the long run since it separates work and play on seperate devices.
Work and play are already inherently separated due to the work being on a separate device (the laptop). Having a third device (dedicated hotspot) results in needless clutter rather than purposeful device selection. I would also need a separate data plan for an additional monthly cost not to mention the cost of the hotspot device itself.
If the beneficial move would be to have a separate hotspot device, then why does the Kompakt even advertise its hotspot feature? Why does the LP3 offer 5G hotspot? It’s a very common use case.
I suppose Mudita figured its user base would generally prefer the cheaper 4G cell module and Light figured its user base would prefer a highly usable hotspot. And given the most common responses on this forum, it appears Mudita made the right decision for the majority of its customers. I just wish there was something with the form factor of an old flip phone or similar while having a fast hotspot.
This kind of goes back to my original point. You are wanting modern features from a community that is actively trying to limit and even reject modern features. It’s like walking into a vegan restaurant and expecting pork. I understand your frustration especially if you need it for work, and the battle between new, old, simple, and complex is a battle I think we all face here. Reality is you are going to have to make sacrifices. I agree it sucks to do sometimes.
By the way, there are some carriers and plans which allow you to combine your hotspot and mobile data- so you wouldn’t need two seperate plans in that case.
This resonates with me. For example, I now refuse to use Uber, not only because of the unprofessional behavior of many drivers (I have stories to tell!) but also because use requires the smartphone app, which requires Google Play Services, which are privacy-invading. Instead, I use taxis.
We’re on a mission to build a movement of conscious tech users
Mudita Forum. A Community of Minimalist Technology Enthusiasts
Reading things like this gives me the impression of making making modern tech devices for enthusiasts of minimal devices. Clearly I’ve misread things if this isn’t the case.
In the analogy, pork would be looking for a Pixel 10, not hoping for the equivalent of a flip phone that has a distraction-free, privacy-conscious OS & hardware with a modern communications stack. Vegan would be rescuing a secondhand Nokia from becoming e-waste until 3G was completely phased out.
Why are you splittling hairs like this? It has become clear to me that your intention is moreso to be “right” about why you deserve 5G connection from this phone than it is to have a dialogue with others who may see things differently than you do. You can take my input or leave it- it does not make any difference to me. Good luck!
IMO 5G would be okay, not a big deal because the phone is still not much usable for the addictive high-throughput features, but this reminds me of another talk I had with @urszula somewhere on this forum, probably about AOSP 12. The phone is already in design and development for quite a bit of time, I’ve no clue how much burden would it be to make a last minute upgrade but that’s what they got. I hope to be satisfied enough with Mudita Kompakt for at least 10 years but I also wish y’all getting mark II with more state-of-the-art features for remote workers.
I also work remotely but 20-30 Mbps is totally fine for me (with theoretical maximums in cities being higher), plus our mobile plans nowadays give tens or even above hundred GBs of data transfer limit. If you need higher speeds there might be nothing much that can be done. Everyone has their priorities and accepts tradeoffs when getting away from a smartphone, sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it’s not. De gustibus non est disputandum.
I am unsure how you came to that conclusion when I believe I’ve made it clear that I fully understand why Mudita made the decision to select 4G for the Kompakt, and that I went into my preorder purchase with the knowledge that there is no perfect device for every user.
I suppose Mudita figured its user base would generally prefer the cheaper 4G cell module and Light figured its user base would prefer a highly usable hotspot. And given the most common responses on this forum, it appears Mudita made the right decision for the majority of its customers.
My goal is not to be contrarian or prove my points right. I am only trying to make my personal position clear (goals of clarification vs correctness) and the counterpoints I did make were valid and reasonable in response to your suggestions. I took the time to consider ideas such as using a standalone hotspot, and a third device genuinely doesn’t make sense to me, so I explained why. I truly do not believe that I am completely out of place by coming to this forum and explaining my reasons for why 5G is usable and relevant in spite of (or even because of) the minimalist aspects.
Dismissing my comments as simply trying to be ‘right’ and ‘splitting hairs’ shuts down dialogue more than any of my comments did, and I apologize if anything I wrote came off as abrasive or dismissive at my end, as that is not my intent either.
Youre fine. My only goal was to share a thought I had on this thread and it wasn’t meant to be personal or dismissive either- so I apologize if it came off that way. To answer your original question: I don’t think it’s a strange miss. And I say “good luck” sincerely because I hope you find a solution that works best for you! Take care
Was the discussion of AOSP12 also focused on the ideas of potential security concerns with the lack of Android security patches, and what other forms of security risk mitigation are done on the level of MuditaOS?
