Sure, this thing might have its problems, but luckily for me, those don’t affect me that much. I like my new phone. It has significantly reduced my mobile screen time since I bought it last month. I recommend anybody with the means to try it. But don’t expect it to work for you.
It’s restrictive, cumbersome, and annoying. It makes me not want to use it. But that’s sort of the point. I still have my old phone for when I need certain apps. Unfortunately that means I still have my old phone for browsing, but I manage, and I don’t take my old phone with me anywhere except the couch. I have to bring my card to pay at places and I can’t record a video. Oh well, who cares?
Things I like about the Mudita Kompakt:
It has brought the screen time of my other phone down from 4.5 hours daily average to 2
Yes, I’m still browsing! This is probably the main reason why I like my new Kompakt so much. I have a browsing problem, so this is a win in my book, and it will only get better once I manage my usage of web browsers and Instagram on my old device.
It is helping me get better at chess
I have played over 80 matches on this device’s Chess app and only have a 20% win rate at 1100 ELO, even while I allow myself to take back mistakes. I feel like a dummy. I need this.
It allows me to complain about something and then laugh it off with others as I depend upon them for something as basic as map directions
It helps me remain as present as possible in the moment, giving me something else to look at other than a small screen while at a restaurant or on the train
It’s cool (AND cute)
It has very good battery life
It gets updates
For the most part, it just works
Things I DON’T like about the Mudita Kompakt:
Apps are basic and need more updates, for example…
Weather shows “Jersey City, United States” instead of e.g. “Jersey City, New Jersey” or “Jersey City, NJ, USA” (It makes me wonder, “Am I looking at the right place?”) and it doesn’t show things like humidity, “real feel”, or air quality
Chess just says “White Wins” over the entire screen when I lose a match instead of letting me see the final board state (and it’s not multiplayer)
Maps location search is broken in NJ, USA (where does it get its data?); I had to sideload HereWeGo just to be able to search for SOME locations
The keyboard leaves a bit to be desired (e.g. a full library of emojis [where’s the pregnant emojis?], swipe to text, and next word prediction)
NOTE: The keyboard just got an update and it’s WAY better now than it was last week (it now has many more emojis, auto-correct, and auto-capitalization)
No warm backlight (but you get 2 flashlights which is pretty nice I guess)
Issues with messages, for example…
Group messages not sending to or receiving from the correct group (or not working at all, thanks RCS!)
Ghost messages (or are these ghost notifications?) where I hear a notification sound and see no indication on the screen
In a text conversation with 1 person, a reply from that person ended up in a new conversation on my device
No voicemail (do I even get voicemail notifications? I sure hope so…)
And that’s why I’ll keep using it. I can deal with the dumb apps, the lame “meditating” art in the OS, and the lack of a warm backlight. They’re testing my patience and I’d prefer a focused update, but I can also deal with the messed up group conversations and lack of voicemail (for now). I’m also lucky to have a fiancee with a phone that can do what we need it to when we go somewhere together. I don’t feel like I NEED more. It’s just nice to be able to get back on top of my life.
If you are in the USA, then here are two posts about how customers of the U.S. cellular carriers (e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, as well as the MVNOs that ride on their networks) handle voicemail message-waiting indicators:
The Kompakt was a good purchase for me, as it showed me i didn’t really need it. I had it as my daily driver for many months, until I could no longer cope with missed calls and texts (which turned out to be a problem with RCS settings from when I had the sim in my iPhone)
during this time I didn’t use it much at all, I would easily get 4 days battery, As I rarely did anything on it other than answer the occasional call, send and receive a handful of of signal messages and check it for notifications maybe 3 times a day.
When I switched to my Graphene os pixel, I carried on doing what I’ve been doing on the Kompakt, and get 3 to 4 days battery on that also.
The one thing I discovered along the way is that I don’t need an eink display, don’t get me wrong it’s much easier on the eyes, but it is very restrictive in other ways, the usefulness of the camera, when you have a mono screen, taking a picture of a wiring circuit is completely useless, and I get lots of pictures sent to me which just don’t look the same in black and white . Which is my main reason for no longer using it.
I put it up for sale here, if it doesn’t sell I may put a large sd card in it and use it as a mo3 player and e-reader
@francie Thank you for taking the time to share such thoughtful & balanced feedback.
What stood out most to me is that, despite the frustrations and limitations you’ve encountered, Kompakt is helping you achieve what you set out to do: spend less time on screens, stay more present, and be more intentional about how you use technology. That’s actually REALLY cool.
I also appreciate how specific you were about the areas that still need improvement. Feedback like this helps us better understand what works well today and where we should continue focusing our efforts. Especially for different parts around the globe.
Thank you for giving Kompakt a chance, for sticking with it through the rough edges, and for being part of the journey. We’re glad to have you in the community.
Indeed the Kompakt really helped me figure out what is important to me from a mobile phone, and transfer this to my current device.
Things I love about the Kompakt
Form factor - the screen size is perfect, I think Kompakt sits in the sweet spot for being big enough to see easily and optimum pocket size.
Offline button- stroke of genius, something I used often
Privacy focus - the lack of Google services, and pared back os. Digital privacy is number one on my list of requirements from a mobile device, and was the thing that attracted me to the Kompakt.
Open O/S - the fact that apps can be side loaded onto the Kompakt, without having to to jump through hoops, and ability to customise is a huge plus
It’s kind of ironic that the EInk screen was one of the attractions of the Kompakt for me, and it also led to being the main reason I stopped using it. This is in no way a criticism of the Kompakt but a discovery of how my perceived requirement changed. I don’t really want to carry more than one device, and I found myself doing this often.
I guess my ideal device would be a dual screen, eink for text related things and colour screen for camera and picture related stuff.
I’d also like to point out that the issues I had with missed calls and texts, turned out to be linked to RCS configurations on my sim triggered by Apple when the sim was in my iPhone, many months ago, and nothing to do with Mudita.Kompakt,
You’re welcome. I hope my feedback goes somewhere, especially about the chess app, because video games and UI / UX are important to me. I tried to find a sudoku app but didn’t manage that yet. I wouldn’t mind a few other games on this thing that display well on the e-ink display and are fun.
I must bring up one more bug:
When reading a book, if I turn the screen off while using the e-reader, it blanks an odd amount of times and ends up an entirely black screen (instead of showing the lock icon pointing at the power button).
