The Light Phone (a smartphone alternative)

T

Tippy

Woodpecker
Other Christian
Parmesan said:
You could sign up with a no data plan from an MVNO carrier, and use an offline map app for basic directions. Nokia HERE Maps let's you download regions for offline use. It's of course not as a robust as Google Maps, but it works. You could pick up a perfectly capable old smartphone to use for less than $100.
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Wouldn't even old smartphones have all the apps etc...?
 
P

Parmesan

Kingfisher
Other Christian
Tippy said:
Wouldn't even old smartphones have all the apps etc...?
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If you are referring to that as a detriment, yes it still has apps that could distract you. At least with no data plan, you won't be able to do much. If you mean, it will already have a map app? Yea it probably will, but it may or may not have an offline capable map app already installed.
 
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Max Roscoe

Max Roscoe

Ostrich
Orthodox Inquirer
ChristFollower1111 said:
I was considering one of these, but I stopped because of the lack of maps/gps or the camera feature. I use those two things a lot and they aren’t really fueling my smart phone addiction, so it’d be nice to have a phone with those features. ]
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I have a separate camera and GPS. Both are superior to what a phone offers.

The GPS works when I'm away from cell signals (often the exact rural areas where I need a GPS -- I can navigate fine without assistance in the city). It also lets you put in waypoints, which I often do for work - input 5 addresses and you will get directions for them in order, and it has a much larger screen.

The camera I have is better than a tiny sensor camera phone (though these work surprisingly well).

If you want One Device To Rule Them All, just get an older smartphone. I bought an iPhone 6 from Wal Mart on Black Friday a couple of years ago for $100 NEW (about 1/10th what people pay for the current version). I never activated it but have downloaded Open Maps and Here for (free) navigation, and take lots of photos with it. I also have a podcast app and this becomes my portable radio, listening in my car and on my back porch through a Bluetooth speaker.

I can even use the built in Apple Maps with voice command if I am somewhere with wifi "Siri, directions to the nearest bakery" and the Apple Maps will guide me as long as I request it while still connected to wifi.

All I really need is a phone with the above capabilities that has no social media and no browser. Someone please invent that. I can only dream….
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Once you put in a GPS radio and a computer to run mapping software, it doesn't cost any more to offer social media, so you won't find that. But the one way to get around this is by buying an older phone like I did. I haven't upgraded my iPhone 6's software, and social apps are always updating themselves in attempts to ramp up the ad monitoring, so I've found they are generally "incompatible with my version of iOS" so there's not even the temptation to download them.

The iPhone 6 is probably a bit dated today, but it was the last one Steve Jobs made and it still has useful things like a headphone jack and home button that have been taken away on newer phones. But here's one for $250


Bonus, you put the device in airplane mode and the battery lasts far longer than it does when the cellular radio is active and constantly communicating to towers.
 
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