two minimal phones i almost bought

i overthink, and a phone that hands me something new every time i unlock it gives that habit more to work with. for a few months i was set on fixing that with hardware. i read about these two for weeks and came close to ordering both.

i never did. here is what pulled me in, and why i am still on my iphone.

punkt MP02

calls and texts. no app store, no browser, no feed. it works as a hotspot and it has an encrypted messaging app called pigeon. that is the whole list.

punkt is a swiss company and jasper morrison did the industrial design. it is one plain block with large round buttons and no branding. it looks like a tool instead of a screen, which was most of the appeal.

it is also expensive for what little it does, and that is the part i kept stalling on.

light phone II

the screen is e-ink, it looks like paper and it is slow at most of what a phone is supposed to be good at. the slowness is the point. it is hard to scroll out of boredom when scrolling feels bad.

it does calls and texts, and you add small tools: alarm, music, directions, notes. nothing shows up that you did not ask for.

what stopped me was typing. every review says the same thing about e-ink keyboards, and i send messages all day.

why i stayed on the iphone

work, mostly. slack, my authenticator, calendars i can read, a camera i can point at a whiteboard. none of that runs on a phone with no app store.

then there is the long tail i only notice when i imagine losing it. maps with live transit. banking. the notes app where half of this site started.

the problem i was trying to buy my way out of is still mine. i moved apps off the home screen and turned off most notifications, and that has done more than a new phone would have.

the phones were never the fix. i just liked the idea of one.