The Minimal Phone: A smartphone to break free from distractions

The Minimal Phone aims to remove distractions from you by offering a capable, yet skimmed-down digital experience. It has a physical QWERTY keyboard, a black and white ePaper display, access to Google Play for your most essential apps, and a thoughtful design that helps reduce notifications and digital stimulations. Isn’t it about time you got back to real life?

Digital has taken over our lives. Everyone has a phone at all times now, and everyone spends most of their day scrolling, tapping, viewing, and browsing. According to a study from Backlinko, Americans spend over seven hours per day on screens. Worldwide, it’s nearly that amount — six hours and 40 minutes. We’re bombarded with content on all fronts and the goal for most websites and apps is to keep you there, viewing, for longer. You’re rewarded with digital dopamine hits like candy. Why wouldn’t you stay? But there’s a new device, called the Minimal Phone, that offers a radical change of pace. Instead of being used to generate attention from you, like an invisible vampire siphoning your blood, it’s meant to be a tool. How’s that, you ask? As the name implies, it distills the entire mobile experience down to a few important tasks inundating you with minimal distractions.

Saving you from the rabbit hole of endless scrolling (Follow the white rabbit Neo), it minimizes exposure by sticking to some core features: Calls, texts, and essential apps. Leveraging a black and white ePaper display, that’s less stimulating than the blue light-adled screens of today, it also features a standard touchscreen and a physical QWERTY keyboard. The 3,000mAh rechargeable battery helps it stay powered on for longer, spending less time on the charger. Moreover, it delivers a “deliberate hardware philosophy” that “encourages thoughtful, purposeful communication,” rather than aimless tapping and scrolling.

How else does the Minimal Phone change the mobile game?

It still features a host of excellent specifications. In other words, the phone hasn’t been cutoff completely from modern design avenues. It has a 16MP rear camera with auto-focus, a 5MP front camera, LED flash, a dual SIM card tray, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 6 to 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage. Plus, it supports Bluetooth 5.2 so you don’t lose access to your favorite wireless speakers, earbuds, or headphones. It even has NFC for tap-to-pay and quick-connect conveniences. Then there’s wireless charging, a standard fingerprint unlock, and access to Google Play so you can install your most-used apps.

As for the cost, and the plans, they’re pretty straightforward. The phone itself is $400, while plans start at $20 for 1GB of data, $30 for 5GB and $40 for unlimited. Now, remember, if you’re doing it right, you shouldn’t be using as much data as your average smartphone. The goal is to cut down on how much you’re relying on apps and data-based services.

It’s everything you need to stay connected, but minimized to get you in and out quickly. That’s what a true smartphone should be. Let’s start breaking away from tech where we can. Yes, I fully understand the implications of saying that on a site called Techigar.