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Comment by JojoFatsani

3 days ago

It’s pretty absurd how these are so expensive given they’re trying to recreate 25-30 year old technology..

7 comments

JojoFatsani

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vinckr  3 hours ago

I just thought the same thing. Most of them cost double what my refurbished iPhone cost. To be fair there is a category for fairly cheap ones too: https://slowerliving.club/phones/?category=Cheap+entry+point...

But why would someone pay $675 to $1,235 plus $18/mo membership for a locked down iPhone without browser and apps - surely there is a way to lock them down yourself if you really want to.

edit: reading a bit further I find the LLM-prose on the website really jarring. Maybe I'm unfair here but it just reads like written by a machine.

AnodicElegy  2 hours ago

Yeah, it's nuts, these are significantly more expensive than a low-end smartphone. I hope by the time my kid's a preteen there will be enough of a market for dumb phones that there will be cheaper options. I would think almost any parent would want one for their kid at some point.

  • jswelker  2 hours ago

    I have had good luck with an old candy bar style dumb phone from Jethro Mobile for my teen.

oldsklgdfth  2 hours ago

I have the same response. In mind a dumb phone is sub $100. More feels like virtue signaling some tech stoicism.

For that money and less you can get an older smartphone and strip it down yourself if you are inclined.

Or use accessibility settings (on iOS) to make it much less appealing to stare at.

  • asim  2 hours ago

    Yea I think you have to Google "burner phone" and you get the more accurate dumb phones we're all thinking of

pessimizer  2 hours ago

This entire subthread is weird. There are a ton of cheap phones on this page, and the ones that are trying to "recreate 25-30 year old technology" seem to be very appropriately priced.

$20 https://slowerliving.club/phones/dumbphone-2/

$30 https://slowerliving.club/phones/nokia-200-4g/

$31 https://slowerliving.club/phones/nokia-210-4g/

$48 https://slowerliving.club/phones/nokia-215-4g-2nd-edition/

$81+ https://slowerliving.club/phones/nokia-235-4g-2nd-edition/

$59+ https://slowerliving.club/phones/agm-m10/

$79+ https://slowerliving.club/phones/agm-m11/

$80+ https://slowerliving.club/phones/tcl-flip-4-5g/

$70 https://slowerliving.club/phones/unnecto-snap/

And I'm stopping because why not just use the linked page. There seem to be dozens more sub-$100 options. Is the snark because there are a range of phones here, from mighty stupid to no app store/social media to just smart with a throwback physical keyboard? Are they not angry enough at smartphones to be allowed to tell people about dumbphones?

The page literally lists the Apple Watch.