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Best Dumbphones for Smarter Phone Use or a Digital Detox

There are plenty of options, but only a handful stand out.

By Matt Jancer | Reviewed by Ysolt Usigan

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Don’t listen to those who say, “Why don’t you just not use the troublesome apps on your smartphone?” These things, especially social media and gaming apps, are designed to be addictive.

The gym-goer’s trying to eat healthier doesn’t invite temptation by leaving open bags of potato chips everywhere. Neither would it be wise for a person trying to wean themselves off their smartphone to keep one within reach all day.

Taking the smartphone out of the equation entirely and swapping in a dumbphone removes the constant need for willpower to stay off social media and the web. It’s peace and relaxation. Out of pocket, out of mind.

quick look at our favorite dumbphones

Best Touchscreen: Light Phone III

Smartest Dumbphone: Wisephone II

For Button Lovers: Punkt MP02

Must-Have for Keeping Your Smartphone: Unpluq Tag

Fast Phone With a Powerful Camera: Ghost Phone

how we evaluated DUMBPHONES

There’s more variation in dumbphones than in smartphones. It’s as if breaking with the universality of designing a smartphone gave their designers free reign to indulge their wildest ideas for how a phone could look and function.

Whereas the smartphone format has standardized around a rounded-off candybar, all glass on the front, the dumbphone comes in all sorts of forms and philosophies. Buttons or touchscreens? Everything a smartphone has but the internet apps, or a phone that does barely more than tell the time and make calls?

Not one to forget that “dumb” is a key part of the word “dumbphone,” I realize some of you may scoff when I say that I heavily considered features when judging dumbphones. Just because you want your phone to be free of the tyranny of unrestricted app stores, web browsers, and social media apps doesn’t mean you necessarily should also banish yourself from touchscreens, capable cameras, and the ability to listen to music.

The best dumbphones didn’t make me feel like I was punishing myself by trying to be a 21st-century Puritan. They made me feel, well, smart.

best touchscreen: Light Phone III

Light Phone III (opens in a new window)

I may as well have called the Light Phone III “most pleasing to hold,” because it’s truly a gorgeous chunk of metal and glass. No iPhone or Galaxy has anything over the Light Phone III, because it’s made just that nicely. The touchscreen is responsive, and when it’s in my hand I feel like I’m holding a premium phone that occupies the same shelf as Apple’s and Samsung’s best. That’s good, because at $699 it’s priced like one.

An owl coos out of the phone’s speaker when I start it up. Why an owl? Because owls signify nighttime, and nighttime is associated with quieting life’s distractions, like a dumbphone? Is it just because the companies like owls? Whatever the reason, it brought a smile to my face.

As far as dumbphones go, the Light Phone III is pretty clever. You don’t have the connect to the built-in........

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