The Sidephone is a dumbphone trying to be a | Tech News
The Sidephone is a distinctive tackle what a dumbed down telephone ought to be. (Image: Henry Burrell)
Despite being a technology reviewer, I’ve spent a number of years fascinated by the concept of not utilizing a smartphone. I spend an excessive amount of time watching screens. But my relationship with smartphone apps is similar to Michael Corleone’s with the life of a gangster:
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
I’ve had my SIM stashed in a Light Phone 2, Light Phone 3, Punkt MP02, TCL Flip 3, Nokia 3210 4G and more in addition to to see if I might go with out WhatsApp, Google Maps, contactless funds and the world in my pocket.
These telephones every offer compelling designs and software program smarts to both cut back totally from the good life, or bridge the hole with the occasional comparable characteristic.
Turns out it’s primarily simply the dearth of WhatsApp stopping me utilizing one of these telephones more typically, given the UK’s overreliance on the Meta-owned messaging app.
That’s why I used to be excited to check out the Sidephone, a new £229 entrant into the dumbphone market that may run a curated choice of apps, together with WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, a calendar app, maps app, Proton Mail, Firefox and different instruments.
But take one take a look at the Sidephone and you may inform this is a completely different proposition from a stripped down smartphone.
It’s really small! (Image: Henry Burrell)
It’s formed like a Nokia from back within the day, and the design and in-hand really feel jogs my memory of my beloved Nokia 6300. Unlike many fashionable flip type dumbphones, the Sidephone is really small, and usable in a single hand.
It has a 2.8-inch LCD touchscreen with a 640 x 480 decision – it’s small! But it’s a good factor it’s contact, as a result of the Sidephone is in any other case controllable by enjoyable however fiddly swappable keypads designed to do various things.
The firm despatched me three – a common numbpad, a compact QWERTY and the sundial, an apparent callback to the iPods of outdated. However this sundial proved disappointing, as it will probably’t act as a touch-sensitive scrollwheel. Boo! It’s price noting the £229 price will get you the sundial and numbpad, however you have got to fork out £25 more for the QWERTY.
I ended up utilizing the QWERTY probably the most, because it permits the quickest means to kind, although letters are squashed to one or two per key, recalling the design of the outdated BlackBerry Pearl collection.
The use of iPod and BlackBerry design traits mirrors the nostalgia this system revels in, for higher or worse.
Other specs embrace 64GB storage, 4GB RAM, 13MP rear going through digicam, 2,000mAh non-removable battery, 4G and nano SIM. There’s no eSIM, no water resistance and no NFC for cellular funds. There’s additionally no fingerprint reader, so you have got to punch in your PIN or password each time, which will get annoying.
The modular keypad facet is enjoyable, however I solely used one. (Image: Henry Burrell)
On setup, the telephone is pre-installed with fundamental apps for textual content messages, telephone, contacts, settings and never a lot else. Oddly, the principle means to set up different apps is finished by going to Sidephone’s web site and discovering a record of QR codes for so-called ‘App Packs’.
For instance, ‘Essentials+’ consists of Notally (notes), Maps (Sidephone maps powered by HERE), Fossify Calendar, Recorder (native audio recording), LocalSend (cross-platform file sharing), and Auxio (native music participant). You obtain one, some or all by scanning the QR code with the Sidephone’s digicam.
I cherry picked a few apps to set up, however my important concern was WhatsApp. It is sadly the lifeblood of UK texting communications, and the way in which I chat to everybody in my life.
It masses nicely on the Sidephone, and I used the digicam to hyperlink it as a companion system to my WhatsApp account on my Android telephone.
It works!
This is the best implementation of WhatsApp on a dumbphone I’ve used to date
This is the best implementation of WhatsApp on a dumbphone I’ve used to date – however that is as a result of the Sidephone isn’t actually a dumbphone. It’s a pared-back smartphone that may obtain apps however limits the consumer as to which, and slows down the urge to scroll or watch video by having a small vertical screen and a keypad.
Sending messages is a little laborious even with the QWERTY pad, and the screen is small enough to make messages laborious to learn, however the performance is there, together with calls.
Having the app in my pocket on a telephone like this was enough to placate my concern of lacking messages, however the design of the telephone meant I wasn’t continually whipping it out to scroll on social media. Because though Sidephone limits its official choice of apps, it is doable to sideload any Android app. Most social media apps will look horrible on the small show, and it’s annoying enough to do that you just most likely gained’t be tempted.
You can set it up as your important WhatsApp telephone, although you gained’t be ready to backup your chats to Google Drive like you possibly can on different Android telephones.
This is as a result of the Sidephone runs an open-source, de-Googled model of Android 12 (the most recent model is 17). This means it doesn’t have the Google Play Store and doesn’t have Google Mobile Services built-in, so should you set up Gmail or Google Maps they gained’t work correctly. Ditto with WhatsApp backup.
Is this a swap you could possibly make? (Image: Henry Burrell)
But putting in tons of apps on a system like this isn’t the purpose. It’s great to see a startup design this telephone from scratch and actually take into consideration the instruments its potential clients would possibly need, in a type issue they gained’t discover distracting.
The Sidephone is a software, although it’s identify implies it’d be best used as a secondary telephone to keep you linked. It’s an admission that some providers have been wolfed up by the world of the smartphone, and also you would possibly need to dig out your iPhone or Android telephone to show a aircraft ticket, order an Uber or make a video call (the Sidephone has no entrance going through digicam).
But the system gives enough utility – calls, maps, WhatsApp – to be a strong fundamental telephone at a cheap price for these wanting to disconnect away from the doomscroll.
“Sidephone is a simple phone with extra abilities that make it easier for you to stay offline, away from distractions, living real life,” it says. I agree that it meets that purpose.
The Sidephone is out there now from £229.
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