Best basic phones and dumbphones tested: digital | Tech News

Once upon a time, cell phones may solely deal with calls and texts, with the occasional recreation of Snake thrown in. Nowadays, the best smartphones are highly effective computer systems which have change into a singular system that may do all the pieces, which suggests it’s arduous to tear your self away from them. Remember studying? Touching grass? No, us neither.

That’s why the outdated fashion of cell phone is making a comeback. Known as dumbphones, these basic and easy handsets hark back to the early 2000s with compact designs and solely probably the most important features of a telephone, which seems to be a telephone.

Smartphones and the so-called “doomscrolling” they encourage because of addictive social media apps means many of us spend hours a day mindlessly scrolling. It’s true that smartphones are additionally helpful instruments with trendy conveniences of a digital digital camera, taxi hailing apps, online banking and free calls to anybody on the planet simply a faucet away. But some people, together with maybe you if you’re studying this, may very well be contemplating switching to a less complicated system to reclaim some of your free time back.

Taking a break out of your iPhone or Android telephone is usually generally known as a “digital detox”, which might help reset your relationship with technology so that you simply use your smartphone while you return to it, relatively than it utilizing you. You may just like the dumbphone life a lot tat you by no means go back, although it is fairly arduous to reside within the trendy world with out one generally.

If you have got the willpower to solely use a smartphone as a device, more energy to you. For the remainder of us, there may be a dumbphone on the market for you.

I’ve been testing and reviewing dumbphones for the final six years, so I’ve loads of expertise to help you determine how to best spend your money. All basic phones could make and obtain calls and textual content messages, however others have rudimentary web browsers or entry to simplified variations of apps comparable to Google Maps and YouTube.

Some additionally mean you can ‘hotspot’ which is when you need to use the dumbphone to attach one other system to the web comparable to a pill or laptop computer. It means you possibly can carry a dumbphone and one other system in case you actually need to entry the web, however your telephone isn’t that system, creating a barrier between you and the online world. It’s very straightforward to lose hours to a smartphone as a result of they’re all the time there with an web connection.

All dumbphones can deal with calls and texts, however no dumbphones can run WhatsApp. One dumbphone working system referred to as KaiOS used to assist it, however Meta ended that assist in January 2025. One of the phones on this checklist claims to have the ability to ship messages over Signal, however I’ve discovered the service extremely unreliable. You can not use web and app-based messaging providers on these phones.

The upsides are days-long battery life and, in case you can stick at it, a cell phone that you simply use, relatively than a smartphone that ends up utilizing you.

Just a few dumbphones have rudimentary web browsers however they’re so basic they’re solely helpful to, say, look up an deal with of a business or pub. You cannot use them for a lot else in any respect due to the low-powered {hardware} and tiny screens of these phones.

One of the phones on this checklist can entry Google providers and has a Google Maps app, however that is uncommon. Dumbphones actually are principally fairly restrictive, and that is their objective. They’re not meant to be smartphones that seem like outdated phones – they’re meant to be similar to the cell phones of the early 2000s.

Many dumbphones have 4G connections, and I like to recommend you discover one with one. The very least expensive basic phones on sale solely use 2G, which is much less dependable, has worse call high quality, and finally received’t exist within the UK. Also, in case you journey, many international locations have already shut down their 2G networks, so these phones received’t work when roaming in these international locations.

Here are the seven best dumbphones you possibly can presently buy within the UK, all tried and examined by me in 2025.

(P.S., I’ve not famous that any of the listed dumbphones’ cameras are unhealthy. You can assume they’re all unhealthy. Because they’re.)

This is the best dumbphone for many people regardless of not being the most cost effective, because of a good design, clear screen, fast efficiency and pleasingly easy performance. Modelled on the unique 3210 from 1999, the telephone is small for the fashionable period and is available in black, yellow or brilliant blue (the latter my favorite). It’s made by Finnish company HMD, which presently owns the rights to the Nokia model for phones.

The telephone fees through USB-C and the detachable battery (bear in mind these?) can final about 4 days in my expertise, with a couple of longish calls a day and a few texts. As with all of the phones on this checklist, textual content messages mercifully show as steady threads as they do on smartphones. Texting on a numberpad is simply as fiddly as you bear in mind, although, however there’s a predictive textual content option. It’s annoying that the telephone buzzes while you get a textual content, then buzzes again while you unlock the telephone to learn stated textual content.

There’s no Wi-Fi, and the browser is extremely basic and will not load a lot fo advanced webpages, great for not trying on the web. A color screen is good to have and the black background with white textual content is straightforward on the eyes at nighttime, a good contact. The £74.99 price is a little steep however the high quality is noticeable.

This flip telephone is the one one examined that runs KaiOS, an working system that helps Google account login. That means you need to use Google Maps (however not turn-by-turn instructions), entry your e-mail account and sync your contacts and calendar appointments. But I personally solely used Maps on this utilitarian flipper, as a result of having emails in your dumbphone goes someway to defeating the purpose of slicing back on smartphone use.

The Flip 3 is far bigger than the Motorola Razr you bear in mind from the 2000s, with a chunky design and large, straightforward to press buttons. The internal screen is color whereas a helpful outer screen shows the time, signal, battery life and notifications together with incoming calls and texts.

Call high quality is really wonderful because of 4G voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) tech that makes voices crystal clear. Texting, and the OS on the whole, is more sluggish than on the Nokia 3210, which is a little annoying however did encourage me to make use of it much less, which ultimately was appreciated. It fees through USB-C and I discovered the battery would final about three days with mild use, however a one hour telephone call will drain the juice by about 10 p.c.

HMD, the maker of Nokia phones, launched the Nokia 2660 Flip in 2022 but it surely has since been changed by the HMD 2660 Flip. It is strictly the identical telephone with barely higher construct high quality and a shiny mirror end when closed. The software program is in any other case an identical. I don’t just like the mirror end as a result of it will get greased up in seconds, however I do like that it fees through USB-C as an alternative of the Nokia model’s ageing micro-USB port.

Based on one other traditional outdated Nokia from back within the day, the telephone is a stable option if you would like a easy flipper that may handle calls and texts – this handset can barely do anything.

It doesn’t have Wi-Fi or a browser, so it’s not possible to scroll away on web sites, but in addition means you undoubtedly can’t Google something or obtain apps. One annoyance is the quantity buttons are simply knocked and so I discovered the ringer quantity would flip proper up to the utmost unintentionally in my pocket relatively than staying on silent. Aside from that the battery lasts for days and it’s very dependable.

If you bear in mind being astonished by simply how tiny the unique Nokia 8210 was back in 1999, I’m afraid this remake isn’t as small, however it’s a stable basic telephone option. It fees through the older micro-USB however no less than comes with a charger within the box, and runs a very comparable working system to the Nokia 3210 on the prime of this checklist.

This 8210 has a barely bigger screen and barely smaller buttons, making it a weirdly proportioned option that’s good if you wish to make the textual content of the show bigger. It works on 4G and the battery lasts for ages.

Just just like the 3210 and 2660 choices, there’s no Wi-Fi or app store and the browser is virtually unusable, so it’s a good one to keep it easy with.

The Light Phone 2 is a premium-priced basic telephone that’s without delay quite simple but in addition has a number of features you received’t discover on different dumbphones. It has a monochrome E-Ink touchscreen, very like a Kindle e-reader, which is a little sluggish to reply to touches and swipes. If you buy one, make sure you decide accurately between the North American or International variations.

This tiny gadget is a 4G telephone that may call and textual content but in addition has non-compulsory apps that you may add or take away from it through an online dashboard, accessible through a pc. These embrace a hotspot so you possibly can join different gadgets to its 4G connection, podcast participant, along with your podcasts feeds addable from the dashboard, a music participant so that you can load MP3s on the telephone (there’s Bluetooth and a headphone jack), in addition to a instructions device that’s fairly clunky however does work both with a map or textual content instructions.

My greatest disappointment with the Light Phone 2 is the battery life, which fluctuates wildly and is general poor. When utilizing it as my essential telephone, I may barely get to the top of the day on a charge earlier than reaching for the micro-USB cable. When a system this basic can’t obtain multiday battery life, it’s a downside. The $299 asking price can also be high, however that is a a lot nicer merchandise to own and maintain than any of the cheaper phones on this checklist.

Doro specialises in making cell phones for senior patrons, and the 6880 is the best of them. It has trendy 4G connectivity and comes bundled with a charging cradle, which not solely makes it straightforward to pop in and charge, however means you possibly can deal with the telephone like a home telephone and go away it in a single place in your home.

A flip telephone, it has a good rubberised and plastic construction together with HD voice call high quality, listening to assist compatibility and a programmable help button on the system that may be pressed to ship an alert to your trusted contacts in case you’re in need of help.

The exterior screen exhibits the time, signal and who is asking and there’s a torch and digital camera in-built, even when the latter is fairly unhealthy high quality. Again, there are no apps, Wi-Fi or hotspot, however for sheer simplicity and considerate design, the Doro is value a search for your self or to present to a good friend or relative who does not need a smartphone.

Much just like the Light Phone, the Punkt MP02 is an aspirational, premium system from a small startup. It appears like a retro calculator and could be very nicely made, with 4G, calls and texts, hotspot perform and charging through USB-C. It’s a beautiful object to carry, and very aesthetically pleasing. The battery lasts two or three days with mild use.

But that can solely get you to date. Punkt claims the telephone can entry Signal, the privacy-minded messaging service, however the app (referred to as Pigeon) ceaselessly breaks and I couldn’t depend on it. The firm additionally launched a second-generation of the MP02 in latest months, and people who didn’t replace the software program earlier than a sure date are caught on an outdated model eternally.

It’s these reliability points and odd selections that annoy clients that stop me from wholeheartedly recommending this telephone. But if you would like your dumbphone to be a lovely object and solely actually need calls and texts, the MP02 does the job. Plus the sunshine blue one appears unbelievable.

This is the most cost effective telephone on this checklist and whereas it does make calls and ship texts, I’d not suggest shopping for it. Any of the Nokia phones right here do a a lot better job. For a begin, this £29.99 telephone feels extremely low-cost to carry with a flip mechanism that doesn’t open or shut satisfyingly. It feels prefer it’s about to snap in half at any second.

Calls sound OK however that is additionally a 2G-only telephone, whereas each different telephone listed right here is 4G. The downside with 2G phones is that whereas they work presently, the UK’s telephone operators are going to close down their 2G networks within the early 2030s. While it appears like meaning this telephone will work OK until then, in actuality 2G networks are much less dependable and you’ll be caught with a lot worse call high quality than on a 4G telephone.

To add insult to harm, texting on this telephone can also be a horrid expertise. It doesn’t even offer predictive textual content, one thing cell phones with keypads had in 1999. I’ve included this telephone on the backside of the checklist to exhibit it’s not one to go for!