While the rise of the smartphone has brought with it many tangible benefits, there are plenty of drawbacks – people are literally addicted to their phones and find it hard to be parted from them for even a short time, and if you glance out of your window right now, chances are you'll see at least one person glued to their handset's display as they walk along the road. In short, humankind has a problem with phones, because they're so darn good.
To counter this issue we've seen an increase in the number of 'dumbphones' available on the market; handsets which strip away all of the distractions like apps, online connectivity and social media integration and instead focus on calls and text, and that's it. While it sounds like a gimmick, plenty of people are investing in these minimalist devices to solve the problem of too much screen time when they're away from their computer, and while it won't be for everyone, it seems to be working.
Swiss company Punkt was one of the first to embrace this desire to scale back on mobile technology and launched the stylish MP01 not long ago. It can't do anything but make calls and send text messages, but the catch is that it's limited to 2G networks – and these are being switched off all over the globe right now.
In response to this, Punkt has released an updated version called the MP02. It's a dead ringer (no pun intended) for its predecessor but now comes with 4G LTE, Blackberry encryption and – perhaps most important of all – threaded text messaging. The previous model divided messages between 'Inbox' and 'Sent', which was perhaps a little too old-school for many users. While you can't access the internet via the phone itself, you can connect it to your laptop or tablet and use it as a portable hotspot, which is a neat touch. Calls and texts are the focus, but it also comes with a clock, notes app, calendar and calculator.
Designed by British industrial designer Jasper Morrison, the MP02 is rocking a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor and comes with a two-inch, Gorilla Glass-covered monochrome display. Because it's not connected to the internet and doesn't have a massive screen, you can expect to get around 12 days of use out of a single charge – a more welcome throwback to the past. It uses USB-C for charging and connectivity, so it's ahead of the curve when compared to a few 2018 Android handsets in that regard.
If you feel like embracing the dumbphone revolution then this is perhaps your best option. You can pre-order the MP02 now, at a cost of $349. Simplicity clearly doesn't come cheap, but you do get a Lamy pen designed by Morrison if you pre-order now.
by dmcferran via Featured Articles
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