Escaping the display screen isn’t simple. After I examined the Gentle Cellphone III in March—a telephone designed to strip away apps and give attention to the fundamentals—I rapidly discovered what number of little issues I wanted my smartphone for, from accessing my residence’s safety cameras to authentication apps so I may check in to internet providers on my laptop computer. Generally it is simply not simple to go chilly turkey. However that is the place the Minimal Cellphone steps in.
That is an Android telephone with a bodily keyboard and an e-paper touchscreen. It seems like a Kindle had a child with a BlackBerry. In contrast to most anti-smartphone merchandise that supply a curated suite of fundamental telephone features, the Minimal Cellphone helps you to entry any app by way of the Google Play Retailer like a standard Android telephone. However the expertise is hampered by the tiny, 4.3-inch e-paper display screen that wants fixed refreshing. The keyboard will even sluggish you down. This irritating smartphone expertise is type of the purpose.
I received into mattress one evening, prepared for my ordinary bedtime doomscrolling ritual. As my spouse was zooming by way of TikTok, I checked out my telephone and wailed to my spouse, “I am unable to doomscroll!” I heaved a sigh, put my telephone down, and went to mattress. This isn’t to say that I magically wakened the subsequent day with one of the best sleep of my life—utilizing your telephone earlier than mattress can have an effect on sleep—but it surely did show one factor: The Minimal Cellphone did its job of reducing my time spent on social media.
Ghost Metropolis
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
The distinction in construct high quality between the Minimal Cellphone and the Gentle Cellphone III is stark. The latter mixes glass and metallic, whereas the Minimal is sort of fully plastic. It feels light-weight, and I’ve to say, a bit of low-cost. It would not assist that instantly after unboxing it, the telephone’s again was already grubby with smudges, virtually like I had simply eaten a bag of Cheetos (I want). Possibly that is why the corporate sells Dbrand skins to cowl it up.
On the proper edge is an influence button with a fingerprint scanner baked in, and it is pretty dependable. The underside homes the USB-C charging port and a headphone jack. On the left edge is the SIM tray, which helps microSD playing cards for storage growth if 128 GB is not sufficient. The amount buttons are divided by an “e-paper refresh” button, most likely the button you will press essentially the most.
That brings us to the 4.3-inch touchscreen, which is … not nice. That is largely as a result of if you scroll or transfer by way of internet pages and menus, there’s numerous ghosting—a faint picture of the earlier textual content you have been gazing. Even one or two scrolls and you may wish to hit that e-paper refresh button liberally to take away these artifacts—that rapidly turns into an annoying step.
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
It additionally would not assist that the monochrome display screen would not play nicely with lighter colours on choose web sites, although pages with largely black and white textual content, like WIRED.com, look high-quality. Fortunately, I had no issues studying the matte display screen in any lighting scenario. You may modify the display screen’s colour temperature and brightness to fit your eyes, and there is not any glare.
Shifting all through the Android 14 working system can really feel a bit of sluggish, however that is largely simply the pace of the e-paper display screen. From a efficiency standpoint, it appears to chug alongside high-quality with the MediaTek Helio G99 chipset inside. Granted, I don’t advocate attempting cellular video games.
The house display screen reveals a listing of shortcuts to core apps, like Cellphone, Messages, Digicam, Calendar, and Calculator. There is a Notes app, and it defaults to opening Google Maintain. (You may take away and add new ones by long-pressing the app identify within the drawer.) I’ve used the telephone like every other I take a look at, even utilizing Google Maps to navigate and Google Pockets for tap-to-pay at bodily retailers, although you will have a subpar expertise with some apps greater than others.
Lite Cellphone
{Photograph}: Julian Chokkattu
You will not wish to do sure issues on the Minimal Cellphone. Watching movies, enjoying video games, and scrolling by way of social media don’t mesh nicely with an e-paper display screen and the sluggish refresh fee. YouTube movies and Instagram Reels alike really feel such as you’re gazing a strobe mild, with the display screen flashing with each body. Press and maintain the e-paper refresh button, and you will find an “extremely” refresh setting that makes this a bit of higher, however the high quality considerably diminishes, and all the things seems like a blob. (I normally saved it at “hybrid,” which switches to extremely when scrolling or when a video is enjoying.)
