Keitais

I bought a japanese flip phone, or keitai, a few months ago. It's a Kyocera 902kc, and although neglecting to use it in the past, I now believe I've understood the perspective and use case of it.

Most people who discuss keitais come from r/dumbphones, and the reasons become clear after figuring out the limitations of the phone.

• No Google Play Services, so many apps won't work
• Sideloading apps must be done initially (to get a store setup)
• Poor cell signal depening on location
• No touchscreen - instead, you have to use a cursor to navigate with arrow keys
• Somewhat poor battery life
• Android 8.1 (an older version) is the latest version of Android that the phone supports
• Poor camera quality (8 MP)

Now, many of these can be quoted as "limitations" when imagining using the phone as you would a smartphone. However, I believe that an alternative perspective to the limitations is what r/dumbphones users are taking. The phone is meant to reduce screentime, and simplifying the experience with a phone like this begins to make more and more sense. Increasing friction to do more complex tasks like opening TikTok or a browser is intentionally difficult to them.

With that in mind, here's some of the quirks and things that I appreciate and intend to use:

• Tiled home screen - Using the arrow keys is much easier with the native home screen in a 3x4 grid.
• Status screen - There is a status screen on the back of the phone, useful for notifications and small checks.
• Reading - My apps are mostly synced to my phone, so I can read what I want easily. If not on this phone, then I still have a small Boox tablet with an e-ink screen, which I use for reading.
• To do list - I use Microsoft To Do, which can still sync to this phone.
• Key Mapper - Creating custom key bindings on a phone is actually pretty fun to get creative with.
• Camera - I do appreciate the lack of quality from time to time for aesthetic reasons.

I haven't used the phone much, especially since it doesn't have its SIM card activated at the moment, but I'm sure I will use it more in the future (and because I wrote this).