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Nokia 2780 Review 2024-01-21
featurephone

I've been using a Nokia 2780 flip phone instead of my Pixel 6 smartphone for a few days now. Here are my notes about it.

Better than the Smartphone

  • Fits in my pocket better: it's thicker, but smaller in the other two dimensions
  • Battery lasts for days, not hours
  • Speakerphone is somehow better
  • Voice calls have lower latency: I don't feel like I'm interrupting people
  • FM Radio
  • Almost no compulsion to "check my phone": I know there's nothing going on there
  • Conversation starter: nearly everyone who sees it wants to tell me about a fond memory of a featurephone they once used

Same as the Smartphone

  • Connects to WiFi
  • Can act as hotspot
  • Basic calculator
  • Plays music
  • Group SMS support
  • Calendar with reminders, syncs to Google
  • Modern web browser with JavaScript
  • Email client, syncs to Google
  • Google Maps

Worse than the Smartphone, but tolerable

  • Camera is just okay
  • Group SMS displays a blank subject before every message
  • Google Maps doesn't have POV mode: you have to manually advance to the next turn
  • No "location sharing", people can't see where you are, and you can't see where they are
  • Only syncs one calendar
  • Email is just the body: PDF attachments have to be saved and opened in another app
  • Contact syncing breaks, so I had to manually transfer my core contacts
    • Google's contacts for me is massive, I don't recognize most of these people
    • Maybe this is actually a feature?
  • QR Code Reader is an app (has ads)
  • Podcast app has ads
  • MMS (group texts, or photos) can take a few minutes to arrive when the phone is closed. This may be a power saving issue.
  • Multimedia text messages must be opened to display them
  • 200x320 screen resolution (smartphone is 2400x1080!)
  • Limited set of emoji on keyboard

Bad

  • Headphone jack doesn't detect speakers, only headphones
  • No way to automatically mute sounds during "quiet hours" (like, when you are asleep)
  • Predictive text input guesses one 4 means "g", not "I"
  • Will not play FLAC files
  • "Battery Full" notification can't be disabled
  • No international keyboard: goodbye, diacriticals!