Sonim XP3

I had a Sonim XP3 "dumb phone" that I used for a year and successfully drove my screen time down from 1-2 hours per day to <10min. The key for me was that the input (T-9 keyboard) and output (tiny non-touch display) modalities were so constrained that any task that wasn't completely trivial was made so painful that I would put it off until I was in front of a computer, if I did it at all. This was a great way to filter out tasks that weren't truly important enough to work on immediately in the moment. The downfall was my new job which required travel for work, which meant needing a phone capable of managing flights, navigation, and coordinating with my coworkers. If my circumstances change, I fully intend to switch back to the XP3 or something similar. I do wish there was something available that could perform those tasks I need for work, but not give me the "full throughput" to get distracted.

I've been using a Sonim XP3 flip phone since February 2025 and I love it. It's so freeing to not have social media always accessible at all times. I've downloaded all 850 songs on my Spotify playlist as .mp3 format and play them using the built-in music app. When I need to navigate somewhere, I drive there from memory or consult the atlas of my city that I keep in the passenger door of my car. I've gotten pretty good at T9 predictive text typing and can text people at about half the speed that I would on a smartphone. I don't like modern smartphones precisely because of their so-called conveniences. Because they're so easy to access, we're pushed into delegating to them as if they're a part of ourselves. If you have a smartphone, you'll never learn the streets of your city, because it's easier to use GPS all the time. You'll never get good at mental math, because you can just use your calculator. You'll remember less things because if you ever need to know something you can just take out your phone and Google it (this is an actual psychological phenomenon). And because social media is just a couple taps away, you'll spend hours every day trapped in an addictive algorithmic hell that leaves you bored and dissatisfied. Smartphones turn us into shells of ourselves, no longer living our own lives because it's easier not to. Getting a flip phone doesn't make doing the things you used to do impossible. If you really want to do something that requires a smartphone, you can get a fri…

It won't go for weeks, but days, and it takes some sideloading and finagling to get certain apk's to work, but I use a Sonim XP3+. Runs Android Go, big battery that lasts a while, I can use Signal Messenger on it (though not super well), and it's tank-like in its construction. If you want to take that up a notch in terms of build quality, Kyocera sells a similar phone, the Dura XV Extreme+, which is roughly $250. r/dumbphones is a decent resource. Unsuprisingly, it's not a large community, but it's a good place to get people's anecdotes about specific models.

Or ditch the smartphone entirely, get some variety of robust dumbphone, and work that out in your life. I have a Sonim XP3+, running Android 11 Go, I think, but it's just a rugged dumbphone. Waterproof, drop resistant up to some very reasonable distance, and "generally indestructible" for most reasonable and quite a few unreasonable values of that term. It's good for calls, and texting. And the occasional hotspot use. I carry a decade old laptop for other stuff I need, and use the car's GPS if needed, though since giving up on smartphone maps some while ago, my internal navigation is way better than it used to be. Irritatingly, US carriers all went to VoLTE at about the same time, turning quite a few perfectly good older devices into ewaste, but I'm hopeful VoLTE works for a long while, and I have a decade or so before I have to think about a cell phone again. And, yes, I know that "I couldn't possibly do that for..." reason lists are long. Try it. If nobody resists "having a modern smartphone and being willing to install any random app someplace demands you install," that will be the future we get. I can't even scan QR codes. Life is good!

Once you've gotten rid of a lot of the more aggressive functions of a smartphone, I don't find the tradeoffs of carrying a large, fragile glass screen worth it. My current flip device (Sonim XP3+) is mil-spec tough (in the sense of "Is tested to a range of military standards and passes"), lasts a casual week on battery (or two, if I shut it down at night, which I frequently do), and I can use it just fine with gloves on - which isn't a problem because the usable temperature range is radically wider than smartphones too. It also has a far louder ringer and speaker than almost any smartphone out there. But more importantly, to your second point: > I do resent things that require smartphone though. The way to fight this requires "not carrying a smartphone." If you obviously have a smartphone and refuse to install the apps to do [whatever], you're just being cantankerous and can be safely ignored. When you pull out a flip phone and act baffled, it really surprises people. I don't think a lot of people under the age of about 30 even realize there's anything that's not "Android" or "iOS" out there (or if they do, they're still shocked that anyone would use it). So because I object to "smartphones required," and I'm old enough/stubborn enough to help counter that world, carrying a flip phone is a way for me to help fight back against the "smartphone as default way of interacting with all reality" thing that's been creeping in for quite a few years now, accelerated with the to…

It's funny how reality tends to "test your resolve" with things like that. I've got a flip phone (Sonim XP3+) with a viable camera in it. It's not amazing, but it's more than good enough to document stuff like that, and I can send things with a computer when I get back home (though admittedly, I carry a powered off laptop with me often enough - that plus tethering off my phone gets me a backup for just about everything I could want, though I almost never use it). Or just carry a cheap point-n-shoot digital camera in your bag. I've started doing that too - the rugged/tough variety are well suited to banging around with you until you need them for something.

You can. And then you're still stuck with the compromises of a smartphone. It's short lived in terms of battery life, and it's quite fragile as a result of being "mostly a glass screen." I've been experimenting with flip phones for a while now, and my current daily carry (for when I carry it - I often leave it behind or power it off) is a Sonim XP3+ [0]. Battery life is "a week if I leave it on, two if I turn it off at night," and it's waterproof, drop proof, and a bunch of other mil-spec toughness proofs (I don't care about rapid decompression, ideally, but it's been tested for that). And I can use it in gloves, in the snow, without trouble. The environmental range is quite a bit wider than most smartphones, and everything is an actual physical button, no virtual buttons or touch sensors. [0]: https://www.sevarg.net/2023/12/30/more-flip-phone-sonim-xp3-...

> I actually have a dream of one day going back to a flip phone... Do it. Sonim makes some absolute brick chonks of phones these days. > ...where I'll get an AI call summarizing emails or messages that are important, as well as any relevant news stories where I can ask for more detail if needed. I just try to not have unimportant emails come in, though eBay can't be convinced to turn off their damned shipping notifications (or I've not found how to do it). The 1st of the year is a very good time to start wrangling your inbox - every email that comes in is either of value, or you figure out how to eliminate it. Unsubscribe from everything you don't really care about. And news summary emails are a thing. I route them and various Substack newsletters to my Kobo via Pocket. > The Internet is amazing, but honestly I don't know that the degree to which I personally engage with it is the ideal cost/benefit as opposed to using an intermediary. You get a lot of the benefits with far less use than most people assume sane. I check email via mail clients, when my desktop computers are on. It doesn't come to my phone. I'm off instant messengers most evenings. And I turn my cell phone off at night (which also leads to, on the Sonim XP3+, about two weeks of useful battery life). Just start.

When Sprint/T-Mobile forced me to get a new flip phone because my Kyocera would no longer be supported, I had to decide between the Alcatel Go Flip, the Cat S22 and a Sonim XP3 Plus. I went with the Sonim and I am very happy with it. https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/ The Alcatel had many bad reviews. The Cat seemed huge and defeated many of purposes I have for having a flip phone in the first place. The Sonim has incredible build quality, no apps, internet works fine. I have no complaints. I haven't tried using Google Maps on it yet, but if that works I will love it even more and ditch my Garmin GPS.