A Classic Flip Phone at a Smartphone Price

Smartphones — or, more precisely, the apps on them — can be rather distracting. Every ambient moment can be filled with a scroll, refresh, or notification, and so many live with their eyes glued to that small glowing rectangle. Many are happy doing so, while others feel guilty about their screen time and want to reduce it. They could just bring books with them, get in the habit of flicking less, or uninstall social media from their phones. I love Instagram and Twitter for about 10 minutes each a day and hate every minute I waste on them beyond that. So I don’t have either app on my phones and use the News Feed Eradicator extension on my laptop.But if you think you don’t have the self-discipline for that — or would just like to do more shopping — various startups will sell you a distraction-free phone to use as a secondary device, if not as a replacement for your iPhone.Light Flip. Courtesy of LightThe latest, snazziest device in this category, unveiled recently, is the Light Flip, a classic flip phone from Light, which also sells the distraction-free Light Phone III. The plastic-bodied phone is available in black, red, yellow, pink, navy blue, and light gray. It has a single rear-facing 50-megapixel camera; a MediaTek MT8873 processor; 6 gigabytes of RAM; 128 gigabytes of storage; and a 1,800 mAh battery. It supports 5G, 4G LTE, nano-SIM and eSIM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-C charging, and a beloved 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. It runs Light’s distraction-free, Android-based LightOS.That means it has the basics: an alarm, calculator, calendar, directory, directions, hotspot, music and podcasts, notes and voice memos, weather, two-factor authenticator, and timer — but virtually nothing else. Light’s new developer program lets users sideload Android apps or build custom tools with the company’s software development kit, but existing apps may not work properly, and the community Tool Library is not due until October.This all sounds fine until you realize that, beneath the glossy advertising and distraction-solving branding, this is practically just a high-end take on a generic flip phone. Its 2.8-inch, 480-by-640-pixel matte OLED non-touch screen is a step up, but do you care that much about screen quality on a device like this? You might have really missed texting with a physical number pad, but most haven’t, and if you have, you can find an infinite number of options like this in places as low-key as a gas station. Or you can buy a Clicks Keyboard. Those don’t cost $299 or $39 a month on Light’s two-year cell plan.Courtesy of LightFor the same money, you can buy one of the newer smartphones on the market. The Light Flip is just a basic flip phone. It has no NFC chip, so you can’t tap to pay, and it lacks wireless charging, a selfie camera, and an outer screen. Its lone camera sounds good on paper, but it can output only 12-megapixel images from that 50-megapixel sensor, and Light’s image processing has never been well reviewed.Light’s answer to all this is to pitch the Flip as a second, low-distraction phone. But that just makes the price even harder to swallow.

A Classic Flip Phone at a Smartphone Price

A Classic Flip Phone at a Smartphone Price

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