The rise of the dumbphone

Unplugging with a brick - 25th April 2022

It might be time to reconsider upgrading to the latest handset! The tide of technology may be turning as a significant number of individuals are rejecting smartphones in favour of so-called 'dumbphones'. Compared to say an iPhone, dumbphones are a significant step down, capable of merely making calls, sending texts and taking photos instead of offering web browsers and apps like TikTok or Instagram. In many ways, these devices are just the same as mobiles from the late 1990s.

Opting to ditch her smartphone two years ago, Londoner Robin West, aged 17, had been browsing second-hand phones when a new 'brick phone' caught her eye. She snapped up the low-cost handset from French firm MobiWire for a bargain £8 and no longer has to contend with exorbitant monthly data bills.

Cost wasn't the only benefit of the brick phone. "I didn't notice until I bought a brick phone how much the smartphone had taken over my life," Robin explains. "I had a lot of social media apps on it, and I was hardly getting any work done." The teenager knows that she'll never go back, declaring, "I'm delighted with my brick - I don't think it limits me. I'm definitely more proactive."

Data from a report by one software firm suggests many are jumping on the low-tech bandwagon, with Google searches for dumbphones soaring 89 percent between 2018 and 2021. And Light Phone, a mobile firm headquartered in New York, has engineered 'feature phones' which – marginally more sophisticated than the typical brick – include functionality for listening to music and podcasts, and linking to headphones via Bluetooth. Despite adding these comparative bells and whistles, the manufacturer pledges that its phones "will never have social media, clickbait news, email, an internet browser, or any other anxiety-inducing infinite feed".

Initially marketed for use as a secondary handset for smartphone users looking to unplug at weekends, Light Phone co-founder Kaiwei Tang has been surprised by over half the firm's customers adopting a feature phone as their only device. If this consumer trend is anything to go by, the technologically savvy seem to wish they could turn back time!