Observe ZDNET: Add us as a most well-liked supply on Google.
ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Gentle simply introduced the Gentle Flip — a minimalist flip telephone for $299.
- It has a barely lower-end construct in comparison with the Gentle Telephone 3, however goals for a considerate design and putting colours.
- It comes with a nine-month “Flip Your Life” program that helps customers put together to ditch their smartphones for good.
Gentle, the corporate that made the “premium dumbphone”, simply introduced the most recent gadget to its lineup: the Gentle Flip, a $299 flip telephone with the identical minimal aesthetic however trade-offs in {hardware} and construct.
The Brooklyn-based firm’s core ethos stays the identical: a totally minimalist UI, no e-mail, no apps, and restricted options — even lower than the Gentle Telephone 3, which was already spare. The result’s a singular gadget in wild colours designed solely for making calls and sending texts (in the event you can courageous the T9 keyboard).
Additionally: I gave up my iPhone for a dumbphone with no apps. A month later, here is my take
Positive, it is a flip, however it’s chunkier than the Gentle Telephone 3, has a worse digicam, no touchscreen, no NFC capabilities, is fabricated from plastic as a substitute of aluminum, and has much less reminiscence. So what is the draw right here? Clearly, it is not in regards to the specs; Gentle says it is in regards to the way of life.
Flip your life
I talked to Gentle’s two co-founders, Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang, forward of the announcement, and so they have been clear in regards to the supposed demographic: 18- to 30-year-olds who need out of the smartphone ecosystem. Working with a consultancy throughout growth, Tang mentioned that 52% of Gen Z and Millennial customers would think about using a non-smartphone — a statistic that throws the door large open for product growth.
Not having the ability to entry social media, information, or e-mail in your telephone is a probably liberating prospect for the thousands and thousands of people that really feel trapped in countless doomscrolling or notification hell. However the trendy smartphone has embedded itself in our lives so completely that it takes actual dedication to make it sustainable.
The shock of going from an iPhone to one thing just like the Gentle Flip might be so nice that it sends customers again to the darkish aspect after a matter of weeks or months. “It isn’t only a totally different pair of footwear, it is a full way of life change,” Hollier mentioned. In that sense, Gentle noticed a possibility: serving to its customers make the transition, and constructed it into the gadget itself.
With the Gentle Flip 3 accessible for preorder now, patrons even have the selection to enroll in Gentle’s personal “digital audit” preparedness program referred to as Flip Your Life, which goals to arrange customers to ditch their smartphone within the 9 months earlier than the product really ships. (The Gentle Flip is predicted to change into accessible in April 2027.)
Additionally: I examined Nothing’s new pink earbuds, and so they look pretty much as good as they sound
“You do not simply purchase a telephone from us; we assist you to make the transition,” Tang mentioned of this system. Customers can join in a digital group, share vulnerabilities, suggestions, and methods to divest of their smartphones, and acclimate to reordering their digital lives — a completely new social part that accompanies the telephones’ buy and, Gentle hopes, retains individuals on them. Contemplating it’s going to be a wait earlier than anybody really has the Gentle Flip in hand, there’s greater than sufficient time to have interaction.
Minimal… however extra so
The opposite motive for the Gentle Flip is to serve the entry-level minimalist telephone market, with an inexpensive $299 value for the unlocked handset, or a $39/month cost for a two-year contract that features the Gentle Service plan. When it comes to trade-offs, initially, the construct is fabricated from plastic, and there’s no touchscreen: the two.8-inch matte glass OLED on the Gentle Flip has a 480 x 640 decision and is navigated solely by a D-pad, operate buttons, a Residence button on the fitting aspect, and quantity up and down.
The telephone measures 110mm by 58mm by 19mm (folded) and weighs 160 grams, notably greater than the 124 grams of the Gentle Telephone 3. It additionally has 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a MediaTek MT8873 chipset. Connectivity is sweet: it helps 5G and 4G LTE, has a single USB-C 2.0 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, assist for Bluetooth 5.0, and each nano SIM and e-SIM. It additionally solely has one rear digicam.
Relating to the keys, sure, you learn that proper: T9 texting is again. In the event you’re too younger to recollect texting on a quantity pad, it entails tapping quantity keys a number of occasions to get the letter you need. It takes observe and, notably, time, to ship a textual content — one other potential smooth hurdle constructed into the telephone’s capabilities: you’ll be able to textual content on it, however it’s not essentially satisfying.
Additionally: Personal a Pixel? You’ll be able to add gadget safety now for $5/month – however do you have to?
Lastly, I used to be glad to see the identical 1800 mAh battery within the Gentle Flip as within the Gentle Telephone 3. That telephone’s battery was one in every of its weakest factors, so I am hoping we see much more longevity with the light-weight {hardware} on this telephone.
The Gentle Flip might be preordered now with a $39 deposit and is predicted to ship in April 2027. It’s accessible in six colours: black, navy, pink, pink, yellow, and lightweight grey.
