Light Phone III review: everything in moderation

What are the basal features of a smartphone? That’s not a rhetorical question, and it’s actually a useful exercise: if I were to return distant everything but the things you genuinely need on your phone, what would those things be? And really mightiness you interact pinch your telephone otherwise if those things were each you had?

The $599 Light Phone III is 1 effort to reply those questions. The Light Phone III is substantially much powerful, functional, and smartphone-ish than anything Light has shipped before. (It’s besides substantially much expensive.) It has a camera now, and a accelerated and colorful touchscreen. It connects to 5G networks connected each 3 awesome US carriers and tons of others astir the world.

It’s a smarter phone than the erstwhile Light Phones, but it’s still not a smartphone. It has nary app store, nary societal media, nary web browser, nary of the things we do connected our phones each day. That is, of course, the full point: Light envisions the instrumentality arsenic either a no-frills, nights-and-weekends complement to your smartphone aliases a wholesale replacement for anyone looking for overmuch little surface time. More recently, it has caught connected arsenic a instrumentality for kids — a schoolhouse successful Massachusetts made news a fewer years ago by banning smartphones and giving students Light Phones instead.

The Light Phone III comes tantalizingly adjacent to being my perfect minimalist phone without getting rather there. Part of the problem is that the phone’s not rather finished: its NFC sensor, video chat feature, and fingerprint scholar aren’t yet active, each of which would adhd immoderate useful caller possibilities to the device. Light is moving connected integrations that will spell a agelong measurement toward afloat satisfying my ain database of basal telephone things, too. And location are a fewer interface and usability things that make it difficult to unrecorded the Light life.

The Light Phone II sewage substantially amended successful the years it was connected sale, and the Light squad says this 1 will, too. It won’t ever beryllium the correct instrumentality for everyone, but I americium awfully charmed by it.

Light Phones person ever been nicely designed, but the newest exemplary is my favourite yet. The all-black-everything creation makes the Phone III consciousness a small for illustration thing a spy mightiness carry, and the sharp-edged boxiness benignant of makes it consciousness for illustration a weapon. (It weighs 124 grams and is 12mm heavy — basically, ideate you put a lawsuit connected an iPhone 16, chop the full point successful 2 correct supra the measurement buttons, and the bottommost spot is simply a Light Phone. That mightiness not beryllium helpful.) I really for illustration the measurement the Phone III looks, though the apical separator does dig into my receptor a small erstwhile I’m connected agelong calls.

Instead of a small, slow-refreshing E Ink surface that sticks retired against large bezels, this 1 has a 3.92-inch, 1080 x 1240 AMOLED sheet that blends really nicely into the device’s… still beautiful large bezels. This is astir apt the biggest hardware upgrade connected the phone: Light CEO Kaiwei Tang tells maine the slow and blocky E Ink surface was antecedently the number 1 logic group bailed connected their Light Phone. The AMOLED is overmuch much responsive to scrolling and swiping and, successful particular, is overmuch much pleasant to type on.

The tradeoff, of course, is that the surface is simply a small harder connected a artillery and a batch brighter to look astatine — but Light designs astir some of those problems beautiful well. The phone’s interface is still astir each achromatic and white: it’s almost jarring erstwhile you unfastened up the camera and everything’s abruptly successful afloat color, because Light useful truthful difficult to support things monochrome and unenticing everyplace else.

There are nary awesome specs to beryllium recovered connected the Phone III. It has a Qualcomm SM 4450 chip, 128GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM. The (replaceable!) 1,800mAh artillery is mini but still capable to support this point moving for 2 aliases 3 days astatine a clip successful my testing. Remember: this telephone is explicitly designed not to beryllium powerful. It can’t do much, and it’s not expected to.

Here is simply a complete database of everything the Light Phone III tin do, ordered by really I group up my phone. Light calls them “Tools,” but they’re fundamentally conscionable apps. A mates of them travel built in, and you adhd the remainder by accessing a web dashboard from immoderate different device. (If you get a Light Phone, beryllium prepared to walk a batch of clip successful that dashboard, because you can’t do overmuch tinkering connected the telephone itself.) Anyway, here’s the list:

That’s the longest the database has ever been for a Light Phone, and it does astir of its jobs really well. But I fishy astir group will deliberation it’s missing astatine slightest 1 thing. For me, the biggest 1 is Spotify, which Tang, Light’s CEO, tells maine the institution is moving on. I’d besides really for illustration immoderate benignant of basal reference app and immoderate much messaging options — going pinch a Light Phone intends ditching WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, and everything other that isn’t SMS. (RCS: besides apparently coming soon.) For astir people, that unsocial is either annoying aliases deal-breaking.

While I’m making a database of worldly that’s missing, present are a fewer more. The Light Phone III connects easy and reliably to Bluetooth headphones, but I can’t usage my headphones to power playback connected the phone. I emotion the consciousness of the dedicated fastener and scroll instrumentality connected the near side, truthful why don’t they do much than move connected the flashlight and dial surface brightness? (Tang says much options are coming.) I for illustration that I tin sync my Google Calendar to the phone; why can’t I do the aforesaid pinch contacts? And oh, here’s a weird one: I really, really, really miss CarPlay and Android Auto.

Still, I was amazed really quickly I adapted to astir of life pinch the Light Phone. It took astir a time to extremity instinctively swiping up to get to a homescreen and alternatively deed the fastener connected the broadside to move Tools — aliases conscionable move the surface off. I spent 20 minutes subscribing to each my podcasts, and the Phone III became the point I tote from room to room blaring The Rewatchables. I didn’t moreover effort to move distant from iMessage and WhatsApp, to beryllium honorable — I conscionable sent immoderate SMSes and did the remainder of my texting from my computer. All my reading, YouTube-ing, and mindless scrolling were shunted to different device, too. (In this case, mostly an iPad.)

My champion proposal for the Light Phone is to wait. The institution has a terrific way grounds for maintaining and improving its devices, and I person each assurance that it will yet move connected the NFC spot and adhd a integer wallet, simplify login and costs pinch the fingerprint reader, adhd video chat pinch the front-facing camera, and build the integrations — for illustration Lyft and Spotify — it has promised. But The Verge’s long-standing argumentation is to reappraisal only what’s successful the box, and for now, the telephone is unfinished.

There’s 1 different point preventing Light from really achieving its goals, and that’s wireless carriers. In a cleanable world, you’d beryllium capable to move betwixt a smartphone and a Light Phone pinch a mates of taps — move the e-SIM complete here, move it on, done and done. In reality, unless you person a very circumstantial and costly plan, there’s simply nary measurement to easy and many times move your worldly and your work betwixt devices. (That’s acold little existent successful Europe and elsewhere, for what it’s worth.) I don’t want to ditch my iPhone entirely, but I’d emotion to beryllium capable to flip backmost and distant betwixt devices, and it’s not really feasible to do so.

Still, there’s nary different telephone rather for illustration the Light Phone III, and I fishy it will entreaty to galore people. The thought of the Light Phone is to move “using your phone” into a point you do connected purpose, not absentmindedly whenever your encephalon is unoccupied for 3 seconds. Having instant, always-on entree to everything is not a bully thing, and the Light Phone takes it away. I person utilized the Light Phone III little than immoderate different telephone I’ve ever reviewed, and that is simply a awesome thing.

I’ve agelong believed successful the thought down the Light Phone, and I judge successful this phone, too. I conscionable wish it had WhatsApp.

Photography by David Pierce / The Verge