One year with the Light Phone 2

The first clip I utilized nan Light Phone 2’s GPS, I drove to Los Angeles for a date. I ended up parked successful a reddish zone, hyperventilating to nan hit of my hazard lights. All I did was get lost, and yet, I was seconds distant from puking each complete myself. (I didn’t, convey goodness.) I should person picked a lower-stakes arena to test-drive nan navigation feature, but I assumed it would activity arsenic good arsenic Google Maps. I was wrong.

The Light Phone’s GPS was atrocious a twelvemonth ago. It often thought I was connected a aboveground thoroughfare alternatively of nan adjacent freeway, aliases vice versa, truthful it would incorrectly show maine to support going aliases return an exit that didn’t beryllium and not registry my existent location until a fewer minutes later — if it registered that astatine all. It besides took respective minutes to find my location erstwhile I started it up, and it wasn’t awesome astatine uncovering an reside if I typed successful nan sanction of a business. I was furious that I had spent $339 for nan phone, case, and surface protector truthful I didn’t person to trust connected my smartphone, and each it had done for maine truthful acold was trigger my worry and astir ruin a date.

But I decided to make it work, and nan Light Phone 2 is still my superior telephone a twelvemonth later. To beryllium adjacent to nan Light Phone, nan business wasn’t wholly its fault. Yes, nan GPS was awful, and it did get maine lost, but driving astir Los Angeles makes maine tense connected nan champion of days, and I should person tested nan navigation astir municipality for illustration a bully small tech reviewer earlier driving 30 miles crossed region lines to spell connected a date. 

This 2020s-era mashup of a telephone — pinch its chunky integrative body, E Ink touchscreen, and deliberate absence of apps — isn’t for everyone. Reviewers and tech enthusiasts alike person travel distant from utilizing nan Light Phone 2 pinch small much than a shrug. Others genuinely enjoyed it but couldn’t find a measurement to merge it into their lives. Even The Verge wrote, “We mightiness opportunity we want to footwear our tech addictions, but who among america is fresh to ammunition retired $350 for a gadget that does truthful little?” backmost successful 2019. But nan “dumb phone” roar is real, and group are looking for ways to peel their eyes from their smartphones for illustration a furniture of Elmer’s glue from their manus — to region a portion of themselves that really isn’t a portion of themselves.

The Light Phone useful for maine because I was fresh to perpetrate to surviving a smartphone-free life arsenic overmuch arsenic possible. Muting notifications and deleting nan apps disconnected my smartphone had done thing to curb nan compulsion to cheque my accounts. If I felt anxious aliases bored, reaching for my smartphone was an automatic reaction, to nan constituent wherever I sometimes didn’t recognize my telephone was successful my manus until I was 10 feline videos heavy connected Instagram. I’m nan benignant of personification who likes to clasp power complete my faculties, truthful that terrified me. By making nan Light Phone my superior phone, I hoped to abstracted myself from easy entree to societal media and alteration my narration pinch really and erstwhile I accessed nan internet. The Light Phone 2 had nan correct deficiency of features: nary email, nary societal media, nary net browser aliases immoderate different apps, truthful it made nan first measurement successful my process easy to achieve.

My smartphone became nan balanced of nan Gateway desktop PC I had arsenic a teenager: a instrumentality kept successful different room that I had to physically spell to if I wanted to get online. Within a week of utilizing nan Light Phone, my full smartphone usage dropped from 4 hours a time to nether an hr a week — and it stayed there. By not utilizing a azygous instrumentality for everything, I reintroduced immoderate of nan aforesaid technological clash that we had astatine nan move of nan 21st century. 

The Light Phone took immoderate getting utilized to. The GPS has improved tremendously successful nan past year. (I’m nary longer acrophobic of getting mislaid and puking successful my car.) Texting is still frustrating because of nan slow E Ink screen, truthful now I telephone my friends much often — connected nan Light Phone aliases connected video from my machine if they’re abroad. It was besides awkward astatine first explaining to family and friends why I couldn’t instantly cheque my Instagram erstwhile they sent maine a funny meme aliases why I couldn’t spot a image they texted. The Light Phone doesn’t support MMS aliases hyperlinks successful texts. Instead, it forwards those messages to my email. 

I utilized to see this an inconvenience, but reference Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life successful a Noisy World helped maine understand what my quest to disconnect was about: reconnecting pinch nan beingness world. It doesn’t mean becoming a luddite, but to limit each nan ways our phones distract america from nan things that genuinely matter. This 1 condemnation successful his preamble brought everything afloat circle: “They agreed pinch my arguments astir agency distractions, but arsenic they past explained, they were arguably moreover much distressed by nan measurement caller technologies look to beryllium draining meaning and restitution from their clip spent retired of work.” Someone yet put into words nan heavy pit of despair my smartphone dragged maine into.

I haven’t been capable to wholly ditch my smartphone. I support it successful my container successful lawsuit I request it for definite things, for illustration edifice QR codes, authentication apps to log successful to my activity accounts, and Slack erstwhile I’m walking for work. But I person started buying integer albums again and uploading them to my Light Phone for illustration nan bully ol’ iPod days. (Later, Spotify.) I tin get almanac reminders, perceive to podcasts, call, and text. My smartphone nary longer has a information plan, truthful if I do request to usage it, I tether to nan Light Phone’s built-in hotspot. More often, though, I usage nan hotspot with my Kobo truthful I tin get room books connected nan road. My life is truthful overmuch simpler and truthful overmuch much focused than it was a twelvemonth agone because I intentionally made it harder for myself to get distracted by my phone.

Some critics opportunity nan Light Phone isn’t worthy nan value because it doesn’t person nan aforesaid number of features arsenic a budget smartphone. To them, I ask: what is nan value of your happiness? I don’t cognize what excavation is, but it’s decidedly worthy measurement much than $339.

Photography by Joanna Nelius / The Verge