The Light Flip is a minimalist flip phone with a point to prove

A fewer years ago, the squad astatine Light shipped the most smartphone-like device they’d ever created. The Light Phone III still kept to its minimalist, no-distractions ethos, but it was a phone-size rectangle pinch a phone-size touchscreen, a camera, and a number of different features. Some group loved having an almost-smartphone, but Kaiwei Tang, Light’s cofounder, says he started getting feedback he didn’t expect. Lots of users, peculiarly young ones, didn’t want a smartphone. More than that, actually: They didn’t moreover want thing that looked like a smartphone. “We person users who show us, ‘Hey, I dislike smartphones. I don’t want to beryllium seen utilizing a smartphone,’” Tang says. Then they’d almost ever inquire for the aforesaid thing: a Light Phone, but a flip phone.

So Light made a flip phone, group to vessel early adjacent year. “The Light Phone successful flip telephone form” is moreover astir the correct measurement to deliberation astir it. This 1 comes successful a bunch of colors – a large departure from the all-black Phone III — but keeps Light’s chunky vibes. There’s a 2.8-inch surface connected the apical half, but it’s not a touchscreen; each the relationship comes via the bottommost half’s modular numberpad, D-pad, and usability buttons. The full point is powered by a MediaTek MT8873 processor, 128GB of storage, and 6GB of RAM. There’s a USB-C larboard for charging, a headphone jack for headphones, a azygous camera connected the back, a notification ray connected the beforehand screen that glows erstwhile there’s thing for you to see, and not overmuch else.

Early successful the process, Tang says, Light decided to really stress the flipping of the flip phone. The squad opted not to put immoderate benignant of surface connected the extracurricular of the device, wanting to make judge you had to deliberately unfastened up the device. Tang says he loved “this action of opening up your technology, and past you adjacent it down and it goes away.”

He says the Light Flip is designed mostly arsenic a 2nd phone, not truthful overmuch to switch your iPhone aliases Galaxy instrumentality wholly but to springiness you an easy measurement to time off it astatine home. That was the thought down the Light Phone III, too, but that was a difficult waste for a $699 instrumentality — Tang says astir of the antagonistic feedback he’s heard astir the Phone III was astir its cost. The Light Flip is comparatively priced to move: You tin bargain it for $299, aliases you tin salary $39 a period for a Light Flip connected to Light’s compartment service, and aft 24 months, the telephone is yours.

The package successful the Light Flip is the aforesaid LightOS arsenic the Light Phone III — Tang says the only point this caller instrumentality can’t do is tap-to-pay, since there’s nary NFC spot inside. Everything else, from camera to notes to navigation, should activity conscionable the same. And arsenic of recently, you tin adhd to the device’s package yourself: Light precocious released an SDK for its app “toolbox,” truthful you tin constitute apps for your ain instrumentality aliases taxable them to a broader app library.

Letting different group constitute Light package is simply a agelong clip coming. Some Light Phone III users resorted to hacking full-fledged Android connected the device, conscionable to tally the apps they wanted. The full point seems to person taken Tang clip to get utilized to. But he knows Light can’t build each the package group need, and he’s recovered a measurement to thief users lick their problems without inflicting the solutions connected everyone else. “You ain the device,” Tang says. “You ain your package astatine the aforesaid time. Obviously, I don’t want to spot group utilizing societal media connected our phone, but that’s my problem. That’s your phone, you should beryllium capable to do immoderate you want.”

Tang says he expects developers will hack their AI agents into LightOS and will create ways to pass pinch their OpenClaw-running Mac Minis astatine home. He’s not worrying astir it, nor is he peculiarly willing successful making it easier. “When I question and reply young people,” he says,
“one point that ne'er comes up? No 1 wants an AI fastener connected their phone.” In fact, he says, it’s the opposite: More and much users want him to guarantee there’s nary AI anyplace successful the Light universe.

In a way, the Light Flip is simply a motion toward retro nostalgia, a long-gone era earlier our phones were immense screens that demanded each of our attraction each the time. But Tang says he doesn’t spot it that measurement — he thinks flip phones sewage thrown distant acold excessively soon. “This shape factor, young group person ne'er knowledgeable it,” he says. “They emotion the thought of closing it, and it goes away.” As canvass aft canvass shows group revolting against the incursion of AI into their lives, and much and much group find themselves looking for a measurement out of their narration pinch their smartphones and their feeds, Light Phone has decided to return connected the smartphone not by trying to sneakily switch it but by building thing that nary 1 would ever correction for a smartphone. That mightiness beryllium its champion feature.