Living without a smartphone! What it’s like to own only a feature phone.

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    Overview

    You may not know the feature phone by this name but am sure you then know it as a dumb phone. Now I might be a gen z but am not one of those average ones that you see running around with their smart phones. Personally  I’ve owned one not necessarily out of wanting to but my smartphone at the time literally caught fire. After watching all my unbacked data make a solid enough looking campfire. I went on to get myself a feature phone (that’s what you do when you’re short on cash for those of you who don’t know). This left me feeling like the Reacher with nothing but a feature phone and no designated location where I stay. Just to be clear I actually had a place to stay, I am just putting you in the mood for this article.

    The current smartphone that you all know and are probably using to read this right now aren’t owned by as many people as you would think. Many people in poor Nations particularly own these phones as their full time phones. Most are happy because they do just enough for someone who doesn’t necessarily have a social media presence to begin with. You might be wondering whether an SMS and physical buttons are able to give you a solid texting experience. Well, not really though the sound and feel of pressing those buttons is definitely satisfactory.

    Feature phones too are a very unique way of giving yourself a digital detox in case you’re addicted to your smart phone and need some time away. it will provide you with basic features and not too much to make it feel like you have a smart phone.

    Feature phone introductory photo

    Design

    Screen

    Feature phones normally boast about 2 inches of screen but this tends to vary on different models. Having a resolution that’s  doubtfully above 480p. The resolution ranges from 240×320 and 128×160 for older models . Feature phone screens don’t have touch sensors leaving you with only buttons to navigate its system. Don’t mistake them to be miniaturised black berry phones because of black berry’s signature design. Many black berrys are actually smart phones with a physical keyboard

    Operating system

    Most feature phones have embedded operating systems and don’t use either android or iOS software. KaiOS is the major operating system used on smart feature phones. This enables users to access a range of internet features and apps on devices with limited hardware.it is light weight and energy efficient too. KaiOS is based on linux and evolved from the Firefox OS project.

    Buttons

    Satisfactory to the touch is a pleasure that most feature phones have though there are some with some poorly integrated touch features on a touch pad with button mappings on them.

    camera

    The cameras on these devices are nothing exceptional since most of them look worse than cameras that came out in the 90s showcasing only about 0.2 megapixels to 2 megapixels. You can still definitely use it but just something that you never want to show to your friends or anyone who could know you.

    charging port

    Most feature phones have a usb micro b that gets the job done but sometimes tends to charge crazy slow at almost 4 hours of charging time.

    headphone jack

    A standard headphone jack that lets you connect earphones that can work as your antenna in case you’re a big radio head.

    flashlight

    Not too bright to blind someone but enough to give you a concentrated beam of light when you’re not too far from what you’re pointing it at.

    Comparison with a smartphone.

    Comparison between a feature phone and smartphone

    It’s very difficult to compare the two since they are made to fit different people’s demands. Commonly feature phones are used as a secondary phone or in case your smart phone is dead and you can’t seem to find a power outlet near you. It’s also very common with people who have multiple carrier lines and want all of them active since most have dual or triple SIM features. This is less common rarely due to the recent eSIM technology.

    There are a few things that still come to my attention straight away

    Durability

    When it comes to durability we all know what wins, though smartphones have come a step closer to emulating the durability for feature phones with advanced technology to prevent leakage of water into internal components. A rugged category of smartphones has also become commonly manufactured by many phone companies like Caterpillar,Black view and Oukitel.

    Connectivity

    Feature phones rely on either 3G and 2G network technologies for connecting to the internet and making calls. They have the ability to connect to the internet and provide a less robust experience over smart phones. Some feature phones even have features like GPS navigation, cameras, and Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities. Smartphones on the other hand have the ability to rely on almost all network technologies up to 5G and have a very friendly user experience.

    Battery life

    When it comes to battery life, many smartphones are now equipped with 5000mAh and larger batteries going up to 7000mAh  though that doesn’t mean that they last longer than feature phones. This is because they have larger screens and more complicated software and connection technologies that tend to consume a large amount of battery.

    Games

    I don’t even know whether this is relevant at the moment but expected to get at least some pre-installed games on your feature phone that almost all smart phones don’t have. I don’t think they even need them though but it’s never a crime to go blow a few minutes on that snake game that’s so popular

    Buttons

    We have seen phone companies try to integrate buttons onto smart phone designs and these never end up well so I don’t think we need to compare this aspect too. But all you need to expect on many feature phones is a back light on the buttons to make it easy for you to use in the dark.

    There too tend to be feature phones that have gradually shifted to being smart but if we are being real they have no chance against recent smart phones. This At least makes it possible for the less fortunate to be kept a little bit up to date with the current world.

    Best feature phones out there;

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