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Return of the flip phone

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LG intentionally missing the target? (Score: 1, Interesting)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-08-05 23:53 (#GJ8Q)

FTA:

> While they may lack features, these retro phones are simple to use,
> have batteries that last the week and are practically indestructible
> compared to their smartphone equivalents.

> The [LG] handset has a 3.2-inch colour touch screen and runs Android
> Lollipop 5.1, a modern 1.1GHz quad-core Snapdragon 2010 processor and
> 1GB of RAM, supports 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS....

So, let me get this straight: retro, flip-phones are desirable because they are simple, easy to use, and have phenomenal battery life yet LG is intentionally building something complex (Android), slow (Android), and power-hungry (Android, 1.1GHz, quad-core Snapdragon, 1GiB of RAM, 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS)? It will be interesting to see if customers eschew the new LG phone because it doesn't fit their requirements.

Re: LG intentionally missing the target? (Score: 1)

by reziac@pipedot.org on 2015-08-06 13:10 (#GM0E)

I had a glassbrick smartphone (Android) and hated it. Now I have a flipphone that cost $12 purchased outright (yes, twelve dollars). It's dumb as a rock (it can't even do call switching, tho it sorta receives texts if they're short enough). Battery life is so-so, about four hours of talk or a couple weeks of disuse. I prefer it because I can carry it in my pocket in the barn and not worry about it getting banged or wet -- won't hurt it a bit, and it was no big investment to start with. And it's FAR easier on both the hand and the ear than the smartphone was.

What I'd really like is a flipphone with a full keyboard, such as used to exist but seem to have vanished in favor of larger screens. Then having the smartphone features would make sense. With the push-3-times keyboard, it's all too much bother to use, at least typing in English. (Since I don't type Japanese I can't speak to that.) And make the whole phone a little larger so it's not so dang hard to hang onto; my pocket isn't so tiny that it has to be the size of a matchbox, and my big paws aren't so fond of tiny objects.

History

2015-08-06 13:10
I had a glassbrick smartphone (Android) and hated it. Now I have a flipphone that cost $12 purchased outright (yes, twelve dollars). It's dumb as a rock (it can't even do call switching, tho it sorta receives texts if they're short enough). Battery life is so-so, about four hours of talk or a couple weeks of disuse. I prefer it because I can carry it in my pocket in the barn and not worry about it getting banged or wet -- won't hurt it a bit, and it was no big investment to start with. And it's FAR easier on both the hand and the ear than the smartphone was.

What I'd really like is a flipphone with a full keyboard, such as used to exist but seem to have vanished in favor of larger screens. Then having the smartphone features would make sense. With the push-3-times keyboard, it's all too much bother to use, at least typing in English. (Since I don't type Japanese I can't speak to that.) And make the whole phone a little larger so it's not so dang hard to hang onto; my pocket isn't so tiny that it has to be the size of a matchbox, and my big paws aren't so fond of tiny objects.

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