A simpler way to stay in touch: dumbphones tried and tested

Five alternatives to a pricey smartphone, from the Alcatel OneTouch to the Nokia 225 and the Samsung E1270

"I felt far more alive," said Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne of his brief but exhilarating love affair with a dumbphone. The dalliance lasted a few days, before he went crawling back, tail between legs, to the distracting and intrusive bosom of his iPhone. But the instinct that led him to stray is one shared by millions: smartphones are expensive, technologically perishable, physically delicate, thin on battery life, and cumbersome. Worse than that, they're a bottomless time-sink, aggressively attention-consuming at all hours of the day or night, and they make the world your workplace.

It isn't just reactionary sentiment that could lead someone to turn back to a simpler piece of hardware. The smartphone market is plateauing and, according to Ofcom, 30% of the UK's mobile phone users don't own one; a figure that doesn't include the many people who own a smartphone but keep a dumbphone in reserve for holidays, festivals and the many inevitable intervals during which their smartphones are out of action. There's a national thirst for a phone that answers the call of duty, but goes no further, and the following is a cross-section of candidates from five brands. Could you do what Eddie couldn't, and abandon your smartphone for good?

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