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Minimalist Cell Phones?
Trizor asks: "Most cellular telephones these days are loaded with features: cameras, broadband quality video, Internet, etc. but there are still people who want to just make phone calls. So I ask Slashdot: Are there any World-Compatible GSM cellular telephones that don't offer much beyond calling and an address book?"
There isn't.
or how about a phone that just rings? I don't get why people want their phones to start playing "can you take me to funky town" when they get a call.
As a geek, I like technology to just do its job. It's a phone. It should alert me in the most efficient way when I get a call. that's all it has to do. I don't need to be entertained. I have other gadgets for that.
Since we are on the subject, what options are there for black and white, solid palm compatible PDA, for my scheduling and txt reading needs? My experience with color PDAs have been poor, what with it losing its capacity for charge just as my tungsten3 was becoming useful to me. Like the questioner, what can I do for my urge to have a no hassle scheduling and book reading PDA needs, lasts long on battery, and capable to sync with a mac.
HOw about a phone that I can use in my kitchen without roaming from my livingroom!
"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
IMHO the best cell phone ever made. I keep an extra on hand in case I break mine and can't find a new one (they're cheap now).
I think they can only be found on ebay at this point, but the size, speed and feature set for people wanting just a phone can't be beat.
Address books are the work of the devil. You and your new fangled bloating features.
If you at least want a color screen, the Motorola V180 is a nice unit, without packing in a ton of extra features. Its available on eBay for less than $100 shipped.
Should even that be overkill, and "new in box" isn't a necessity, you can always look at older phones. My first GSM phone, a Nokia 6190, was just a basic phone with SMS capability. The unit is not much larger than many new models today, and its definately rock-solid as cell phones go.
What exactly is the point in asking this?
There are cheap (or even free) phones available so cost can't be the issue.
Are they too complicated for you? You know, you don't have to use those new-fangled features.
Personally I find the PDA-like features extremely handy as I never liked having to carry a PDA and phone anyway. I mostly just use the scheduling/reminder stuff though.
As for the "other" stuff like cameras, my guess is that there are more phones without cameras than with them.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
"Are there any World-Compatible GSM cellular telephones that don't offer much beyond calling and an address book?""
Choose a quad band phone like the Motorola V330 and have it unlocked, so that it can be used with other carriers. When you arrive in another country, choose a local GSM provider, and install their proprietary module in your phone; it's easy, you can do it yourself or have the phone provider employee do it. The Motorola V330 can operate on these bands: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. That gives you the maximum opportunity in any city in the world.
It's best not to worry about minimal features. You can't fight the crazy marketing plans.
I suggest you try the T-Mobile Pay-As-You-Go Plan if you don't use a lot of minutes.
You definitely want GSM, the service is better. You definitely want a new phone, the sound quality is far better.
Ask around for someone in your city who will unlock your phone. Locking a phone without your knowledge should be illegal, companies don't warn customers that they are buying locked equipment.
It's got everything you need, and not much of what you don't. It's got decent battery life, great reception, and a readable screen. It vibrates, it rings, it stores phone numbers, and it text messages. That's all I need mine to do. It also has a few other features such as voice dialing, but they're not positioned in such a way that they're obtrusive.
I've had mine for a while and it's damn near indestructible, except for the antenna. I've dropped it plenty of times; I've even washed it in the washing machine with my shorts by mistake!
To date, I've never used a Motorola product of any sort that has failed to meet my expectations.
Features:
- a monochrome screen that's actually visible in daylight
- superb battery life
- ability to make and receive calls and texts
- phone number memory
- predictive text input
- built in LED torch!
But let's face it, this is really about what it doesn't feature:- WAP
- IR/Bluetooth
- Java games
- Downloadable ringtones
- Polyphonic ringtones
- Half second lag between pressing a key and phone responding (Sony Ericsson T610, I'm looking at you)
- Crashes
- Crazy Frog
Nokia UK siteWorld Compatible?
The Vodafone Simply is the phone you seek. It seems that despite all the screaming for a basic and reliable phone, cell phone providers continue to add new unrequested features and then try to generate a market for those features. It seems that the only provider that is listening to its customers is Vodafone.
Buttons that are large enough to push just one at a time.
No camera's, games, TV remote controls, toasters or any other useless crap.
Fits against your ear, doesn't get lost in your ear.
It's a revolutionary cell phone.
Your other alternative is to get a used phone from eBay.
It's only an 8MB palm, and it only runs PalmOS 3.5, but it's an inexpensive model (usually US$40 on eBay), people are dumping accessories for them (folding keyboards, modems, etc) on eBay for less than US$5 in many cases, and a set of AA batteries can last a month even with moderate usage.
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
I'll admit its not quite a phone and addredd book, but its as simple as motorola gets, and as for those odd, expensive features, it does a great job at avoiding them.
m e.asp?Country=USA&language=ENS&productid=29308
The v180 is nice and simple and comes free with most carriers that carry it.
http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_productho
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 817FSG/ref=pd_sxp_f/103-8844487-7101435?v=glance&s =wireless
Good job taking 5 minutes to see what was out there.
I gave my wife an Ericsson T28 and it's a great little phone. Good voice quality, GSM triband, very small. And it's only $20-$40 unlocked. We use it with a prepaid GSM SIM so we only pay for minutes we use.
A list of the submissions that didn't make the cut.
My black and white TV is good enough. Is there a model out there without all of these newfangled technologies like color and stereo sound?
My '57 BelAir gets me from point A to point B just fine... problem is... nobody makes parts for it anymore. Can anyone recommend a similar car without power steering and respectable milage?
Bla bla bla...
Its the entry level phone nowadays in my carrier, and its a good phone. No antenna, too.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Before I went to France in March I bought a Panasonic A100 Unlocked Quad-band GSM phone from http://www.myworldphone.com/ it cost $99USD and is about the size of a zippo lighter. I popped in a pre-paid sim in France and called away.
My life is either one big analogy, or one big wine stain. I can't tell these days ~Amber one night in a bar.
Unfortunately, mobile phones that "just ring" don't really "ring" most of the time; they do some sort of synthesized trilling beep or whatever. They can't even do one of those purring noises that some European and African phones do. So having a better synthesizer and the ability to support ringtones can be handy if one wants the sound of an actual bell instead.
I much prefer the classic bell sound, so since my mobile ringing usually means something is horribly hosed somewhere in the world, I opted for a ringtone that begins with a telephone bell, before segueing into the well-known theme from "Mission Impossible."
I tend to be the only one in the room who has that, and it draws a smile from colleagues.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Just buy old one which suits your needs. Pack it up with decent enchancements (mainly bigger capacity batteries, they are aviable for cheap).
There was a similar thread a while ago and I think that the people who ask such questions are missing the point. The idea is: you want a phone which has good reception, good battery life, etc. I don't see why you'd MIND if a phone had all this plus extra features.
For example my Sanyo 4920 (and 4900 before that) has superb reception and battery life, yet it has all the other features too. I don't use the games and PCS vision features much but it doesn't bother me that it's there. Why should it bother you? I got the phone very cheaply considering the Sprint rebate, so it's not like I am paying a lot for features I don't want much.
Ok these are sprint phones, so they don't meet your GSM requirement, but my point is that you should look for a phone that has things you care about, not a phone that doesn't have things you may not care about. You'll have a much bigger variety to select from, then.
=E
Ecce Europa - Web Design for Business
Here, although it's a little bit too minimalist for me. No GSM version AFAIK, sorry. And, funny, it's quite expensive. Here's the google link: tu-ka-s (cellphone | mobile).
I got one just yesterday from T-mobile for free with activation, but it is available online unlocked for cheap.
The Motorola V188
No camera.
No IR.
No bluetooth.
Standard mini-usb for syncing.
GSM quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) with GPRS.
Yes, it is colour, but it's basically as minimal as you can get righ now.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
I'm concerned that at some point I won't be able to get a cell phone without a camera. I can't even bring a cell phone to work that has a camera nor a voice recorder in it due to security restrictions (proprietary and classified). I really don't want a phone to dictate which carrier I use, either. I switched carriers last year and couldn't bring my phone with me because it was TDMA and I needed CDMA. As long as it is reliable and can store numbers, I'm happy.
I have 2 of them sitting right here if you are interested :)
:D
;)
They are black and white Cirgular phones with GSM capabilities. They have an address and a few games and ringtones (I tried to delete them and failed). Battery life is 5-6 days with minimal calling. You can e-mail me if you are interested
There was an article a few years back on the 25th aniversary of the cell phone, and it was an interview with one of the creators of the cell phone. He paraphrased all my frustrations with cell phones now adays. Companies should be putting all their money into signal strength/coverage and battery life, but they don't. Options sell, and cell phone makers concentrate on features.
Getting a free phone with all the frills isn't bad, but it can be annoying (especially when looking for a ring tone that sounds like a phone). You aren't a sell out by taking the free phone (though, I'll still sell you mine
"Man, I am so unbelievably stupid."
Our cellphone sounds like some bird outside the window. Fakes me out all the time.
http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,4377,00.html I own one for over a year and it's superb. The lightest, smallest phone built by Nokia in the last 3-4 years. It doesen't have a camera or a lot of memory. It has color screen but it's not very good and it has java, wap, advanced address book. Other things that it has is GPRS and IRDA. These last two are really handy sometimes, trust me. The battery is 3-5 days now and it was 5-7 days. I'm a minimalist fan but not a fanatic. 6100 is a perfect balance between what you can get for a very small size. I don't miss features such as camera, mp3 player, radio or a ton of memory. That's not to say that I wouldn't find them nice to be had, flash memory especially, but I choosed this phone because, for this size, I considered it to be packed with essential features.
Yes, but he wants a "World-Compatible GSM cellular telephone". I agree, I don't want a camera. But I had to accept one to get a 4-band phone.
And I completely agree.
For me, it's a phone with SMS, and an alarm that works pretty well (IE ring at 6PM only on Su,Mo,Tu,Fri) since I have a schedule that doesn't require me to wake up every day. I like it.
I came from a MPx220, with all the gadgetry and doodads you could ever want, email, web (REAL html using pocket IE), 1.2MP camera, smarphone OS, bluetooth, IR, played mp3 ringtones, Divx video even... you name it, it could probably do it.
Now I find that I charge my phone less often, and if I miss charging it, I'm not stuck low on power the next day. I can usually go for 4 days without a charge with about 30-60 minutes oftalktime per day.
The only thing I really miss is a camera. The 1.2MP on the Moto was great as far as cameraphones go, but I just keep my 5 MP in the glovebox anyway.
As for other uses, I use Google's SMS feature for things that I used mobile web and other custom applications, IE weather, business lookups, etc.
http://www.fsckin.com/
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/simply
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
> I can't even bring a cell phone to work that has a camera nor a voice recorder in it due to security restrictions
A cell phone *is* a voice recorder.
Nokia 2600.
echo "getuid(){return 0;}" > e.c; gcc -shared -o e.so e.c; LD_PRELOAD=./e.so sh
Nokia 3510i
One that hath name thou can not otter
I have a schedule that doesn't require me to wake up every day.
You actually sleep through Wed, Thu, and Sat and get up at 6PM the other days? Must be nice!
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Thanks for the response. However, the Motorola V188 is not available with the T-Mobile Pay As You Go wireless service.
Someone who is outside the U.S. a lot does not want a U.S. monthly plan. T-Mobile seems to be the best "Pay As You Go" plan for a person with that requirement.
I wonder if it would be possible to get T-Mobile to sell a V188 with pay-as-you-go?
Important: It costs only $15 to get a phone unlocked, so no need to pay a lot more for an unlocked phone, provided there are no other difficulties, such as legality. My understanding is that it is not illegal to unlock a phone.
My Virgin Mobile ringtone (sold by Virgin) is a hispanic chick who says "Honey, jou need to pick up the phone honey" I love it.
I have always wanted to build a cell phone into an old heavy duty phone handset. Those have space for a huge battery and you could put in a nice speaker and microphone so that the sound quality would be good.
Lasers Controlled Games!
though...IR is nice to get numbers on/off ur phone.
my nokia 3330 just died after almost 4 good years of service. now i'm using a sony ericsson Z200...it was lying around unsed. it's VERY annoying.
(reminds me of the 'yes, dear' episode i saw last week...greg buys a sports car...the chics dig it...turns out it's a chic car.)
i miss my seimens s6.
What, people can't tell where a sound is coming from?
Most cell phone ringers are somewhat high pitched, so that the sound can be heard over ambient noise without increasing the volume excessively. Humans are better at hearing higher frequencies than lower ones, they're perceptually louder to us.
However, because humans are better at hearing those higher frequencies, they have less ability to perceive directionality of the source of those sounds. The way a human tells the source of a sound is the relative difference in the sound in each ear, coupled with how that difference changes as the head changes position. High pitched sounds are heard better and thus the relative difference between ears is much less, making the source harder to find.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Firefly Review - it's a "kid's phone". It has an address book, a "fireworks" button, a 911 button and that's about it. No dial pad even! how's that for minimalist!?
What I never understood is if you use the phone with prepaid minutes, how do you get a number for that phone? If there is no fixed carrier who assigns the number for you?
the iPod of cellphones?
Need a color? Try 100 random colors