Most dumb phones I’ve used cheap out on the materials. In that, they very much match the dumb phones I used in the pre-smartphone era, back when we called them cell phones or, if you were really square, cellular phones.
No one back then had ever said that a cell phone was all that pleasing to hold or look at. Maaaybe that Motorola StarTAC, but more because it was as solid as a brick with cell reception, not because it wasn’t still made of junk plastic.
But the Light Phone III, with its color, 3.92″ AMOLED touchscreen, is leagues better than most of the not-so-fantastic plastic dumb phones on the market. It holds its own against any smartphone I’ve held. That includes any iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or Google Pixel. It was a real attention hog everywhere I took it.
premium build
The Light Phone III’s aluminum frame’s edges are straighter than most smartphones. It looks sharp and feels, well, not quite sharp but it is a phone made of edges.
It’s almost a shame to tuck it into one of Light Phone’s $15 cases, although it is more comfortable to hold and less likely to self-destruct. That’s the real shame of all these premium smartphones, isn’t it? They look amazing, with their titanium, aluminum, stainless steel, and glass, but then we cover them up.
You don’t have to hook the Light Phone III up to Wi-Fi in order to use it, but you do in order to get periodic software updates. My favorite feature, aside from the build quality, is its built-in GPS navigation.
It might not be very “dumb phone,” but it addresses a major con of dumb phones. Sure, it removes the temptation of using social media and browsing the internet, but what if you just want to navigate yourself somewhere in the real world to do real-world things? The GPS navigation is incredibly handy to have on this otherwise disconnected phone.
For snapping photos, there’s a 50-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera (for selfies). Through the rear-facing camera, you can also shoot video at 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second. Image quality is decent, but not spectacular.
The 128GB of onboard storage isn’t much, but you shouldn’t need as much as you do with a smartphone, so I found it more than adequate. There are also tools for taking notes, receiving directions, setting alarms, listening to music, and viewing your calendar.
Of all the dumb phones on the market, the Light Phone III is the Rolls-Royce. And it comes with a comparatively Rolls-Royce price at $699. Light Phone IIIs have been shipping out gradually this summer, and if you place a pre-order now it’ll ship out in September.
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