The Light Phone, an e-ink, minimalist phone. Is there a need for this?

[Dav_25]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

The One Thing this phone is missing is a reasonable price. $350??? They're out of their minds if they think it's worth $350.

True, $350 sounds far too much... It is an interesting idea though.

[ZodWallop]

They have competition: Kingrow K1 E INK Android Smartphone. It's $300. A deal!

[ps67]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

They have competition: Kingrow K1 E INK Android Smartphone. It's $300. A deal!

A phone without GPS no google maps and of course no maps in the screen of the car... And no video because of Eink.
May be somebody don't care about it but I find this limitations a serious obstacle in buying it.

[Quoth]

Also Edge Browser????
I'll stick with my €100 Alcatel and my dedicated ebook readers!

[underscore]

Originally Posted by ps67

A phone without GPS no google maps and of course no maps in the screen of the car... And no video because of Eink.
May be somebody don't care about it but I find this limitations a serious obstacle in buying it.

If you are refering to k1, i took one from the indiegogo campaign.
Of course it has gps and google maps/ osmand / waze work fine.

I won't suggest it for watching movies, though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vvf9TJzBNI

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Also Edge Browser????
I'll stick with my €100 Alcatel and my dedicated ebook readers!

Without Play certification they would be google-less.
Not necessarily by choice.
So their pre-installed browser choices start with Edge or Firefox and of those Edge probably brings the most $upport. (The email app name is blurred but it doesn't look like Gmail.)

That's how the android game plays out.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Without Play certification they would be google-less.
Not necessarily by choice.
So their pre-installed browser choices start with Edge or Firefox and of those Edge probably brings the most $upport. (The email app name is blurred but it doesn't look like Gmail.)

That's how the android game plays out.

I will never suggest k1 to non technical people until, if ever, they will fix the software.
But the device is really not bad.

The software still need heavy adjustments, they didn't put an indipendent a2 software toggle. (it's somehow integrated in the ugly launcher) and the device lacks a GSF id, so you can't manually register it, the way for example, Onyx does.

Anyway i'm using it as my main dual sim, 4g phone, in Europe, and 98% of android apps can be sideloaded and works fine.
Google maps works, though not logged in.
Gmail is standard IMAP so it works with alternate client.
Youtube alternate clients works, but ....it's eink.
The single biggest annoyance so far is google contacts/calendar that can't be really kept sync with the phone.
You have to rely on different caldav/cardav solutions.

Of course for podcast, books and newspaper it's great

[ps67]

Originally Posted by underscore

If you are refering to k1, i took one from the indiegogo campaign.
Of course it has gps and google maps/ osmand / waze work fine.

I won't suggest it for watching movies, though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Vvf9TJzBNI

Well, I read the article, and it says: "The lack of the Google Play and a GPS system might be deal breakers for some."

But of course if You own it the article is not correct in that part.

[jj2me]

For people in the U.S., note that the Kingrow K1 doesn't support U.S. LTE bands. Not sure about 3G bands, but when I looked into this, it seemed not compatible. Plus a Kingrow person answered directly that No, they don't support U.S. bands.