A few days before going for 2 weeks of holidays, I finally (yes that took many months) got my Punkt MP02 phone. It's a dumb phone made by a Swiss company.

So how did it go after two weeks?

Strangely enough the transition was pretty easy.

Why?

I realize that it's been a pretty easy change because I've been already in the journey to reduce my smartphone usage for quite some time. I've also been on the journey to check my messages of any types only once a day. So having to check whatsapp on my computer and not being able to do it on my phone was already something I did, same for emails, same for many other things.

This feels to me a little bit like what people say about overnight successes in music or business. When you look from outside that's how it can feel. But when you are inside, you know that it took years. Here it's basically the same. And I have to say that I'm thankful that I did this transition before over a long time, so that the change wasn't too big all at once.

So, what do you really like about it?

It's a nice example for my son

It's the main reason, and you can read more about that in this article or below in the section: "But why do you do this to yourself?".

It's extremely opinioated

This thing can't do much and just doesn't want to allow you to do more. Which is exactly the point of what I want. Unlike Lightphone which slowly is making it possible for people to create their own tiny tools, this one just stays with its philosophy. It kind of reminds me of IA Writer. You either really like the philosophy and there way of saying "no" to most requests, or you find it fucking stupid.

The physical design

The Punkt Phone, is really a designer phone. It has really a shape that is made for the hand. It's small and light You kind of forget it in your pocket and it's really nice to use with one hand.

No bloatware

Cheap dumbphones having many apps that suck on their tiny screen, like games and other stuff like that that I just don't want. I'm buying this to not be on the phone, so I don't need games or a shitty browser.

The notes app

The notes app has a nice reminder feature which let's put an alarm to a note. I use this tiny note app as a sort of inbox of things I notice that I need to remember when I'm out and don't have my Remarkable tablet with me.

The shorcuts

You can setup long presses for each number. See this article to see which are my favorite shortcuts and which I'm missing.

The internet sharing

Using the device as a hotspot works really well and it's just one shortcut away to activate or disable.

The battery life (when not traveling for work)

I was a bit scared when reading the reviews that said that this thing barely can survive a day. In my use case these days I can do a full day or two full days. But these days I'm not traveling a lot while having to use my lapotp with long internet access sessions. Long sessions of internet sharing really kill the battery, and until now I haven't found a way to have the MP02 charge fast enough so that when plugged in it doesn't lose battery while sharing connexion.

At the same time, as I'm slowly moving to the Remarkable app as my main note taking app also on my computer it means I can more easily work offline, and don't need as much internet than before when traveling.

The language switcher

I write messages in four languages. So being able to quickly switch from one language to the other is something very important to me. And the Punkt MP02 let's you do that very easily.

But surely it can't be perfect, right?

Yeah, that phone has a few things that suck and a few things that forced changes that are pretty funny.

No directions but sticky notes

The biggest thing that needed a lot of change is how I travel. Now I have to check the schedule of trains on my computer and write the gate changes on a sticky note, or write down the names of the streets so that I can go to a new place I don't know.

I have to say that drawing directions on a sticky note of a new playground with the main street names feels pretty funny. But it works until now. And worst case, if I get lost, I still can ask other humans for help. Which didn't happen yet, but hey, it's just two weeks.

The other part that is funny about this is that I slowly get a better memory and sense of spaces. I now memorize more easily the gate changes when I have to switch trains than when I could easily check my phone. And as I have to really look at a map before going to a new place, I have a better sense of where I am in the city than when I just followed directions from Google Maps.

Pigeon, signal sucks

The MP02 phone has an app called Pigeon that let's you use Signal, which is a sort of more secure Whatsapp. That's sounds great on paper, because it would allow for things like:

• Recording a quick audio note for myself
• Sending from the computer a QR code that is used as a ticket for a museum so that you don't need to print a ticket

And yeah, I didn't mention texting people, because I alreday have too many inboxes, so I don't want people to text me also there.

But setting up Pigeon is not a bad process, it's one of the most shitty experience I had on a digital device in all my life. Even finding a fix for a problem on Linux feels easy compared to that.

Why? Because Signal has one of those "verify that you are a human feature". And that one just doesn't work on a dumb phone that has no touch screen. Even in the accessibility mode it doesn't work. Long story short (that might be for another article) it took me 3 hours of patience and I got it to work... on the phone.

But I couldn't connect yet Signal to my desktop... Because Punkt has removed this feature from the phone while they are reworking on it... And I discovered that only when I went through the relase notes in a pretty hidden space of the Punkt website.

So in short, I might be able to do these two things for which I could use Signal in the future, once they fix the feature that makes it possible to connect your mobile account to the desktop app of Signal.

But why do you do this to yourself?

This might sound horrible to some people. Going out with sticky notes looks funky that's sure. But in the end it's worth it for me.

I'm not someone who is great at moderation. To be able to do some sport the only way I found that works for me is to go for a run every day. Once a week just doesn't work for my brain. I'm not drinking any alcohol, and I'm really happy about that as I feel I don't trust that I would not be a heavy drinker.

So using my smartphone moderatly took a shit load of efforts for me. Now that I have a dumbphone I don't use it much just because it can't do much.

You don't really regret or can get excessive with what you don't have access too.

And as a dad who wants to set the example that you don't need a smartphone, this is the best way I found so far to live that example.

Yeah but have you hear of the Lightphone?

Yep. And I really like it and it fixes most of the issues I have. But you know what. It looks like a smartphone. And if I want to show to my son that you don't need a smartphone, then I need to have something that doesn't look like a smartphone.

And the Punkt MP02 does that perfectly for me.

Plus the lightphone is even more expensive that the Punkt MP02 and the Punkt is made by a Swiss company which I obviously like a lot.