Minimalism is not an excuse for poor design
This phone is $300.
* Why are the buttons cheap and soft?
* Why the e-ink screen that flashes horribly and takes too long to update?
* Why is there no place to insert an SD card and load my own audio files?
* Why does it take so long for the GPS to update location?
* Why is there no flashlight?
* Why is the battery life so poor?
A minimalist phone should be designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, to take away from your life as little as possible. However, poor design decisions cause frustration and force a person to tinker with the phone, or even worse, other devices - even more!
I had to buy a Sony Walkman to listen to my audio files and have to carry around a flashlight. Whenever I am out for any significant period of time, the phone dies. The GPS is absolutely atrocious.
For the price this is being sold at, these are unacceptable flaws. I shouldn't have to jam a button multiple times to get the e-ink to disorientingly flash in my face so that I can wait 5-10 minutes for the thing to connect to my car and load a podcast, then sit around for another 10 minutes for the GPS to figure out where I am, and hope that it doesn't die before I make it back home.
Originally posted on Reddit. Browse posts from 2022.