I'm switching to a dumbphone this summer

Welcome, my friends, to dumbphone summer.

I've been a smartphone user since 2009-ish, when I traded in my flip phone for a T-Mobile G1. Since then, I've been on Android and iOS devices, before eventually landing on GrapheneOS for the better part of the last three years. GrapheneOS has proven a worthy tool in helping me pare down distractions from my modern mobile life.

But still, I cannot shake the call of the dumbphone.

I have almost everything turned off from my smartphone. I don't have apps beyond a task list, a music player, e-mail, and Signal. I even disabled my web browser. It's been pretty glorious... most of the time.

I still have a task list yelling at me when I'm overdue on a server update. I still have email newsletters, which I find myself mindlessly scrolling through during downtime. And Signal still follows me around 24/7: the temptation to drop a photo in the group chat instead of enjoying the moment in real life is still very, very high. And all of that distraction is something I want to try and live without. At least for a little bit.

I need to get my bearings again.

Getting back to being digitally intentional

One of my main focuses lately has been intentional use of technology. I grew up during a time where getting online was a temporary situation. I had to think "I want to be on the internet", then I had to physically get up, go to the machine where the internet lived, and could only use the internet until my mom told me she needed the phone.

The funny side effect of that is that I had to be intentional about how I used the web. I knew my internet time was fleeting, so mindless scrolling wasn't really an option... I had to be diligent. Nowadays, mindless scrolling is still a waste of time (duh), but it's much easier to fall into that trap, because the entire internet follows you around. This is a habit I need to break, and I think three months away from a smartphone should do it.

Another aspect of this is raising a kid in a world that demands constant access. I don't talk about parenthood a lot, but I'm a mom, and I feel like I need to model good behavior... particularly in a world that's discouraging critical thinking. Nobody thinks about how connected they are all the time, but my kid does. She sees it. She sees the adults scrolling instead of strolling, she sees my eyes glaze over as I work on my task list in the morning. She's learning how to interact with her world and I don't want to normalize being constantly connected to everything.

First impressions of the dumbphone I chose

There's a few options to choose from when it comes to a dumbphone. I opted for a Sunbeam Wireless F1 Horizon Eagle (not sponsored, paid for out-of-pocket) because it could get to me quickly and has some good reviews out there.

My very first impression with the device was "wow, this is bigger than I expected". But that's 100% my own hangup, because I was comparing it to the tiny little phones I had when I was younger (and those weren't even that tiny):

Of course, you might not think it's "big" at all. Here it is next to my small-ish Pixel 8:

The phone's back cover comes off easily (remember that?!?) allowing easy access to insert the SIM card, a MicroSD card (!) and the replacable battery (!!).

My unit came pre-loaded with downloaded maps for the "HERE Navigation" mapping service. Waze is also an option. I don't yet know if those apps can be uninstalled (I'm a satnav user but I suppose this could be useful while walking or biking).

On first boot, it launched into something called "BasicOS", which appears to be some sort of stripped-out Android. I'm not certain who is putting this out, and I always worry about the security when using older versions of Android.

I would prefer to have the OS be open source and easily accessible, and I plan to dig into this a bit more as the summer progresses. Luckily, I don't plan on keeping super important info on this device: I hardly use SMS for serious communication here in 2026.

Knowing it's running Android has me curious about sideloading, connecting to it via adb, and generally hacking on the thing a bit. I'll likely explore that later this summer, but for the moment I'm trying to use this as a stock experience.

The phone also alerted me that some features may require a premium subscription through Sunbeam, which I may explore in the future. For now, I'm ignoring those features, as I really just want to "get back to basics" with this device.

The phone had almost no setup time. I literally pressed "OK" on the only dialog about Sunbeam's premium offerings, and then made my first test call. The call quality was fine, nothing special but nothing unexpected either.

The text messaging (standard SMS) was nothing to write home about, but again, I'm OK with the logic behind it. This is a dumbphone. I literally don't want to spend time on it.

One neat feature of this feature phone is that it includes a hotspot, basically just the traditional Android hotspot functionality. I tried it out, successfully over both Wi-Fi and USB. It was as good as any Android 4G hotspot, but it's definitely slow compared with 5G. It's good enough for quickly checking my email from my laptop though.

More dumbphone summer content

I'll likely be doing a wrap-up video after the summer outlining what I've discovered about using a dumbphone. I could do a video now, but I loathe the idea of doing a video before I know more about the topic, and I figure a "first impressions" video isn't as helpful as this blog post.

I'm also planning on posting more blogs about any wriggles with this particular dumbphone, as well as challenges adapting to 2000s tech again, in the tag "dumbphone summer." And if I share more about this on Fedi, I'll probably use hashtag #DumbphoneSummer. I'll follow that tag as well, so if you want to play along at home, feel free!

I'm expecting to run into complications with everyday 2K20s summer things, like parking a car without a QR code scanner, or ordering food from a restaurant without waitstaff. I can't wait to explain to folks that I can't do the thing you expect, and to see what happens. Already today, I brought this lil' thing to IKEA and discovered I can't look up where things are in the warehouse anymore.

For many reasons, this is going to be a hard break for me. And I know I'm going to have to unlearn some habits in order to survive without the benefits of a smartphone, even just for a summer. I don't know if I'll stick with it beyond that, but like my attempt to cut out search engines, I have a feeling this will be a great opportunity to reset my brain, and start rethinking about my relationship with the tech that follows me around each day.

Here's to a more intentional, smarter summer!