ZDNET's key takeaways The Light Phone 3 is on pre-order with support from many major carriers for $699.
It's setting a new standard for simplified phones by combining a sleek, minimal product with a focused purpose.
I wish the battery lasted longer, there are still some features in development, and it's not exactly cheap. View now at The Light Phone
Much attention has been paid to the idea of a "dumbphone." We've all had the thought: how liberating it would be to ditch the smartphone forever, freeing yourself from the shackles of social media, the endless stream of notifications, and after-hours work emails.
The problem is that we're used to a certain aesthetic experience. The idea of going back to a flip phone or lo-fi early-2000s Motorola might be exciting in theory, but navigating a 2.8-inch display, physical buttons, or worse -- T9 texting -- is, in practice, more trouble than it's worth.
Also: I replaced my iPhone with an e-paper Android handset - here's my buying advice a month later
The Light Phone 3 addresses these problems with a compelling product and third iteration of an idea: it's a dumbphone, but with an enjoyable -- luxe, even -- user experience and hardware package. I used the device for a week and, in that time, learned a few things about myself and a few things about our relationship with our phones.
Physically, the Light Phone 3 is a sleek, non-descript, four-by-three-inch rectangle -- all black -- with a single USB-C port on the bottom, a few buttons along the sides, and a smooth, matte display.
The mere shape of the device states that it's something different. It doesn't really look like anything, but it's still somehow informed by a myriad of designs that have come before. There's some Blackberry resemblance, some electronic organizer vibes, and despite little similarity to the iPhone, the format of the date and time on the lock screen is essentially identical -- something so familiar you might not even notice it.
The display makes up most of the device's body and I have to admit, it looks good. It's a 3.92-inch AMOLED (1080 x 1240) screen coated in a custom black matte glass that allows for a smooth, high-contrast interface. Unlike the Light Phone 2, this is not an E Ink device, so there is no ghosting or laggy refresh rate. It's crisp, precise, and ruthlessly minimal.
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