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Light Phone 2: The Search for More Money

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edy:
They're back! If anyone remembers Light Phone 1 ("The Original") it seemed to be a copy of many credit-card phones that we saw listed on Alibaba for $15. Now these people are back with Light Phone 2:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/light-phone-2#/



It seems to have some upgraded features..... Raised so far $2.2 million!

Price... $300 for one, $500 for two phones (WOW! Pricey!)

Feature list, I think it is a bit ambitious:



So, thoughts? Still not sure how well Light Phone 1 did... but it was delayed and didn't seem to live up to the hype. Here we go for round 2!  :popcorn:

BTW - Here's a review from someone who got the Light Phone 1:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/09/light-phone-review-i-lived-without-a-smartphone-for-a-week.html

ataradov:
Just one though - how clueless are all those excited people in the comments? And especially people throwing their money away.

But also, it would be nice to identify a $15 counterpart. For now it is pretty clear that they won't be able to deliver the same slick design as in their renders. Just this alone is deceptive.

edy:
There are a few options out there coming out:

https://www.e-ink-info.com/ntt-docomo-card-keitai



The main thing is how to spin their own OS. Also, this phone above is $280 so not cheap at all... they really need a cheap option to compete and still be profitable. They already have experience with a $15 card phone. The next generation card phone still uses a tiny LED display, but they could use e-paper instead. They will need programmers to re-write all the graphics and spin their own software for the phone. I'm not sure how expensive that is to do. If it is just a matter of adapting the LED display in those cheaper phones to e-Paper it may be fairly easy.

There is another possibility in that there is already another phone in the works that they know about, and they are getting a custom batch made during one of the first runs. By now they have deeper connections in the Chinese manufacturing industry and help from Accelerators/Incubators like HAX (https://hax.co/) so I do not doubt they can pull this off. Of course, the question still remains WHY? People obviously have an issue with addiction to smart-phones or connectivity, they are using this as a way to control their addiction? Did anyone hear of AIRPLANE MODE? What about getting a $50 flip-phone and swapping the SIM from their regular phone to the flip-phone and putting it on silent? I fail to see the purpose or appeal for this but whatever floats your boat!

I still would like to know how they solved that "transfer" function for the Light Phone to pick up calls instead of the main phone. Remember they were supposed to have an app that allowed forwarding certain calls to the phone. They were supposed to offer some kind of preloaded SIM for it? What ever happened to that issue? Oh yes... they didn't... We knew all along that it wouldn't work as expected due to different carriers:

https://www.thelightphone.com/troubleshooting/

There is no "app" for your main phone. The app is for your computer. It lets you edit your contact list in the Light Phone more easily when it is attached to your computer via USB. Also, it creates a VCF contact for your main phone that basically provides a call-forwarding code and un-forwarding code (usually *21* something) and sends it to your main phone. You can do this yourself, and in many cases you have to because different carriers use different forwarding codes (for example Bell/Verizon use *72 and *73 to cancel). You need to have a separate phone number and therefore SIM/plan to use the Light Phone, adding even more to your monthly cost.

Again, it makes more sense to either use your existing phone in AIRPLANE mode, or just remove the SIM and put it into a cheaper phone with less features and longer battery life, if you really want to unplug from social media. There are plenty of "feature phones" which will only accept calls, you can ignore texts or mute them and not check, they have no real apps (like Facebook, Twitter), a garbage browser (if any)... Maybe a crappy camera, calculator and some basic stuff.

Their video is hilarious:

 

james_s:
What's the point? How is this better than a compact smartphone or one of the later feature phones? Doesn't seem like there'd be much market for something in between. I do think that most smartphones on the market are way too huge but this seems a bit light on features.

ataradov:
The big selling point is stand by time, I guess. But realistically, I don't see the appeal. What difference does it make if you have to charge the phone once a day or once every 5 days?

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