So the Kyocera KY-O1L already exists and looks very much like what they are trying to do with this Light Phone, although it appears to have way more features and costs about the same:
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/10/18/17993400/docomo-business-card-phone-kyocera-ky-o1l-japanThe only possible advantage this P.O.S. could have is an e-Paper display, maybe saving battery life. But remember reception and having the antenna on and trying to grab a signal is going to be a huge drain on battery, no matter what your display type. Most people have a backlight timer and display is off most of the time. When your phone starts to burn inside your pocket it is because the battery is being drained due to poor reception/signal, NOT the display!
The other issue is the processor and apps and background tasks happening, size of battery and robustness (can it take a beating). This article does some comparisons:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/recommended/tech/best-basic-phones-dumbphones/The new Nokia 3310 wins this one by a country mile. On standby, you'll get 3-4 days out of the Light Phone, 7-10 days on the Alba Flip, and somewhere between 21-25 on the Nokia 8110. The 3310 will last for 31 days on standby.
So why not pick up this phone from a reputable manufacturer for a lot less:
https://www.nokia.com/phones/en_int/nokia-3310They even reviewed minimalist phones here:
They reviewed JELLY ($125), Nokia 3310 ($60), PUNKT MP 01 ($230), and LIGHT PHONE ($150). Honestly, I'm surprised that LIGHT PHONE even made the list (not to mention PUNKT also). Seriously, we saw in the previous thread on Light Phone 1 that there were a number of comparable credit-card format phones already available for $15-20. None of those were reviewed, but somehow LIGHT PHONE made the cut for this show.... I think it is all a bunch of marketing WANK! It was maybe the only phone that was popularized enough that Westerners would know about it... Yet the other AEKU phones and such have been around for a while.
Also Light Phone never made it past 2G I think... what a JOKE!!!!! Same goes for PUNKT. That was the main reason it was DEAD IN THE WATER before it even got launched. You remember everyone complaining that they are shutting down 2G networks and their Light phone was being delivered and wouldn't even have a carrier to use it with? In the video, I remember the guy bashing PUNKT because it was using 2G, but don't remember them mentioning anything when it came to the LIGHT PHONE. WHAT?
And the video above ends with probably the smartest comment so far and rebuke of all these phones. Basically, he said a lot of communication today is via text. Yes some phone calls, but most of these minimalist phones make it hard to enter text. The part that overwhelms people who are trying to "minimal" is all the social-media garbage that surrounds them. What they need better is a functionality where the phone OS has an "anti-social" mode that is like Airplane mode but basically locks down all the social-media apps (you would have a Blacklist/Whitelist) that blocks data to certain apps.
I'm sure you can take Android and modify the OS to allow some kind of app "block" list, where you can by default have a number of social media apps already on that list. You can add more, or take some off. So in addition to airplane mode, you could have vacation mode or some other "mode" that curates the communication you want. That is already possible now with notification settings but people are too lazy to figure that stuff out. They want to press a single button and switch all the annoying apps off when they feel like it. Better yet, have the phone itself create a log (like it does battery usage of different apps) and know which apps are most bothersome and shut those off when you go into "minimal disturbance" mode, or whatever.
All these stupid "light" phones are simply expensive and limited annoyances. The only one on the list above that I would even consider is the Nokia, purely for battery life, small size, cheapness and durability.