From iPhone to Flip Phone to 2 Phones to?

author's note... I prefer the term I made up: "simple-phone" over the common: "dumb phone." So that's what I'll be using.

I started wrestling my attention back from smartphones in 2022, and I'm tracking how that goes. I will either keep updating this one post, or make new smaller posts. We'll see.

iPhones Are Distracting

First off...to prove I'm not a digital minimalist...

I was a full-time augmented and virtual reality researcher / software programmer. I developed iOS apps and program AR experiences with Apple's ARKit. My favorite podcast is ATP, where they mostly talk about new Apple products.

I'm also not a skilled photographer, and I love that I can point my iPhone at anything and it will do a ton of work for me to get a photo that looks great. My whole family uses iMessage, and we send each other a lot of photos. I make YouTube videos as a hobby and my iPhone has been my main camera.

But...The Problem

I do not like how much time I spend staring at the news, or YouTube, instead of creating something or reading the stack of books I always have lying around.

I do not like the impression I am making on my young daughter. Does she think I "always" look at my phone? Whether I'm reading Politico for no good reason, or texting a friend, or checking my bank account...those activities all appear the same to a young girl on the other side of the room who doesn't have a phone.

I'm aware there are people who have smartphones and create valuable things(Cal Newport). And there are others who create interesting art and skip having a cell phone altogether(Jack White). Then there are artists who have switched to simpler phones over time: Aziz Ansari, Ed Sheeran.

The Plan

So, I have begun my phone search. This led me to Jose Briones who makes videos on this topic, and created https://josebriones.org/dumb-phone-finder

Light Phone: $300! Looks like a tiny Kindle using e-ink. But since it is also a fascinating object, I was concerned I'd spend time admiring it and reading about features they're considering, etc.
From their site: "While considering additional functionality for the Light Phone II, it's important to remember all of the features it will never have. The Light Phone II will never have social media, internet browsing, email, news, or ads."

Sunbeam Wireless: $200. A company started by Mennonites. They take an off-the-shelf flip phone and customize the OS to be minimal. No web browser, no ability to add apps.

Nokia phones: Still have web browsers and YouTube, so not what I wanted.

Nov 2022: Multiple iPhones Instead of Zero

Sort of unsurprising for me, I started experimenting with having multiple iPhones instead of 0 iPhones.

I tried an iPhone 12 Mini without a SIM card as my Camera + Spotify + Podcast machine. Freedom App blocking all websites 24/7, messages disabled, no email, all notifications off.

Surprising side effect - it ran much snappier than my regular iPhone 12.

All notifications are disabled. All automatic updates are disabled.
This removed the feeling of foreboding I usually get: 'man...if I pick up that phone it's going to demand something of me.'

I tested this on a Florida vacation - left my regular iPhone at the hotel, brought only the 12 Mini. It was...close to being great. Zero sense of foreboding, just a camera and music player.

The main con: my wife and I couldn't call or text each other. She did not like that.

Something I am learning from this: I am much happier with completely zero notifications.

January 2023: Going Full Simple-Phone

The amount of apps on this iPhone 12 mini is increasing...hmm.
By Christmas break, I found myself using Safari to browse CNN for no reason on the iPhone Mini. 🙄 Time to try a real simple-phone.

I ordered a Sunbeam F1 Orchid. Ugly, but it could silence unknown callers (I get about 5 spam calls per day), had maps, no browser, and voice-to-text.
I took the sim card out of my iPhone 12 Mini and popped it into the Sunbeam F1.
So at this point I have one phone that makes calls and texts: the Sunbeam, and the iPhone 12 Mini as like a tiny iPad.

I reached out to Light Phone folks to ask if their phone can silence unknown callers.

Light Phone support:

"Thank you for your interest in the Light Phone. Other than being able to block individual numbers, we don't have any unique spam call filters at this time. We do hope to have a 'contacts only' call filter by the end of next year."

The revelation:

I had an important work project to complete on 1/13/2023. I was done well ahead of time - early enough to go over what I created several times to improve it.

In the recent past, this kind of project always took working late and weekends.

What does this have to do with the Sunbeam? Well, I'm attributing my ability to complete all this work during regular hours to not having an internet-enabled device in my pocket.

When work was difficult and I'd usually take a break watching YouTube or checking CNN, the only thing I could do on the Orchid for entertainment was...change the wallpaper from among the 5 or 6 low-res images that came with it (I went with the waves).

The voice-to-text was the best I've ever used. The touchscreen was a nice surprise. No apps to update, no notification badges.

I need a second camera

The cameras thing is a bit of a problem.
I'm not a photographer, and I love that I can (could) just point an iPhone at something and it does all the computer vision techniques to give me a great photo.

I've been trying several cameras and came to some conclusions:

1. I will not bother to carry around an interchangeable lens camera.
2. Any camera I carry needs to easily fit in a jeans front pocket, and hopefully be something I have fun using. If the photos won't be as good as a modern iPhone, then they at least need to be interesting...to me.

June 2023: The Group Messaging Crisis

Big problem. Here I am trying to solve the group messaging issue...I have my simple-phone in hand, my iPhone on the desk, my wife's iPhone, and my laptop open. Some group messages appeared as "delivered" on her phone, showing I was in the group. None of my devices received the messages. What the hell.

I only knew about missing messages because my wife asked if I saw them. If a friend sent a group message that showed as delivered, they'd never think to double-check.

Apple doesn't care - blue bubbles are a differentiator so they're not interested in making sure SMS works properly.

Sigh 👿

June 2023: The Two-Phone Solution

I got a second phone number for the Sunbeam simple-phone: $8.50 for US Mobile's plan. Only my wife and kid had the new number. I put my regular number's SIM card back into my iPhone.

So, now I have 2 phones and 2 phone numbers.

I started a group message with 3 numbers: simple-phone, iPhone, wife's iPhone. That way she could text the group without wondering which phone I had.

This worked! I could take the simple-phone to work and not get distracted by iPhone nonsense.

February 2024: Android Experiment

The Sunbeam F1 was working ok, but it was really expensive, kind of big, and if something was going to fill that simple role I want it to be small and hopefully inexpensive.

I sold the Sunbeam F1 and bought a used Pixel 4a for $80. Why? You can entirely remove any web browser from Android, it has Google Maps, Spotify, Pocket Casts, and...Minimal Launcher!
It's tiny and light.

I was happily surprised that Android lets you customize so extensively and completely remove the web browser. This was useful and not distracting.

But my iPhone was still a problem. Since the Pixel had my second number, people weren't sure which phone to message, so the iPhone often received messages. I kept finding myself looking at YouTube on it - exactly what I didn't want.

Something is still not working.

Spring 2025

Two things happened around the same time.

1. Google essentially bricked my Pixel 4a with an update that killed the battery and gave me $50 for doing that. I'd rather have that than exploding pockets, but I couldn't find another tiny phone.
2. I dropped my iPhone and cracked the screen. I was carrying it in my pocket to listen to a podcast without a case (why?) and I had to run with my dog. It bounced out of my pocket. I'm treating it like The Shoelace moment from relay FM. If I get a screen protector for this iPhone screen to prevent further breakage, then I'm gonna keep using it. So I'm looking today at should I just ditch it entirely and get an iPad for when I need to take care of iOS things, and just use my Sunbeam phone.

I decided to power off the iPhone and put it in a drawer, get a new Pixel as my smartphone, and a small, cheap flip phone to be my second number that my wife and kid have. I got the Pixel 9 ($400) and the TCL Flip 2 ($35 when I bought it).

September 2025: Current Setup

I'm using a Pixel 9 and a TCL Flip 2.

The Pixel 9 has my regular number. The flip has a second number only my family knows.
Surprisingly, I can connect the flip phone to a computer, drag in both music and podcast MP3s, and it works fine with AirPods! It even remembers your place when you come back to podcast.

This has been my best setup. It is NOT perfect. I still find myself carrying the Pixel around the house in my pocket, and too often looking at youtube shorts. This happens even after I deleted the youtube app. I find myself just opening chrome on the pixel and going to youtube in that browser.

At work, I can leave the Pixel in the car and just have the flip. My family can reach me, I can listen to music. The flip has a browser but I haven't used it except to try downloading a podcast - too many steps, and I find the friction helpful.

Apparently, Jack White finally has a cell phone at age 50: "I am now the reluctant owner of a cellular telephone for the first time in my life!"

What I've Learned

Here's what's interesting - this whole phone experiment has made me MORE committed to cross-platform, 3rd party solutions for everything else. I'm moving my photo library to plain folders on my desktop and using digiKam. Obsidian for notes. 1Password for passwords and secure notes. If I'm gonna be platform-agnostic with phones, might as well be platform-agnostic everywhere.

This is about reclaiming attention and time. The tricks YouTube Shorts and Instagram use work on me, so part of my discipline is recognizing that and removing temptation. If I have chocolate in my house I'll eat it. If I have digital distraction within arm's reach, apparently I'll look at it.

My behaviors are driven by wisdom earned from digital pain. Like someone with Depression-era parents who saves string "just in case," I want my data somewhere I understand and can extricate from. I want devices to give me information when I choose to look, not inject ads in places I consider mine.

Let's read some books!