Then again in 2024, when I finally got myself a DumbPhone;

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/111915619885321176

... which I promptly fell on and broke the screen, within a month or 2 of getting it. Leading to the third post, asking for recommendations for a clamshell/ FlipPhone, which I hoped might be a bit more Strypey-proof;

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/115069735153555094

Once again I fell into paralysis by analysis, and time passed.

(2/?)

Then, late last year, fate intervened. Mobile carriers in Aotearoa announced the sunsetting of their 3G networks, all 2 of them (other than the 2 owners, mobile brands just resell access to 1 or t'other). Including the need to replace devices that don't support calls and texting over VoLTE, which would soon be unable to work as cell phones. I posted a few times about my frustration with this corporate bait-and-switch;

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/115245666969848921

(3/?)

Although my aging Android/Linux device supports 4G mobile data, it turned out it doesn't support either calls or texting on 4G. I couldn't find any info about how to patch the OS, or dialer and SMS apps, to keep it working without 3G. So it was soon to become a pocket tablet, whether I liked it or not.

A kind fedizen offered 2 spares he had in a drawer (happy to give a public #HatTip if they want one, you know who you are). Posted both to me, one by one, at their own expenses. No dice.

(4/?)

The result of all this was a mad scramble to find a 4/5G capable non-touchscreen FlipPhone before the 3G shutdown. My final post on the #DumbPhone tag, until this one, was about how I finally got the only one I could find in a hurry liberated from the carrier it was locked to, and working with my mobile plan;

https://mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey/115896813561331913

That was about 2 months ago. So how am I feeling the FlipPhone experience now?

(5/?)

All the positives I listed in that thread still apply. But those are the positives of DumbPhone regression in general. One bonus, it has turned out to be a bit more robust than the first one I bought (touch wood). Also I did manage to get MMS working in the end, although I'm not sure it was my tinkering with the settings or something that changed at the carrier end.

(6/?)

All the downsides I listed in that post still apply. Plus, I've noticed that the OneTouch is *terrible* at keeping texts from one contact in a single thread, in the correct order. Forwarded messages usually (but not always) start a new thread.

Sometimes I'll open a thread and the most recent text has moved from the bottom to the top, while the others remain in reverse chronological order. The tiny storage capacity means this isn't a long term problem, but it's maddening all the same.

(7/?)

The worst thing is, this DumbPhone doesn't seem to reliably receive all texts, or notify me of missed calls.

This is a critical bug, and became a source of enormous stress just after I posted that last thread, when a close family member had emergency surgery. My family couldn't get hold of me for days after I came out of the festival site I was working at just beforehand, with no mobile reception. Despite a number of them trying to call and text.

In summary, the OneTouch too is a toy.

(8/?)