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Communications Portables

Minimalist Cell Phones? 94

Posted by Cliff from the dirt-cheap-dialing dept.
Trizor asks: "Most cellular telephones these days are loaded with features: cameras, broadband quality video, Internet, etc. but there are still people who want to just make phone calls. So I ask Slashdot: Are there any World-Compatible GSM cellular telephones that don't offer much beyond calling and an address book?"
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Minimalist Cell Phones? More

Minimalist Cell Phones?

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  • No. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @05:58PM (#12945560)
    There isn't.
    • Actually if you're looking for such a thing, I guess probably the best thing do do is to buy a second hand old phone such as the Nokia 3210.
      • What are you talking about? The Nokia 3210 has a freakin camera. If you want an example take the LG 4010. My only gripe is that it isn't a world phone.
        • just show me a freakin camera in this nokia 3210 [nokia.com] and then we talk
          • my bad. I've been living with the feature full cell phone world so long I forgot there was such a thing as picture messaging on phones without cameras.

            • Re:No. (Score:1, Funny)

              by Anonymous Coward
              Wait, this thing makes phone calls, too?!
              All the time I just thought I had just a PDA with a camera and wireless Internet access...
            • Looks like you forgot there was a world of phones before picture messaging also, the 3210 doesn't feature MMS :)
    • Go with the most basic Nextel serviced phone from Motoroloa. The basic model can have SMS, but that doesn;t mean you pay for it. The phone has a B&W screen (i thought they died) and is fairly indestructable. My dads run his over with a froklift, if it does die, you can pop the chip out (with the addy book and settings) and put it in another similar phone and you're ready to go.
    • Vodfone makes some. [vodafone.com] These were launched last month. They are aimed at users that want something that is easy to use and who don't want feature overload with bluetooth, phones, fancy ringtones, etc.

      I have always wanted to build a cell phone into an old heavy duty phone handset. Those have space for a huge battery and you could put in a nice speaker and microphone so that the sound quality would be good.

  • no ringtones pls (Score:3, Insightful)

    by oni ( 41625 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @05:59PM (#12945567) Homepage
    or how about a phone that just rings? I don't get why people want their phones to start playing "can you take me to funky town" when they get a call.

    As a geek, I like technology to just do its job. It's a phone. It should alert me in the most efficient way when I get a call. that's all it has to do. I don't need to be entertained. I have other gadgets for that.

    • Re:no ringtones pls (Score:4, Informative)

      by Cecil ( 37810 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:36PM (#12945865) Homepage
      Because, while it's very funny to watch 10 people all grab for their cellphones and simultaneously say "Hello?" it's not very efficient and the novelty quickly wears off.

      Seriously though, the real purpose of custom ringtones is because as more and more people get cellphones, there's going to be more and more overlap between ringtones if you stick to the factory defaults. So if you'd like to avoid looking like a dumbass (although you might look like a dumbass for another reason if you pick a stupid ring), you can set a custom ringtone which is much less likely to be the same as the ring of some-random-schmuck who happens to be near you.

      It's actually more practical than it seems at first glance.
      • Because, while it's very funny to watch 10 people all grab for their cellphones and simultaneously say "Hello?" it's not very efficient and the novelty quickly wears off.

        What, people can't tell where a sound is coming from?

        • Nope (Score:1)

          by Otto ( 17870 )
          What, people can't tell where a sound is coming from?

          Most cell phone ringers are somewhat high pitched, so that the sound can be heard over ambient noise without increasing the volume excessively. Humans are better at hearing higher frequencies than lower ones, they're perceptually louder to us.

          However, because humans are better at hearing those higher frequencies, they have less ability to perceive directionality of the source of those sounds. The way a human tells the source of a sound is the relative
      • So if you'd like to avoid looking like a dumbass (although you might look like a dumbass for another reason if you pick a stupid ring)

        Good thing I have the Firefly theme song as my ringtone.

    • Because society tells people that they have to be an individual. If you're an individual, then your cell phone ring tone must be unique and not sound like everyone else's. It doesn't matter that thousands of other people chose to have the same ring tone you do. What matters is that you took the initiative to set yourself apart from the reeking masses of people who use the standard ring tones. You must not conform, for conformity is death. Be an individual or die.
    • I know how you feel. Most people I know have phones that cost at least $150 with camera, ringtones, and all that other crap. It's cool for about five minutes, then you realize its pretty useless.

      The ringtones just get annoying, especially the polyphonic ones. If they want to do good ringtones, they should give you a USB cable and let you mess around with your favorite song to get the coolest part of it. I still think it would be nice to hear some Pink Floyd when my friends call.

      My phone is a basic Moto

      • So you can hear just a part of a song? I say rather none than a part of one.
        • I doubt most cell phones have the memory to even hold one song. My girlfriend's video phone only has 1MB of memory or so, but if a phone had an SD slot we could see some interesting stuff. I'm sure some phones could play whole songs, but not most. And they can probably already do it in Japan..
    • Unfortunately, mobile phones that "just ring" don't really "ring" most of the time; they do some sort of synthesized trilling beep or whatever. They can't even do one of those purring noises that some European and African phones do. So having a better synthesizer and the ability to support ringtones can be handy if one wants the sound of an actual bell instead.

      I much prefer the classic bell sound, so since my mobile ringing usually means something is horribly hosed somewhere in the world, I opted for a ri

    • Re:no ringtones pls (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      how about a phone that just rings?

      A friend of mine has a new, does-everything motorola phone. It lets you use a mp3 file as a ring tone. So we recorded a 1970s vintage AT&T phone ringing. Sounds great!
    • "or how about a phone that just rings? I don't get why people want their phones to start playing "can you take me to funky town" when they get a call."

      Question: Do you have custom wallpaper on your desktop?

  • Minimilist PDAs (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Leontes ( 653331 )
    Since we are on the subject, what options are there for black and white, solid palm compatible PDA, for my scheduling and txt reading needs? My experience with color PDAs have been poor, what with it losing its capacity for charge just as my tungsten3 was becoming useful to me. Like the questioner, what can I do for my urge to have a no hassle scheduling and book reading PDA needs, lasts long on battery, and capable to sync with a mac.
  • HOw about a phone that I can use in my kitchen without roaming from my livingroom!
  • IMHO the best cell phone ever made. I keep an extra on hand in case I break mine and can't find a new one (they're cheap now).
    I think they can only be found on ebay [ebay.com] at this point, but the size, speed and feature set for people wanting just a phone can't be beat.

  • Address books? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Craigj0 ( 10745 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:16PM (#12945703)
    Address books are the work of the devil. You and your new fangled bloating features.
  • If you at least want a color screen, the Motorola V180 is a nice unit, without packing in a ton of extra features. Its available on eBay for less than $100 shipped.

    Should even that be overkill, and "new in box" isn't a necessity, you can always look at older phones. My first GSM phone, a Nokia 6190, was just a basic phone with SMS capability. The unit is not much larger than many new models today, and its definately rock-solid as cell phones go.
    • Or try the motorola C115, C116 and C117, all basic models with really long battery life.
    • Why on EARTH would I want a color screen? Isn't this a discussion about not having a bloated phone. I can't think of a single use for a color screen unless your phone comes with camera or xhtml/wap capabilities. and even wap is a poor justifier for a color screen.

  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cthefuture ( 665326 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:19PM (#12945729)
    What exactly is the point in asking this?

    There are cheap (or even free) phones available so cost can't be the issue.

    Are they too complicated for you? You know, you don't have to use those new-fangled features.

    Personally I find the PDA-like features extremely handy as I never liked having to carry a PDA and phone anyway. I mostly just use the scheduling/reminder stuff though.

    As for the "other" stuff like cameras, my guess is that there are more phones without cameras than with them.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Clover_Kicker ( 20761 ) <clover_kicker@yahoo.com> on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @07:46PM (#12946404)
      I'd like a nice, simple phone that doesn't take 45 fucking seconds to boot.

      • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Fry-kun ( 619632 )
        I agree completely.
        My phone (Motorola T720) takes way too long to boot up and shut down (20 seconds or so). It got me so pissed that I don't even turn it off anymore... But that's not the biggest problem!
        The real problem is that it sometimes locks up or just reboots for reasons unknown. Even the simple process of charging the phone is handled through its software, which makes charging impossible sometimes -- VERY ANNOYING.
        And the last (worst) problem is that it can't seem to process everything at the right
    • I recently went to my local courthouse to check on some land records. After going through the metal detector, they said I had to check my phone because it had a camera.

      I didn't bother to tell them that my Zire 71 also has a camera.

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kent_eh ( 543303 )
      Someone else has already mentioned that some places don't allow camera phones (or any devices that can take pictures) so I won't dwell on that.

      My take on wanting a "just a phone" phone, is to have less circuitry drawing power, and to allow the designers to focus on solid RF and audio performance, and not waste R&D resources on shoehorning all the other crap into the same size package.

      The other 'feature' I want to see is a ruggedized phone. Something a construction worker can use at work, and not have
      • Yep - how about a cell phone that meets, lets say, mil-810c (so we don't have to do profiling) for vibrattion, shock, humidity, sand and dust, temperature, immersion, and say, blown rain

        Our use the profile for one of the military handhelds, and make a cell phone that meets that

      • The other 'feature' I want to see is a ruggedized phone. Something a construction worker can use at work, and not have to worry about getting trashed in the first week.

        I would love to find a ruggedised GSM phone. My old Panasonic TX220 was a beautiful TDMA phone. Fully ruggedised and coated in rubber, yet still nice and small. Survived a two-storey tumble down cement stairs, falling off my second storey balconey, an "accidental" throw into a cement wall, and various other falls, drops, and bounces.

        T

        • Keep asking. If there are enough people asking, they do pass it up the food chain. I have been told that the demand for such a phone has been raised at a Rogers national sales meeting at least once.
    • Because he works for a company with global offices that doesn't allow cameras in the workplace ... like some parts of the world govt.

  • Choose a quad band phone... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:19PM (#12945730) Homepage

    "Are there any World-Compatible GSM cellular telephones that don't offer much beyond calling and an address book?""

    Choose a quad band phone like the Motorola V330 [motorola.com] and have it unlocked, so that it can be used with other carriers. When you arrive in another country, choose a local GSM provider, and install their proprietary module in your phone; it's easy, you can do it yourself or have the phone provider employee do it. The Motorola V330 can operate on these bands: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. That gives you the maximum opportunity in any city in the world.

    It's best not to worry about minimal features. You can't fight the crazy marketing plans.

    I suggest you try the T-Mobile Pay-As-You-Go Plan [t-mobile.com] if you don't use a lot of minutes.

    You definitely want GSM, the service is better. You definitely want a new phone, the sound quality is far better.

    Ask around for someone in your city who will unlock your phone. Locking a phone without your knowledge should be illegal, companies don't warn customers that they are buying locked equipment.
    • A Motorola V330? That certainly wouldn't fit my description of minimalist in any way.

      When I had to buy a new phone a year an a half ago, I had to hunt to find a phone that didn't include a camera. I ended up with a Samsung E105.

      At the time friends hassled me about the decision. "camera phones are cheap, and I can take these [shitty] pictures". They didn't seem to understand that A: I don't want a camera on my phone B: more complexity means more things to break C: unnecessary features probably drain the ba
  • It's got everything you need, and not much of what you don't. It's got decent battery life, great reception, and a readable screen. It vibrates, it rings, it stores phone numbers, and it text messages. That's all I need mine to do. It also has a few other features such as voice dialing, but they're not positioned in such a way that they're obtrusive.

    I've had mine for a while and it's damn near indestructible, except for the antenna. I've dropped it plenty of times; I've even washed it in the washing machin

  • The Nokia 1100 (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cloney ( 839577 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:23PM (#12945755)
    Designed for the Russian market, it's an indestructable effort with a membrane keyboard like an old Sinclair ZX81.
    Features:
    • a monochrome screen that's actually visible in daylight
    • superb battery life
    • ability to make and receive calls and texts
    • phone number memory
    • predictive text input
    • built in LED torch!
    But let's face it, this is really about what it doesn't feature:
    • WAP
    • IR/Bluetooth
    • Java games
    • Downloadable ringtones
    • Polyphonic ringtones
    • Half second lag between pressing a key and phone responding (Sony Ericsson T610, I'm looking at you)
    • Crashes
    • Crazy Frog
    Nokia UK site [nokia.co.uk]
    • 850/1900 only?

      My motorola v551 on Cingular has GSM quad band, 850/900/1800/1900, so I get great coverage everywhere. Dunno, what the poster is talking about, you dont ever have to use the functions on the phone, but sometimes its nice to be able to take a quick picture. And ringtones, man, I have headphones on at work, vibrate is more important.
      • I recently replaced my phone, but I was looking for a phone with 2 features: half-decent phone, bluetooth.

        You can't get that easily without getting a camera.

        I ended up getting a phone with a camera, but I specifically picked one with the lowest-end camera functionality. The camera function is so bad it is more of a cruel joke than a real camera. doubt anyone will take it seriously.

        There are places some people go where cameras are not allowed. I will have to leave my cellphone in the car in those cases.

        (
    • And I completely agree.

      For me, it's a phone with SMS, and an alarm that works pretty well (IE ring at 6PM only on Su,Mo,Tu,Fri) since I have a schedule that doesn't require me to wake up every day. I like it.

      I came from a MPx220, with all the gadgetry and doodads you could ever want, email, web (REAL html using pocket IE), 1.2MP camera, smarphone OS, bluetooth, IR, played mp3 ringtones, Divx video even... you name it, it could probably do it.

      Now I find that I charge my phone less often, and if I miss ch
    • Now, if only it had all that _plus_ the ability to let me PDA access the internet via 3G and bluetooth, I'd be happy.

      Yes, I'm serious - i want my phone to be a phone, and my PDA to do everything else.
  • World Compatible?

  • Yes Virginia, there is such a phone! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The Vodafone Simply [vodafone.com] is the phone you seek. It seems that despite all the screaming for a basic and reliable phone, cell phone providers continue to add new unrequested features and then try to generate a market for those features. It seems that the only provider that is listening to its customers is Vodafone.

    Buttons that are large enough to push just one at a time.
    No camera's, games, TV remote controls, toasters or any other useless crap.
    Fits against your ear, doesn't get lost in your ear.
    It's a revolution
    • The Vodafone Simply is the phone you seek.
      That phone has recently been introduced [vodafone.co.nz] here, too. Except that out of all the ringtones it has, none of them are actually a simple *RING*!
      You think they could have got *that* right, I mean the reason people would choose this phone is because it's supposedly simple to use.
  • I'll admit its not quite a phone and addredd book, but its as simple as motorola gets, and as for those odd, expensive features, it does a great job at avoiding them.

    The v180 is nice and simple and comes free with most carriers that carry it.
    http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_producthom e.asp?Country=USA&language=ENS&productid=29308

  • eBay an older GSM phone (Score:3, Informative)

    by Nuthatch ( 34721 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:43PM (#12945919) Homepage
    I gave my wife an Ericsson T28 [ebay.com] and it's a great little phone. Good voice quality, GSM triband, very small. And it's only $20-$40 unlocked. We use it with a prepaid GSM SIM so we only pay for minutes we use.
    • I used to have a T28. It was a really good phone and I liked it a lot.

      I switched to a Motorola V300 because I needed to learn about newer features such as Internet access.

      Every now and again I think about going back to the T28. The Motorola phone has a button on the outside of the phone that changes the ring mode. I usually have the phone on Vibrate + Ring, but while I'm carrying it around it often sets itself to Silent and I miss calls. A friend with the same phone sawed off the button.

      The alarm cloc
    • What I never understood is if you use the phone with prepaid minutes, how do you get a number for that phone? If there is no fixed carrier who assigns the number for you?

  • Dear Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cinematique ( 167333 ) on Wednesday June 29, 2005 @06:43PM (#12945925)
    A list of the submissions that didn't make the cut.

    My black and white TV is good enough. Is there a model out there without all of these newfangled technologies like color and stereo sound?

    My '57 BelAir gets me from point A to point B just fine... problem is... nobody makes parts for it anymore. Can anyone recommend a similar car without power steering and respectable milage?

    Bla bla bla...
    • My '57 BelAir gets me from point A to point B just fine... problem is... nobody makes parts for it anymore. Can anyone recommend a similar car without power steering and respectable milage?

      Boy are you in luck today!

      1957 Bel Air parts. [google.com]

  • Its the entry level phone nowadays in my carrier, and its a good phone. No antenna, too.
  • Just buy old one which suits your needs. Pack it up with decent enchancements (mainly bigger capacity batteries, they are aviable for cheap).
  • There was a similar thread a while ago and I think that the people who ask such questions are missing the point. The idea is: you want a phone which has good reception, good battery life, etc. I don't see why you'd MIND if a phone had all this plus extra features.

    For example my Sanyo 4920 (and 4900 before that) has superb reception and battery life, yet it has all the other features too. I don't use the games and PCS vision features much but it doesn't bother me that it's there. Why should it bother you? I
  • Here [tu-ka-tokai.co.jp], although it's a little bit too minimalist for me. No GSM version AFAIK, sorry. And, funny, it's quite expensive. Here's the google link: tu-ka-s (cellphone | mobile) [google.com].

  • Yes, i have one. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Xunker ( 6905 ) *
    I got one just yesterday from T-mobile for free with activation, but it is available online unlocked for cheap.

    The Motorola V188 [motorola.com]

    No camera.
    No IR.
    No bluetooth.
    Standard mini-usb for syncing.
    GSM quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) with GPRS.

    Yes, it is colour, but it's basically as minimal as you can get righ now.
  • I'm concerned that at some point I won't be able to get a cell phone without a camera. I can't even bring a cell phone to work that has a camera nor a voice recorder in it due to security restrictions (proprietary and classified). I really don't want a phone to dictate which carrier I use, either. I switched carriers last year and couldn't bring my phone with me because it was TDMA and I needed CDMA. As long as it is reliable and can store numbers, I'm happy.
  • http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,4377,00.html [nokia.com] I own one for over a year and it's superb. The lightest, smallest phone built by Nokia in the last 3-4 years. It doesen't have a camera or a lot of memory. It has color screen but it's not very good and it has java, wap, advanced address book. Other things that it has is GPRS and IRDA. These last two are really handy sometimes, trust me. The battery is 3-5 days now and it was 5-7 days. I'm a minimalist fan but not a fanatic. 6100 is a perfect balance between what
  • Nokia 2600.
  • Nokia 3510i
  • i was all alone... ;-)

    Are there any World-Compatible GSM cellular telephones that don't offer much beyond calling and an address book?

    though...IR is nice to get numbers on/off ur phone.

    my nokia 3330 just died after almost 4 good years of service. now i'm using a sony ericsson Z200...it was lying around unsed. it's VERY annoying.

    (reminds me of the 'yes, dear' episode i saw last week...greg buys a sports car...the chics dig it...turns out it's a chic car.)

    i miss my seimens s6.

  • Firefly Review [mobileburn.com] - it's a "kid's phone". It has an address book, a "fireworks" button, a 911 button and that's about it. No dial pad even! how's that for minimalist!?
  • the iPod of cellphones?

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