I primarily use my phone for calling and texting. My wife and I both switched back from an Android phone to a basic (feature) flip phone with physical keyboard (The LG env3). The primary reasons are:
1) Smart phones have poor battery life
2) The screens are large and fragile, get all scratched up, even broken
3) They overheat in the car / sunlight
4) Android / google / iOS tracks you and listen to you all the time
5) Constant notifications about unimportant things, difficult to get rid of
6) Touch screen keyboard is hard to use with large fingers
7) Frequent pocket dialing or other unintended behavior.
😎 Extra cost of a data plan
9) As of recent no more wired headset jack
10) Having to navigate through a million functions you never use
We probably text more than we call , so a physical QWERTY keyboard is really great.
There's a plethora of 2G/3G phones on the market used, but they are getting old now, and I'm being told that at the end of 2019 the 2G/3G systems are being turned off and we will be forced to switch to a 4G phone.
Well, I have no problem to spend some money on a new phone but the market seems to have grown very one sided with a flood of Android phones and a few "basic" flip phones, but no "feature" phones, in fact the whole category is gone from the VZW web site. Well I don't need any special "features", I just need a solid talk and text phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard.
Here's what I would like:
1) Flip phone , so the main screen and keyboard are protected when closed
2) Physical QWERTY keyboard for texting and entering contacts
3) Physical headset jack
4) No data plan required
5) Replaceable battery
6) Ruggedized design a plus but not required (i.e. rubber bumpers, water and dust resistant)
7) Email capability and PTT a plus but not required
😎 Camera and picture messaging a plus but not required
Are there any plans to bring a phone like this to the market in 2019 , that will work past 2020?
