A couple of days ago, I put my money where my mouth is and invested in something I hope will keep me more focused and more intentional: a Light Phone 2. This is a device long in the making - yes there was a Light Phone 1 - that started as a kickstarter (actually, I think IndieGoGo). I’ve heard about it several times, but always was scared away by the price tag - it’s almost $400 after taxes, and it won’t even ship for another month. But I increasingly find that, as I evaluate my smartphone experiences, they bring me less and less happiness. Not just in the long term sense, but even short term; I’m just not enjoying a lot of my interactions with my phone. Now, of course there are things that I do enjoy that make my life easier, and that’s the trick that I’m hoping the Light Phone folks can pull off; how to have just enough phone. As of this writing, the only apps it has are texting, calling and an alarm. It doesn’t even have email. Now this is too small of a feature set for me (hey, the first Light Phone only had calling). But Light claims that by the end of the year they will have maps, taxis and music. For me, personally, I will still probably wish it had email. I don’t find email that distracting. But the big thing is no social media on the phone. And, no camera. I look forward to carrying a separate camera, actually, for when I really want to take some pictures and engage in photography, instead of just instagramming.
I realize this idea isn’t for everyone. I’m not sure I’ll be able to use it as my primary phone all the time, primarily because of work. I suspect what’s going to wind up happening is that I will have to carry both phones from time to time; the Light Phone can act as a hotspot, or I may switch to AT&T, where they have a service where both phones can share the phone number. When it shows up in early December, I’ll update this with another post about how it goes and how I’m enjoying it.
http://www.lightphone.com
