Frustrating, but that’s the point

I am in love with the idea of the minimalist phone movement. For a few years now, I’ve considered switching from my regular smartphone to something less capable, all in an effort to be more present for my family, my friends, and my life in general. It’s an attractive idea, and the Light Phone II was the light-on-the-features model I most wanted to try.

Except, I was apprehensive about spending hundreds of dollars on a phone that couldn’t do as much as my current, incredibly capable smartphone. Did this experience sway me? Yes and no.

Price, availability, and specs

Not cheap enough to take the plunge if brand new

The Light Phone II looks awesome because of its minimalist design, and I got compliments wherever I went with it. It comes in two colors: Black and Light Gray. Think of them as inverted versions of each other. And with the unique e-ink display, you can play with inverted black and gray even more in their settings.

Inside the Light Phone II, you won’t find any 5G connectivity. It’s only 4G LTE, and when you go to buy the phone, make sure you’re choosing the right country (as there are two different models of the phone — one is international), and that your provider is listed as compatible. Here in the States, I had no problems connecting to AT&T (along with T-Mobile and Verizon) as the big three are all listed as compatible, but Google Fi is not compatible, for instance. For a full chart, check Light’s official compatibility list here.

If you’re on the fence about the minimalist phone movement, $299 is a lot for a phone that doesn’t do even a fraction of what your smartphone can do, but I also understand why it’s priced this way. As an independent manufacturer, costs can get wildly out of hand if you can’t keep costs down due to volume. Still, I might recommend finding a used Light Phone II to try, and Light does sell refurbished sets. Neither version is available on Amazon.

What’s good about the Light Phone II?

Promises are kept

The whole idea of the Light Phone II is to reduce phone usage to refocus on life, and it succeeds. Light wants you to break how often you mindlessly scroll, and after the novelty wore off from such a unique little device, I did find myself reaching for my phone less and less as time went on. I loved the E Ink display, too. It’s perfect in full sunlight, easy to read, and once you get used to the refresh delay, it becomes second nature to wait for a beat and not rush into what you’re trying to accomplish. That’s the whole point.

After using the Light Phone II as a daily driver, I made it our emergency house phone — the one our kids would take with them when going out. Knowing they couldn’t access social media or browsers was true peace of mind.

It also comes with some helpful “tools,” some of which were added after launch because they were quality-of-life upgrades. These include an Alarm, Calculator, Calendar, Directions, Hotspot, Music, Notes, Podcasts, and Timer. I used all of them, but I felt some modern must-haves were missing. And, yes, the GPS directions do work.

What’s bad about the Light Phone II?

Modern life is about convenience

The problem with the Light Phone II is that it aims to create friction between you and your digital life, and it’s sometimes too good at it. The Light Phone II was first launched in 2019 (but it’s still being regularly updated), and I think what I would’ve missed in 2019 might be different from what I missed here in the present. I should add that even though this phone might be getting a little long in the tooth, because of its intended capabilities, it doesn’t show.

Smartphones can be helpful tools that go beyond mindless scrolling on social media and infinite notifications, offering access to digital tickets (airport and concert), NFC payments, and 2FA (two-factor authentication) for security. The Light Phone II doesn’t even attempt any of these functions, and while my focus wasn’t so much on my phone anymore, some of my focus then went to how to deal with these newfound, yet old, problems.

Additionally, the Light Phone II has a very small form factor, which looks cool but isn’t great for battery life. In general, I would get less than a full day out of the 950mAh battery — especially if I used directions or Bluetooth — and found myself plugging in the phone often just in case because there’s no fast charging here via micro-USB. The battery is rated for about three days of standby — but even on standby, I was getting around two days max. It could be that I was provided a refurbished handset to review, but there’s no way to know for sure.

If I was at home and on Wi-Fi, the battery drain wasn’t as bad because the phone wasn’t hunting for signals through my thick walls. Speaking of Wi-Fi, I also had to downgrade the security of my wireless router to get it to even connect. Modern phones like the Pixel 8 do not have this issue. Directions also took a while to locate my position, and then the navigation required a flashing refresh as the map and cursor moved with my car, which was ultimately distracting. But the convenience of a camera was what I missed most.

Should you buy it?

If you have $$ and the courage

I know that some of you are furiously typing into the comments that we all just need more willpower. The problem is that we’ve been trained to expect so much from our digital technology for so long that it’s way easier said than done. But the Light Phone II, or phones like it, can be a good (if not difficult) first step to reducing the technological stronghold.

Other phone companies in this space are players like Punkt, Mudita, or Techless (boasting the Wisephone II, which is taking forever to officially release), who offer similar pared-down experiences. All have wildly different takes on hardware and prices. Some are candy bar phones, some mimic more modern smartphones with restrictions, and so on.

In the end, though, if you have $299 burning a hole in your pocket, you should give it a shot — or at least wait until the Light Phone III comes out next year.