Wanting to join the cool kids club and ditch your smartphone? Or maybe just take some steps to regain your sanity? Here are some tips to help find a phone.
First, check out the amazing community on Reddit! https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones
Nokia is a classic option. They still make and sell dumbphones. Be sure to buy one for your region (more on that later). The website to shop around for Nokia phones is https://www.hmd.com (I know that's a weird link... you would think it would just be nokia.com or something!).
Currently I use a Nokia 215 4G off ebay (don't buy it from this seller unless you want to wait forever before it's even shipped!), which works for me on US Mobile using T-Mobile's towers for super cheap (since I use no data I literally pay $10/month for my phone service). Despite the friendly commercials, Consumer Cellular wouldn't accept my phone and was rude on the phone when I called them, so I wouldn't bother with them.
The phone comes with some games (including Snake, as well as a matching game called Super Pet Twist that I can't stop playing lol) and even has an internet browser though I have disabled data as I have no wish to use a cell phone for internet.
You definitely don't have to buy off ebay though! You can buy brand-new dumbphones from a number of places (including straight off the Nokia website). I just refuse to buy from Amazon and was very particular about wanting a phone with no camera, and this one wasn't available on Nokia's site anymore.
If you're in the US, as of the writing of this webpage you can get the Nokia 225 which is almost the same except it has a camera. See: https://www.hmd.com/en_us/nokia-225-4g?sku=16QENL11A04. There are other options too depending what you like best.
The biggest thing - please don't buy a vintage phone expecting it to work on today's cell phone networks. There are scammers selling them online not really explaining they are going to be pretty to look at but useless for communication. Most of the world has disabled their 2g and 3g phone networks and that's the only way those vintage phones communicate. I have read that there are a few people using 2g phones in the USA with T-Mobile but the other carriers have already turned it off. T-Mobile is phasing theirs out now so those users won't be able to continue using those phones.
I also strongly suggest to avoid any phone that uses the KaiOS operating system, which includes some Nokias as well as some tracfone and other cheaper options. Reddit users have commented (and I have experienced this!) the operating system seems to have a strange buggy way of making the buttons stick when you press them, making texting a nightmare and even dialing phone numbers a major pain.
One last important thing - wherever you are located please be sure your new phone will be compatible with your network bands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#Deployments_by_region. If you buy one in a store of course it should be fine, but some people find dumbphones online. I did not realize this before 2024, but other countries have different bands. Sometimes people find cool looking phones online but they are meant for other countries, so be sure and check if it's compatible. You can always post on the dumbphones subreddit if you're not sure and someone can probably help.
And I said that was the last thing, but here's a free bonus. I have not tested any but this site still has java games and stuff you may be able to add to your dumbphone: https://mobile.phoneky.com/games
Email me at anoutsider AT mail DOT com :)