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Posted by nashashmi 5 days ago

Minimal Phone 2(minimalcompany.com)
328 points | 258 commentspage 3
nashashmi 4 days ago|
Previous product: https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/1s0ufqz/i_dont_...

Previous spotlight on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40609095

mvkel 4 days ago||
I want minimal in size, not capability
CoolestBeans 5 days ago||
I've been looking at this and the Clicks Communicator which should both be out by the end of this year. I'm not really a "dumbphone" person nor am I really a physical keyboard hound. I just want a smaller phone that feels better in the pocket and in the hand. I thought about a Razr but the proportions are a little awkward when opened. Its a little too long.
Propelloni 5 days ago||
I get what you are saying. I'm coming from a Sony Xperia 10 IV with a width of 68 mm and it was perfect, albeit a bit tall (21:9 format). Now I use a Motorola Edge 60 Neo with a width of nearly 71 mm with the "traditional" 16:9 format. It is almost as tall and just slightly out of reach of one-handed use for me. The Minimal 2 is wider at 72 mm, the Clicks is even wider. I'm going to look at the Razr, it's frustrating.
CoolestBeans 5 days ago||
Didn't realize they were iPhone width and wider. Puts a damper on seriously shopping on it for me. Thanks for the info.
cuu508 4 days ago||
This and Clicks Communicator seem eerily similar.
forgetcolor 4 days ago||
Why is this phone barely lighter than an iPhone air with a massively bigger screen, two camera lenses, etc? I'm glad it's not heavier, but I would have hoped for it to be the lightest phone -- by far. (Minimal 2 is 7g lighter than iPhone Air).
ricardobeat 4 days ago|
Tells you something about what Apple/Samsung/etc are able to achieve with their manufacturing and supply chains.
forgetcolor 4 days ago||
Indeed. I wish Apple would make an Uno -- just the front screen of the Duo. Half the (unfolded) width, half the weight.
_ks3e 4 days ago|||
Isn't this just the Air?
jazzyjackson 4 days ago|||
Very different aspect ratio. I can’t stand the regular iphones it’s impossible to use one handed without using that dumb flick gesture to bring the top of the screen down to the bottom half
layer8 4 days ago|||
No, it would be smaller, thinner, and lighter than the Air.
oliv__ 3 days ago|||
I'd buy the Uno Air in a heartbeat
karim79 4 days ago||
Haptic feedback on virtual keyboards is just fine if you ask me. I'm not sure why it needs mechanical keys, I don't really see how that adds anything of value on a phone these days.

I'm typing on my pixel 6 Pro and it still feels satisfying.

Gimmick?

zimpenfish 4 days ago||
> mechanical keys, I don't really see how that adds anything of value on a phone these days

When you get old, your ability to type reliably on a phone's touchscreen keyboard starts to go down the pan. Having actual tactile "things" to land on can make it easier.

karim79 4 days ago|||
Never thought of that. Plus I'm getting old so might the time to try it out.
phoghed 4 days ago|||
Nothing you can do on a modern phone is as satisfying as flipping out that sidekick screen and bashing out a message on physical keys imo

Not that I’d trade screen real estate for keyboards nowadays, but there’s probably still some diehards out there that want them

Multicomp 4 days ago|||
I too am a keyboard diehard (typing on a unihertz titan 2, i traded out my headphone jack for this physical keyboard so I am interested in this minimal phone 2 since headphone jack. if it had microsd card slot and removable battery it would be perfect, other old features like fm radio and IR blasters are bonus gravy to me), and likewise I'd prefer a blackerry priv style device where they portrait keyboard slides behind the screen, or a droid 2 style device where the keyboard is a landscape slider.

I'm going to have to think carefully about why I should NOT order this device.

phoghed 3 days ago||
I’d be tempted to get one if I was in the Android ecosystem, though probably not before real non-sponsored reviews came out. 90hz amoled, nice looking keyboard, lot of ram, seems like a nice device on paper.
karim79 4 days ago|||
Fair enough. I've never use a blackberry so I wouldn't know. I'd like to try one the OP phones out to be honest.
jolmg 4 days ago||
It should be useful when trying to type in a vehicle that's shaking a little. Your can tap another key by mistake on a virtual keyboard amidst the shaking, but not really on a physical one where you're grabbing and navigating the keys with your thumbs prior to pressing.

Virtual keyboard haptic feedback seems more like gimmick. If it actually serves a functional purpose, I'd be surprised and interested. Maybe if you had feedback activate as you glide through the keys, but Google's keyboard at least doesn't.

Xeoncross 4 days ago||
I'm not sure about a return to keyboard, it's not large enough to actually type on, and swipe seems to be a much faster alternative to pecking at the keys.

Maybe swipe typing isn't as popular as I first thought.

Multicomp 4 days ago||
hi there, I've done pocket PC, palm pilot graffiti, palm treo integrated and dockable keyboard, landscape slider keyboards, stylus only qwerty keyboards, Swype the app, Gboard, heliboard, t9 physical keys, messageease, and im sire some others.

day 1 the plb is slower than swipe typing because it needs getting used to. But the trick is one can focus one's attention on the content being typed /learn to touch type on a physical keyboard that on screen keyboards cant do, because of lack of consistency of on screen kbs always shifting layouts on you, at least with coming and going but usually also ruining the dot menu for common punctuation depending on if the input field is trying to be an email or a number or whatever.

dont try to help me keyboard, just give me a ctrl character, consistent shortcuts, and don't lag half the time I enter some text input, so I've typed out 4 words before the phone realizes anything has happened.

so yes i think you are right that swipe typing has value and more people should use it. but its lipstick on a pig for most of osks not being reliably static enough to let muscle memory / touch typing grow.

my unihertz titan 2 also has capacitive keys, i turn them off because I want the kb as dumb as possible (though i add keymapper android app to give me vim style arrow keys), but swipe typing would be possible on my or this device with just software support if there were demand for it / someone got their llm to vibe it up.

SoftTalker 4 days ago|||
Swipe typing is abysmal on iOS. Not sure how it is on Android these days or how much it depends on the device.
thex10 4 days ago||
Good thing it supports swipe then
reacharavindh 5 days ago||
The single input box with different prefixes for actions - @people, #call, - todo etc is very nice. I wish I could have such a powerful input box in my Home Screen. iPhone or even a trimmed down android with such an interface would be cool.

I’m not a fan of the physical keyboard, the broad shape(they say one handed use immediately followed by a video of someone using both hands to type). I’m okay with the candy bar all screen phones of today. The UX is pretty cool if I can have it on my “regular” phone..

Anybody have an idea if it is doable on an iPhone or an android phone?

Groxx 5 days ago||
I've been using keyboard-based launchers for a couple years now, I really like it. None quite yet feel perfect to me, but Olauncher has lasted the longest: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.olauncher

If you set up a swipe to launch another launcher, you can have all your widgets there, as sometimes that's nice for a multi-app overview of Stuff™ at a glance.

bebna 5 days ago||
Android kiss home screen can be probably set up like this.
pentagrama 4 days ago||
The demo video is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsLd7p9THL4
jerlam 4 days ago||
Pretty weird how little they use the physical keyboard in the demo. I'd expect for at least their own apps / launcher, you could navigate with WASD. Instead, they're switching between tabs by clicking on the very top of the screen while the phone is on a table, which is very much not one-handed mode.

There's a better video here which describes a text-based interface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryFV1wHD8FM

amelius 4 days ago||
Why did they make those security settings global?

I'd want different containers (sandboxes), depending on the things I'm doing.

rodolphoarruda 4 days ago||
<<a compact footprint>>

Oh, thank you. We need that. It's refreshing to know that we might have the option to buy a cell phone with less than 6.5 inch size.

lanfeust6 4 days ago|
I like the smaller scale. Once, I really cared about having qwerty, but now I don't care with the way touch has progressed (using Futo). It's the experience of the BB I miss. I'm not sure how far Linux phones have come but last I checked they were sluggish and unstable.
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