My Phones

Nokia 225 4G

Used Feb 2 2024 - Feb 25 2024

Price: $50 new

The first phone I tried, it was cheap and I loved how tiny it is. It has a simple web browser (i think??), FM radio and SMS capabilities. I ended up returning it because of the SMS messages are in pacific time, regardless of the phone settings. This is a known bug with this phone. It rearranged my texts whenever I turned the phone off and on, and I didn't like having to keep my phone in the incorrect time zone. If you live on the west coast this would be a great first dumbphone!

This phone is very bare bones, which I think is a good place to start! But I had this phone for only a few weeks when I dicided to return it for another Nokia.

Nokia 6300 4G

Used Feb 25 2024 - May 26 2024

Price: $45 used

I want to love this phone SO BAD! I got mine used and it had the double press issue within a few weeks. This phone is known for a hardware problem where keys will press twice (or more) when you only press once. This makes texting pretty annoying, it happened pretty consistently in a few of the keys. It advertises the use of Google assistant, and therefor speech to text, but if you update the software this feature is removed. The plastic of the case has a much more luxe feel than the 225 and I like how the keys look, but it still feels cheap and easy to break. I got myself a case for it. The UI is pleasant and I like the green color that is used in the messages.
To keep the phone running at its best, delete text threads often. Otherwise the message app becomes horribly slow. I used tickets on the phone to get into a few shows, so the screen is big and bright enough for that. There are shortcuts on the main screen but one goes to this useless "card view" that just pulls up the phone setup tutorial.
GPS only works on 2g/3g so I would have to manually turn off 4G if I wanted to use it. I've tried this and the GPS will work, but 2G is so slow that using google maps is almost impossible. if you live in a country with 3G this will probably be less annoying.

I really like the look of this phone, and it did almost everything I needed it to. I wish the 3.5mm jack worked, I tried a few different headphones and I could sometimes perfectly get it in there for it to work. I downloaded an online radio app that worked well, and I wanted to listen to NTS in my car but my phone's hole just sucked too much. If this phone was half as shitty, it would be my dream phone honestly. I still recommend it as a phone to try, because I've seen people say they don't have the double press issue. The phone has bluetooth as well.

Kyocera Digno 902kc

May 25 2024 - Current

This phone feels so chic and fancy compared to the others. I got it on Y!auctions through Buyee, which is a proxy service. I think I got a pretty good deal, my phone was sold without any scratches and looks practically new. I'm still getting to know it, but so far I really like it. This phone can only be set to English or Japanese, and some of the Softbank apps don't get translated. But I can't use them anyway. My favorite thing about this phone is the notification LED. I missed this so bad from my old early android motorolas. It's really nice to see if I got a text or whatever without opening the phone.

I used a guide and so far I feel pretty good about the recommendations I've tried. But instead of APKpure I downloaded the Aurora app for google play store access.

Theres a few things about the phone I still don't fully understand, even after reading the manual. But overall it's worked really well! There's a ton of customization options in the settings, which is important to me. Calling and texting is great and my call quality on this and any the other phones have never been a problem. I was a little worried about service since the 902kc only has the essential bands, but so far I've gotten service where I expect it to. It even worked in the Chicago subway underground.