One year ago, I advised against getting a 4G dumbphone with KaiOS. I am officially reversing that recommendation!
After purchasing a Nokia 8110 4G and playing with it for 1 month, I’m actually pretty speechless, and that IS rare.
Despite Google’s investment of $22 million in KaiOS over 1 year ago, Google’s services remain “add-ons”. IOW, KaiOS has NOT become Android Lite.
KaiOS is KaiOS, and there’s some Googley stuff on the phone that you can either use, or not. Better yet, you can block the Google apps from doing much of anything.
Even better, KaiOS is basically what PWAs will become on normal smartphones: KaiOS apps are actually just HTML5 + CSS + Javascript, running on a Gecko-based browser engine tied tightly to a small linux kernel.
The end result is the perfect non-Android, Google-enabled dumbphone. You can do stuff like Facebook or WhatsApp if you want, but there are NO Android-type apps.
You don’t even need to create a KaiOS App Store account to download apps – just click and go!
Note that the KaiOS app store is totally separate from Google’s Play store, and there are 130+ apps already available – and growing daily.
So, for your new dumbphone, give KaiOS a try!
Mentioned in vid:
- Nokia 8110 4G
- Choosing a dumbphone ain’t easy video
- Press release about upcoming Nokia Flip and Tough phones
- Get my “Wi, indeed?” shirt on Teespring
That’s all, folks!
your link for Nokia 8110 4G takes me to Amazon where this phone gets 2 ONE Star reviews! Hardly an endorsement.
Yeah, you have to check to make sure it will work with your cell provider. “International” phones (GSM) should work in most of the world, but not on all US, Canadian, Japanese, or Australian providers.
This one seems to have more happy campers: https://amzn.to/32Rs5hX
Sometimes, you must go straight to your provider and use their “flavor” of the phone – if it’s available.
I went from 1 video to the other and it went on…..very informative. Thank you
If it’s from G00gle, can the phone be trusted to not have something built-in to it that tracks everything?
It’s obviously difficult to know for sure, especially these days. But as far as I can tell, it’s WAY better than running Android on a smartphone where it’s basically 100% Google.
I have an Android phone where I deactivated all Google features such as the Play store, the calendar, Gmail and Chrome and it works perfectly. Even no Google keyborad, I use the Keepass keyboard with is related to my passwords manager (this keyboard is just slightly less conviniant but I prefer that than Google knowing all what I type…)
I use F-Droid for apps, Signal for normal and chripted SMS, Newpipe for videos, Firefox for browsing… just perfect 🙂
I have this phone: https://www.amazon.ca/Alcatel-FLIP-Black-4044V-Unlocked/dp/B077F17R8H
It is 4G with (2017) KaiOS before the google addition. It is considered a ‘burner phone’, ‘pay-as -you- go’ or Seniors phone.
It has the weight of a non-working dummy phone and does not seem rugged, I did not find it that buggy as one reviewer said. Being able to remove the battery is a huge plus. I was able to import my address book via SD card and told my friends to expect short text replies.
I still use an android phone for email, but am not signed-in to my google account, I use Proton mail.
I keep my android phone in a RFID/ radiation blocking pouch which I have tested to block cell/wi-fi 100% when sealed. You can find them many places but this an economy one: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Large-Size-Cellphone-RF-GPS-Signal-Blocker-Anti-Radiation-Shield-Pouch-Case-Pr/372559971844?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
You can also just buy the nickle/copper sheiding material they use on AliExpress and make your own.
Missing Signal app.
yes. signal is the issue. I would love it.
Agreed, KaiOS needs a Signal app. I looked into porting Signal to the Light Phone 2 and the phone’s developer said they had contacted the main Signal devs and was told that porting it “wasn’t possible”. But I am pretty sure this had to do with Signal’s encrypted voice calls, which requires AES hardware support that the Light Phone 2 does not have. Personally, I am only interested in the encrypted text messaging, and as someone else pointed out, WhatsApp uses the same text backend as Signal, so it should be possible to port that to KaiOS.