The long, long-anticipated Light Phone 3 has launched at last.
It’s still got the minimalist vibe that made its predecessors so interesting, but that US$799 price tag is less minimal than many might’ve expected.
If you’ve never heard of the Light Phone series, it’s all about helping you reduce any addiction-like attraction you might have to your phone. Assuming you consider it a problem, that is.
You get all the essentials, obviously: calls, texts, music, maps, notes, even a wifi hotspot to tether other devices to. Instead of being an “everything” device you probably don’t need, it’s designed to be a “leave-me-alone-I’m-living-in-the-moment” kind of phone.
It used to be a much simpler device, but that brought its own annoyances, so – for example – the old e-ink screen is gone in favour of a 3.92-inch OLED display that can keep up with the features it offers.
But to remind you of your minimalist goals, it’s a monochrome screen only, and it won’t run most of the apps you’d normally find yourself scrolling mindlessly for hours.
Under the lid, the Light Phone 3 is no powerhouse, but it’s surprisingly well-specced for a phone trying hard to not do too much – and that really comes down to making sure we don’t get frustrated or bogged-down by a slow-loading map, or laggy music, and so on. I feel seen.
There’s a Snapdragon 4450 chip, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage — which is kinda overkill for something that doesn’t even run Instagram.
Speaking of making sure to not frustrate us too much, it does at least have cameras: 8MP up front for video calls and a 50MP rear sensor that shoots at 12MP.
It’s also got 5G, so you’re not sacrificing speed even if you’re ditching distractions. The battery is relatively tiny at 1800mAh, but you’re likely to be using this phone a lot less than you would any of the big buggers with their 5000mAh juice boxes.
Rounding out the necessaries are a USB-C port (charging speed not mentioned), a fingerprint sensor, a physical scroll wheel for brightness (old-school!), and a flashlight toggle.
Minimalism goes out the window when we get to price, however. At US$799 (around AU$1200 or €730), it’s more “designer lifestyle” than budget burner.
Before you scoff yourself to death, there’s an important economics lesson to consider: as a manufacturer, the bigger your reputation and the bigger your order, the cheaper your prototyping and parts supply will be.
For a small mob like Light, there’s a really good chance that the Light Phone 3’s price is as low as it can be and still make any sort of profit. Assuming they’ll end up with a profit at all!
And actually, they touch on it a bit below.
Honest Pricing
A Light Phone respects you. Our business model is honest and transparent: we sell phones that provide you with utility. You are our customer. There are no third party apps sneakily taking your data.
For some of our more advanced tools (like Directions, Directory or Voice-to-text) that utilize other platforms’ technology, the cost to offer that function privately is included with the phone. It is never subsidized by your personal data.
You might find the price is worth the potential zen mode that your life could become…
(Not mine. I’m tethered to my phone like it’s the one thing keeping bomb shrapnel from reaching my heart.)
