2 hours ago
It's a mashup of nan Light Phone III and an old-school flip phone.
Light
The Brooklyn-based minimalist telephone shaper Light is moving connected a caller portion of hardware that is decidedly retro. The Light Flip, arsenic nan sanction suggests, is simply a flip telephone that some calls to mind nan devices of yesteryear while besides combining it pinch immoderate nods to modernity. A Galaxy Flip-style instrumentality this is not, however, In keeping pinch nan company's ethos, nan Light Flip is simply a distraction-free instrumentality that has nary of nan "endless scroll" apps that predominate people's attention.
The Light Flip resembles a mash-up of nan Light Phone III (which nan institution released past year) and an old-school flip phone. In nan pictures I've seen truthful far, nan interface intimately resembles that of nan Light Phone III — it's conscionable a database of tools, achromatic matter connected a achromatic background. Most of nan devices look nan aforesaid — arsenic I said erstwhile I reviewed nan Light Phone III past year, this is minimalism taken to nan extreme.
Light
Given its shape factor, though, nan Light Flip does not person a touch screen. Instead, it has a 12-button keypad that'll beryllium acquainted to anyone who grew up texting pinch T9 (or making calls from a landline). There are besides 3 usability buttons, nan halfway of which is wrong of a four-way directional fastener to move nan phone's cursor around. There's a location fastener connected nan broadside and measurement up/down switches surrounding it. Finally, there's a large aged speaker astatine nan bottom, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB-C port.
Unlike a batch of flip phones some aged and caller there's nary outer surface erstwhile nan Flip is closed. Instead, there's a notification light. On nan back, there's a 50-megapixel camera that outputs 12-megapixel images arsenic good arsenic a removeable artillery hidden down a screw-down plate. It's highly akin to nan Light Phone III, though nan Flip is made of integrative alternatively than aluminium. Unlike nan Light Phone III, which only comes successful black, nan Flip will beryllium disposable successful six different shades.
Beyond nan caller shape factor, Light has a fewer different tricks planned for nan Flip. It's nan first telephone that they'll beryllium trading bundled pinch a telephone plan. $39 a period for 2 years gets you nan Light Flip and nan Light work scheme pinch unlimited sound and matter positive 1GB of information per month. Given nan full constituent of nan Light Phone is to not usage it excessively much, that information should beryllium bully for astir buyers. The institution really only recommends nan unlimited scheme (which would costs $69 / period pinch nan Flip) if you're going to heavy usage its 5G relationship for nan hotspot feature. And if you're much willing successful nan Light Phone III, nan institution will soon connection a telephone positive statement bundle for $59 / period arsenic well.
Light
Why a flip telephone now, though? Light's laminitis Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang told maine that they've gotten a batch of requests for nan shape factor, peculiarly from younger users who want a telephone that's moreover little smartphone-like than nan Light Phone III. They've besides seen tons of group successful "distraction-free" communities move to old-school flip phones — but astir caller flip phones successful accumulation are not terribly capable. (Obviously we're not talking astir phones for illustration Motorola's modern-day Razr aliases nan various Samsung flip phones.)
Another intriguing portion of nan puzzle is the forthcoming Light SDK for creating and distributing third-party devices to grow nan phone's functionality. Work connected nan SDK is progressing and nan institution says it should beryllium fresh to commencement rolling retired third-party devices successful nan fall. The biggest rumor I had erstwhile utilizing nan Light Phone III was missing conscionable a fewer things that I request my telephone to person for each time usage, and this could decidedly thief adjacent nan spread for group for illustration me. Light says that it intends to make it easy to tweak devices developed for nan Light Phone III activity pinch nan Light Flip's keypad and cursor interface.
Unfortunately, this telephone won't get for a while — it's not expected to vessel until April of 2027. That's not a large daze coming from a mini shaper for illustration Light, but you'll still request to beryllium patient. You tin pre-order nan Light Flip now though if you want to make judge you're among nan first to person it.
