While Apple prepares to introduce AI-powered features in the iPhone, one other company is taking the opposite approach: as a substitute of building a phone with more technology, it’s opting for less. Lightmanufacturer of a minimalist phone with a screen manufactured from e-paper, publicizes its latest model – Light Phone III.
Like its earlier counterpart, the Light Phone III offers a easy black and white display, with no access to social media, the Internet or email. However, unlike older Light phones, the Light Phone III has a larger OLED display and an NFC chip to make room for future payment tools, in addition to a camera so you’ll be able to capture moments you would not wish to miss by leaving your smartphone at home.
The goal of the recent device is to enhance its usability and performance, says Light co-founder Joe Hollier. The recent Light Phone III is larger than previous models, about the width of most iPhones, but much shorter; in terms of shape, it looks more like a BlackBerry. The team says it will make it easier to text when holding the phone vertically. In addition, the AMOLED screen only illuminates white pixels, which, combined with the frosted glass, will make it look more like the older Light Phone II.
“It will actually retain many of the features that folks love about an e-ink screen, [with it] it feels completely different than on a glossy smartphone screen,” Hollier said.
Together with Kaiwei Tang, Hollier founded Light in September 2014, initially as a Kickstarter project for people trying to break their smartphone addiction. Between its first two models, the Light Phone I and Light Phone II, the company sold over 100,000 devices, with the latter accounting for about two-thirds of sales.
The appeal of the Light Phone is that it doesn’t force you to present up the useful points of recent smartphone technology, resembling built-in access to maps and navigation, calling, texting, notes and voice memos, calendar, timer, alarm, calculator, hotspot, and a easy tool for playing music and podcasts. Instead, it offers a technique to escape technology that some would quite do without: social media apps, click-based messaging, and a web browser that connects you to the Internet.
Light phone owners can use an unlocked device with their very own carrier, or they will opt for a Light phone plan for $30 monthly with 1GB of knowledge. There are also dearer plans, $45/month or $70/month for 5GB or unlimited data respectively.
The phone enjoys area of interest popularity among 25- to 40-year-olds, most of whom use it as their primary phone, often with a tablet or laptop for enhanced Internet access. A smaller group may switch to Phone Light when they should take a break, perhaps attempting to go “offline” for a weekend or vacation, but don’t desire to be left without the ability to achieve people or be reachable in the event of an emergency.
The Light Phone III will goal a larger demographic that already uses a non-smartphone as their primary device.
Like other devices, the Light Phone can even appeal to individuals who care about privacy. When you utilize features like directions and navigation, Light pays to share this logic with users privately. This implies that tech giants like Google don’t track or share your data when you utilize a majority of these features.
Apart from the recent housing and OLED screen, the most noteworthy addition is the camera. It’s not on par with those found in high-end smartphones like the iPhone or Google Pixel; as a substitute, it’s a center-focus, no-zoom camera that is more like point-and-shoot photography. Pressing the dedicated shutter button halfway focuses on the photo, while pressing it fully takes the photo.
Another recent feature is the light wheel, which means that you can adjust the screen brightness with a dial when you go outside or inside, making it brighter or darker.
The larger phone now has more antenna bands, so this time there’s only one phone model available, quite than separate models for North America and Europe. The phone’s casing is manufactured from aluminum and at the bottom there is a speaker cover manufactured from recycled plastic. The Light Phone III has larger speakers for listening to music, podcasts or using a speakerphone.
The power button now includes fingerprint ID, making it easier to open and use your phone. The 5G-enabled phone also has 6GB of RAM (vs. 1GB on the Light Phone II), 128GB of storage (vs. 8GB) and more modern Qualcomm chips.
Meanwhile, the battery, about twice the size of previous versions, might be replaced yourself or send the phone back to Light for a substitute, likely for lower than $50.
All the improvements make the recent device dearer: the Light Phone III costs $799 in comparison with the Light Phone II at $299. The latter, nonetheless, will still be sold to those preferring the e-ink version.
“We ask the query: Can a phone last five or even 10 years? Things like metal, higher quality materials, a replaceable battery, and where possible we have even improved how we replace screens and other components,” Hollier said. “We’re attempting to make it a more sustainable phone. And at this point, the $799 price tag really reflects that.
Previous Light Phone III users will have the ability to pre-order the recent devices for $399, which is a 50% discount. Similar to crowdfunding, these pre-orders will help Light launch its first mass production in partnership with Foxconn. A complete of three production runs will happen by the end of November, with orders expected to start shipping in January 2025.
Between 2015 and 2024, Light raised roughly $11 million from over 80 VCs and angels, including Bullish VC, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, Tim Kendall (Facebook/Pinterest), Scott Belsky (Adobe), Wisdom Venture, Dave Free (pgLang), Pete Davidson (SNL), Able Partners, Gaingels, Heroic Ventures, Hinge Capital, White Bay Group, New Lab Ventures, SOSV and Foxconn. As of 2022 – the last valuation used to boost capital – Light was valued at $24 million pre-money.
Full specifications of Light Phone III:
Dimensions: 106 mm x 71.5 mm x 12 mm
Weight: 124g
Network: 5G + 4GLTE
Display: 3.92” AMOLED (1080×1240)
Screen: frosted glass
Port: USB-C 2.0
Camera: 50 m rear / 8 m front
SIM: Nano SIM + E-SIM
Memory: 128 GB/6 GB RAM
Battery: 1800 mAh
Sound: 2 microphones (noise cancellation), 2 stereo speakers
Features: GPS, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, Fingerprint ID
Materials: aluminum, glass, SORPLAS recycled plastic
Chipset: Qualcomm SM 4450
IP protection rating: IP 54