Waited weeks for this and was so excited it finally arrived today. Unboxed it, put it on charge, and…nothing. Won’t boot up, no signs of life. He’s dead, Jim.

Now I have to send it back and wait who knows how long if I want a replacement. Probably just going to ask for a refund; I can’t wait another 4-6 weeks or wait for one to ship from the September batch. Ugh!

Mildly infuriating, highly disappointing.

  • Fondots@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    I’m kind of considering getting one, probably as a second phone to swap my sim card into for occasional use

    The e ink is a big draw for me, as is the physical keyboard, not to mention the headphone jack and expandable storage.

    With the e-ink comes good battery life, they’re claiming potentially 4 days from what I can see. I like the idea of that for travel, where I might be spending long hours on a bus, train, plane, car, walking around town all day, maybe even camping somewhere where it may not always be convenient to charge my phone.

    E-ink is also easier to read in direct sunlight without a glare, as someone with a lot of outdoor hobbies that appeals to me. (Although for the same reason I do also wish it had a higher IP rating, and maybe an impact resistance rating as well)

    I dont tend to play a lot of games or watch movies on my phone to begin with, so I’m not so much interested in that aspect of it encouraging mindfulness, but for people who do struggle with that temptation to spend too much time on tiktok forget hooked on stupid games, I can see this helping them to kick that habit since e ink isn’t really great for those kinds of uses, while not needing to totally unplug from the more utilitarian uses for a smartphone like navigation, different messaging apps, email, 2 factor authenticator apps, etc.

    I’m not rushing out to buy one, but I might consider grabbing one if I get a good deal somewhere, or if it has some staying power I might consider picking up the next gen version of it.

    • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
      1·
      1 day ago

      You bring up really, really points, and have piqued my interest in the device. The thing holding me back (besides OP’s DOA :( ) is the security updates. How long will their OS truly be supported? They claim 5 years, but they’re a young company and can’t actually promise that. Is their bootloader unlocked? Because if so, I can try and load a custom OS, once their security updates are done. This last bit is what’s held me back from most of these eink devices, actually. Maybe the display will become cheap enough that I can buy one, and outfit my own device… one day.

      • Fondots@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        Yeah, security updates are a big sticking point for me too.

        That’s another reason I’m not rushing out to buy one. If they actually stick to their 5 year plan, that’s pretty solid, but that’s a big unknown right now.

        And with almost anything there’s some 1st generation bugs that will probably need to be worked out. If they stick around for a couple years and keep up with their updates I’ll give them a little more consideration.

        Also we’re now starting to see some brands come out with color e-ink devices, I wouldn’t mind one of these with a color e-ink screen.

        So maybe I’ll be getting a minimal phone 2 or 3.

        I haven’t personally played around with rooting and custom ROMs and such in honestly probably a decade, but an unlockable bootloader would be nice, even if I don’t necessarily see myself using that feature at this point in my life.

        And not for nothing, since a flagship smartphone can pretty easily cost $1000+ these days, $500-ish for this phone sounds oddly reasonable. Not that it’s got flagship specs, but for something that’s filling a specific niche with some (for many) desirable features, that’s not a bad price IMO.

        • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubEnglish
          2·
          22 hours ago

          I completely agree. 5 year support is plenty of time, but I just don’t know if I can trust their longevity yet. $500 for this device is definitely not excessive, but there are still unknowns.

          I haven’t done modding since the CyanogenMod days, but I’d want the option.