A friend of mine recently asked me why I opted for the truly “dumb” 2G Punkt. MP01 versus its newer 4G brother, the MP02 (you can compare specs here). They are both intentionally minimalist phones, without internet capabilities in themselves, meant for calls and texts only.
There are a number of related reasons, with one dominant reasons making the decision easy (in my opinion):
Cost - I managed to pay 1/3 the cost for a mint condition MP01, compared to the full price cost of the MP02.
Reliability - A few reputable reviewers had complained about the reliability of the MP02, in that it needs a firmware update to address some issues, whereas the MP01 only had heaps of praise (although I’m sure Punkt. will have the MP02 sorted before too long, so don’t let that put you off the second generation). The battery standby for the MP02 is one week; the MP01 is 3 weeks. Such a significant decrease in necessary engagement with the device is quite appealing to me, coming from a history of charging my iPhone every single day.
Design - I wanted the original Jasper Morrison design, with the golf-ball type impressions on the back case, and the simple clean minimalist aesthetic. I love the design. No, I absolutely love the design.
Philosophy - Above all, I resonate with the philosophy underlying Punkt. and the MP01 is the first embodiment of that. Although the MP02 is a brilliant concept, namely, that you can tether your dumb phone to a laptop or iPad, I purposely avoided that route. As another reviewer noted, when a smoker wants to quit, they must physically remove their cigarettes from being accessible. To be frank, I don’t need to answer emails, iMessages, FB, WhatsApp as soon as they come in. Any perceived need to be tetherable at any location and at any time is just that, a perceived need.
The bottom line is this: what I truly need now, more than every, is space to think, to write, to read, to engage with physically present human beings (or hear their actual voice through a phone call if that’s not possible).
The MP01 enables me to do that reliably while removing any possibility of defaulting back to the brutally impersonal efficiency of social media.