When Leigh Tynan agreed to buy her 13-year-old daughter a mobile phone, she didn’t want it to distract her.
“When there’s a smartphone or a screen, you’re not practicing guitar, you’re not reading books, you’re just not bored,” he said. That’s why instead of the very popular iPhone, he decided on the TCL Flip phone, which has one important feature: no access to social media.
“I thought I was really annoyed by him being online all the time… I’m trying to protect him from that for as long as possible.”
Dumb phones, also known as basic phones or feature phones, are having a moment. Mobile devices are limited to basic functions like making phone calls and sending text messages and often cannot connect to the internet. According to Counterpoint, a technology market research firm, more than 98,600 feature phones were sold in Canada in 2023; This means a 25 percent increase compared to 2022.
Leigh Tynan bought a flip phone for her teenage daughter without access to social media. (Joe Fiorino/CBC)
While dumbbell phones have long been popular among seniors and tradesmen, there’s a new demand from parents trying to protect their children from the distractions of smartphones. Durability and cost are also attractive: Most Dumbphones sell for less than $100.
Tynan’s flip phone costs $80, plus he pays about $26 a month for a talk and text plan.
Some Gen Z and Millennial users are also making the switch as they seek to digitally detox from an ever-connected world.
“The smartphone is no longer a source of enjoyment,” said Pascal Forget, a technology columnist in Montreal. “It used to be fun, but now they’re addicted to it, so they want to go back to simpler times using a simpler device.”
Kristen Campbell started using a “dumbphone” and says it made her feel calmer and happier. (Submitted by Kristen Campbell)
Dumb phone users who took this step, like Kristen Campbell, say the results are worth it.
The 34-year-old Calgary native put down his smartphone last year and tested about 15 different devices before settling on the Qin F22 model.
“A friend of mine comes to me when she wants to borrow one or try to live with her stupid phone,” he said.
Campbell said he realized the amount of time he spent scrolling on his phone was a problem and took great pleasure in deleting his social media accounts.
“I’m still available, but I live my life where I am in the moment instead of mentally being somewhere else all the time,” she said. “I felt much calmer and much happier.”
Dumb phones, also known as basic phones or feature phones, are mobile devices that are limited to basic functions such as making phone calls and sending text messages, and are often unable to connect to the Internet. (Submitted by Kristen Campbell)
Dumphones are still a niche product
But dumb phones remain a niche product, accounting for less than one per cent of the total mobile phone market in Canada, according to Counterpoint. Many companies have little incentive to offer them, Forget says.
“You can’t sell data bundles, you can’t sell apps, you can’t sell subscriptions on a minimalist phone. So it’s hard for a company to make money on those.”
HMD Global still makes clamshell phones. The company doubled sales of the Nokia 2660 Flip phone in Europe last year, relaunching a model first released in 1999.
“It’s really interesting to see a phone that we thought was finished… we thought we would never use this phone again, and now it’s being taken away,” said Marketing Director Lars Silberbauer.
Brooklyn-based Light has launched the third generation of the Light Phone. This device, with a black-and-white screen and no email, social media or web browsing, costs $399, making it about four times more expensive than other dumb phones.
While it’s not yet available in Canada, co-founder Kaiwei Tang said the company is in talks with Telus and hopes to bring the Light Phone here later this year.
Lightphone’s features are limited and there’s no email, social media or web browsing. (Light)
Tang said the device was designed to have a modern usability and with the view that technology should work in the background, and he hopes this will gain momentum.
“We would actually like to see more players jump in and even big companies create tools that don’t rely on people’s time, attention and data to make money.”