Recommendations for ‘minimalist’ (e.g. not too ‘smart’) phones?

It's easier to make a regular smartphone minimalist than to buy a minimalist smartphone. Do the environment a favour.

My iPad is disconnected from everything else. It's made to draw and read, nothing more. It has only 4 apps and all notifications are turned off.

My smartphone is also very quiet, because I aggressively disabled notifications. I only get instant messages and calls. Everything else is off. If that's too much, there's silent mode.

On certain Android devices (Samsung, or Xiaomi's MIUI,for example) there is a mode called Ultra Battery Mode, or Battery Saving Mode, which only allows you to pick 6 apps, and in exchange the phone will run for a week on one charge. I actually use it for this specific reason - helps to focus and shuts off the constant stream of notifications. I think you would be able to get one even cheaper than your budget, as most models would have this feature. The good and bad thing about it is that you can switch it off and use it as a normal phone if you would like to.

I was thinking to do the same thing and have been considering an eInk phone like the Hisense A5. I'm thinking the eInk screen will take the fun out of many things, but will still allow you to message your friends/family. They're not cheap and some of them don't allow custom roms, and I gotta say, I would like a smaller one than the ones I found on the market, but still an option.

Another idea is to turn your phone to BW mode. In iOS this is possible with the accessibility color filter, for Android there should be an option in the developer options. I'm using that for now and I think it helps a lot.

How about just not installing all of the user-hostile apps on your main phone? For the longest time I ran a microg/f-droid phone that only had Free software like Conversations, Element, DAVx (CalDAV), OsmAnd, etc. There were very few notifications, because it wasn't running any software that was made by people who wanted to spam me.

For engaging with the surveillance economy, I use a different device (a few, actually). There's always a whole bunch of notifications waiting on the home screen, but it's silenced and I only pick it up for specific tasks so who cares. Most of the time I don't even bother to clear the notifications.

I have an old Nokia N900 phone that runs a custom alpine linux-based rom (postmarketOS). Given the limited hardware resources, small screen size, and sliding keyboard, you'll be mostly running terminal applications on this phone (some GUI apps works but the experience is mixed). There are some unofficial terminal clients for Signal [0], and iirc hacker news works with the lynx terminal browser. The N900 might work for this scenario as a feature-minimal phone, but depends on your use cases.

[0] https://github.com/boxdot/gurk-rs

Don’t install doom scrolling apps especially any social media or news. I find food, travel and maps apps helpful. Also notes, todos and your preinstalled phone stuff.

If your argument against that is you’ll end up in the browser on those sites then maybe try correcting the behaviors. Like if you wanted to lose weight and eliminated all junk food in your house but still end up at the gas station buying candy, soda, chips and crap then address the behaviors because tricking yourself isn’t going to address the root cause.

Any early generation iPhone so you can't install any apps on it since all modern apps require a recent iOS. I've seen them go for as low as $25 [0].

[0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/165672302698

I wrote a book on this topic (link in my bio).

Would love to give you a copy if you're struggling to find boundaries with your phone.

One route you could go is using an old android phone that just makes using it painful. My old phone would crash while opening Snap chat or taking a picture. Definitely made me use it less.

Needless to say, I bought a decent phone and just heavily rely on scheduled "do not disturb". YMMV

Not sure if this is an option, bit I have a pixel 3 Android and have explored a few custom launchers to achieve this.

Currently I use "minimalist phone", I've also used Siempo. Both are amazing, cut down on phone clutter and allow you to aggressively manage notifications.

You could try a iphone 13 mini with screentime. Or just screentime on your ios device.

In my experience, keep the iPhone and build some self-control. Have separate phones for work and YouTube. Avoid social media apps like the plague (because they really are a plague on attention).

You might be interested in /r/dumbphones.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/

Im using an android phone and the paid app appblock which works great. You can have a friend setup a passcode so you cannot deactivate the restrictions yourself,

There's also the light phone- https://www.thelightphone.com/

Same sort of deal as punkt

I like a lot of the light phone 2 but similar to the punkt the price tag for features is really lacking.

Plus, that battery.. ehh..

iPhone SE is a good compromise if you don't want to fully make the switch. The smaller screen is hard to watch media so I don't have any media apps on my phone.

thelightphone.com

Get a Windows phone