New Phone
=========

I have got a  new phone which replaced my BQ  Aquaris E4.5 with Ubuntu.
An expensive one. The Punkt MP01 [1].

Why? I  have researched that there  is too little useful  things that a
smartphone (no matter  which one) can offer to me.  I have Garmin eTrex
for navigation and geocaching and I travel to work by walk so I have no
need for ebooks/music/rss/www  and thus I need no WiFi  nor mobile data
on a phone. And for longer journeys (if I'm not driving) I have several
devices to select from.

This device (the  MP01) can be used  only calls and SMSs  (well, it can
also show a calendar, has an alarm  clock and one can enter short notes
and add date  and time of reminder  to them - but that's  all). This is
actually  fine for  me. And  the phone  is light  and does  not have  a
touchscreen. There  is even no  "flight mode" -  you should to  turn it
off. But the phone needs 2-3 seconds to turn on so it is not a problem.
There are  only 2 cursor  buttons (up  and down ones),  no 4-directions
button nor the joystick. And it is enough.

Yes, it was possible to buy a random feature phone (or a Nokia phone if
one does not want  to get a phone from an  unknown Chinese company) but
an inexpensive phone I will likely  throw away on a first issue because
it  was  cheap  and  will  start  to  lose  money  on  further  useless
smartphone. So expensive device I will have to keep for a longer time.

By the way, the phone is really not bad. It is for 2G networks only (so
it is useless in  the Switzerland, I guess) but it  works well. The use
is very  simple and  really intuitive.  The Up,  Down, Select  and Back
keys  are  enough to  control  it.  Some  things  seem to  be  somewhat
oversimplified  but everything  is perfectly  usable. There  is support
only for a few languages (English,  French, German, Russian and so) and
no Czech support but it is not a problem for me.

It is possible to  use a headset with the phone - a  Bluetooth one or a
wired one (an  USB one but a USB-to-3.5mm adapter  is supplied with the
phone).

The only thing  which is really not perfect is  the Lock/Unlock button.
Not only its  location is not ideal (left back  side opposite to volume
controls) but to unlock the phone  it must be pressed twice: first time
to wake  up phone  and to second  time a longer  press is  necessary to
actually unlock  the keyboard.  It is  not possible  to skip  the first
press.

Also the keyboard was nice  backlight which is turned on automatically.
But if there is an incoming call then keyboard stays dim and the button
to accept the call is invisible. This cannot by changed in preferences.

Except these issues the phone is fine.  I use it for more than 2 months
now and I still see no reason to return to a smartphone.


References:

[1] https://punkt.ch