Here are my thoughts on the Light Phone 3 after about three months of using it. I'll go through the main tools and features, rate each one, and explain why. These are just my subjective opinions based on my own experience.

Appearance — 10/10

I absolutely love how this phone looks and feels. The industrial design is fantastic—it's sleek, compact, and just looks cool. Definitely one of my favorite aspects of the phone.

Connection / Cell Service / Calls — 8/10

I'm on T-Mobile, and thankfully I haven't experienced any of the texting issues that a lot of people here have reported. As far as I know, I haven't missed any calls or texts.

I have noticed, however, that the cellular reception seems weaker than it was on my iPhone. I now have a few dead spots around my house where calls occasionally drop. It's not a huge issue, but it's noticeable. I also found that places like airport parking garages leave me with very poor signal, whereas my iPhone had no problem in those same locations.

Bluetooth / Hotspot — 10/10

Everything has worked flawlessly for me. No complaints.

USB-C Connection — 1/10

This one has been a major disappointment.

I rent cars frequently for work and usually connect my phone directly to the vehicle via USB-C so it charges while I listen to music or podcasts. The Light Phone 3 simply doesn't work this way.

Every car I've tried displays some variation of:

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I'd really love to see this fixed because wired Android Auto/USB audio compatibility would make a huge difference for me.

Texting — 6/10

Texting is by far the most frustrating part of using this phone.

Compared to an iPhone, it's clunky and unpleasant. I constantly mistype words, and the lack of autocorrect makes that even more frustrating. The misspelled-word underline is helpful, but tapping the underlined word to correct it only works about half the time for me.

Overall, the keyboard just doesn't feel well optimized. The ergonomics feel off, and typing never becomes comfortable.

In my opinion, making texting smooth and enjoyable should be the Light Phone team's #1 priority. Since texting is one of the primary things people do on this phone, it should feel as polished as possible.

Alarm — 8/10

Works well, but I'd like more scheduling options.

For example, it should allow recurring alarms on specific days (Monday–Friday, weekends, etc.) instead of only "one-time" or "every day."

Podcasts — 9/10

Almost perfect.

The app works really well. My only suggestion would be adding some kind of discovery feature to help find new podcasts. It's definitely not essential, but it would be a nice addition.

Notes — 7/10

The Notes app itself is solid, but typing holds it back.

I'd love some basic formatting features like:

• Bold text
• Bullet lists
• Checkboxes
• Maybe headings

Nothing fancy—just a few quality-of-life improvements.

Calendar — 7/10

Overall, it's a good calendar app.

Google Calendar syncing works great, which is a huge plus.

My biggest wish would be the ability to invite or tag people when creating an event. Right now I still have to open my laptop if I want to share an event with someone.

Directions — 5/10

The few times I've needed navigation, it hasn't worked very well.

It feels like the phone struggles to get a reliable GPS lock. I don't know exactly what's happening behind the scenes, but my wife's iPhone seems to find directions instantly from almost anywhere.

Maybe it's better in cities, but I've mainly needed it while traveling in unfamiliar areas, and unfortunately it's been a letdown every time.

Camera — 7/10

It's... fine.

I'd compare the image quality to something like an iPhone 6. Photography isn't important to me, so this isn't a dealbreaker, but considering this is a $700 phone released in 2026, I expected a little more.

One feature I'd absolutely love is a black-and-white photo mode. It feels like it would fit the Light Phone philosophy perfectly.

Music — N/A

I haven't really used the Music app yet.

I haven't gotten around to downloading MP3s, and honestly it feels like a throwback to the LimeWire/uTorrent days. I'm not sure I'll end up using it much.

Having Spotify—or even a simple streaming music option—would dramatically increase the value of this phone for me. I know that's probably not the direction Light wants to go, but it's the one feature I'd genuinely miss.

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Those are all the features I've used so far.

Overall, I'm genuinely happy I bought the Light Phone because it accomplished exactly what I wanted: I stopped mindlessly scrolling on my phone. In that sense, it has been a success.

That said, I really wish the overall user experience were more refined—especially when it comes to typing. There aren't that many things you can do on this phone, so the core experiences should feel excellent. Right now, texting is frustrating enough that I sometimes avoid using the phone simply because it's unpleasant.

Ironically, I guess that also helps reduce phone use... just not quite in the way I imagined.