First five days with the Sidephone
tldr:
One week in: screen time down to 3 hours/day (still carry my iPhone 13mini for work apps)
Hardware is genuinely great. Size, weight, and build quality nail the "smart brick phone" nostalgia.
QWERTY keypad is great but needs improvement. Double-tap mode works way better than predictive, but pressure inconsistency, input lag, and no backlight are real challenges to using it intuitively.
Small screen means small touch targets. I've accidentally fat-finger-typed gibberish alot lol
App ecosystem is overly restrictive for my usecases. Would love more known apps out of the box like spotify, a decent email app etc for easier personalisation.
Overall though, I can't wait to see this phone evolve and improve, especially the UX. We're in early sidephone iterations so the only way is up. Really awesome work from the team!
LONG READ:
I was really excited for this device. My screen time was getting out of control and I was looking for something that would support my basic phone needs while putting a strong constraint on my tendency to passively consume social media and streaming.
I've tried: Brick, Downtime, app timers, using my old BlackBerry bold, downgrading to an older iPhone, none of it worked. I'll only blame my own willpower, but after a week with the sidephone, I've reduced my overall screen time to 3 hours a day (I still carry an iPhone for work, where I need to respond to emails quickly).
Pros
Just enough friction. The restrictive nature of this phone, balanced with the ability to install your favourite essentials, feels like the best balance of all the solutions I've tried. Being away from the main app ecosystems really prevented me from app-bloating my phone.
Easy set up. The setup was quick and the guide was genuinely useful: no logins, no data transfer. The qr codes scanned easily and it was up and running fast. The keypad was easy to snap in and swap out.
Support for basic apps. WhatsApp, email, notes, and messaging all work out of the box, so you can get going right away.
Phone quality: weight, key size, screen size. At first I thought the size might be too big (it's the same height as my iPhone 13 Mini), but after using it I really appreciate the size and weight. The keypad is generously sized and feels ergonomic. I'm not stretching my thumb or straining my pinky to hold it. I can fully operate it one-handed without strain.
The nostalgia factor gives me real joy. As a millennial who went through brick phones and then smartphones, this feels like the smart brick phone of my teenage years. The team has done a great job on the hardware.
Cons
QWERTY keypad quality. I switched to QWERTY straight away since that was one of the main draws for me. I used the BlackBerry Pearl for years and it's still one of my favourite phones, so I was determined to make this my main keypad.
The experience could use some work, though:
- Predictive qwerty was unusable for me. I speak three languages within my closest circle, so predictive text wasn't going to cut it. I didn't even know double-tap QWERTY existed until I found it on the subreddit, and by then I'd already wasted time trying to set up word shortcuts, typing gibberish in the process. Double-tap feels far more intuitive and is now my default. It would be huge if this were offered as an explicit setup choice on first install instead of a hidden discovery.
- Keypad pressure and rhythm feel inconsistent. The side keys need more pressure than the centre ones, could just be my unit, but it takes real getting used to. I still can't type fast because of input errors and lag caused by the pressure inconsistency.
- Accessing special characters and emojis is hard. Some symbols are reachable with the Sym+ key, but for dashes, slashes, etc. you need the advanced symbol key, which lives in a bottom bar you have to side-scroll through. Some UX work here would go a long way, even a proper symbol picker dialog would help, especially given how small the touch targets are at this screen size.
- Keypad backlight is needed. The phone is nearly unusable in low light. I was at a concert and could barely message anyone. In a strange way it kept me more present, so maybe that's a silver lining, but even a very dim backlight option would be a big improvement.
- Occasional input lag. Pressing a key sometimes doesn't register a character, so I end up pressing repeatedly until something shows up. This happens often enough that I'd call it a real issue, not a minor one.
- Noise. This keypad is more click-clacky than my mechanical keyboard and drives my wife nuts, so I've stopped using it in bed. Good side effect tho, so arguably a pro in disguise.
Small screen considerations:
- Touch targets are small, especially at the bottom of the screen. When the symbol row is showing alongside the WhatsApp send button, it gets very fat-finger-unfriendly. I've accidentally sent gibberish and voice notes more than once.
- Alternative navigation. I keep wondering whether the QWERTY needs a directional pad, or whether the phone needs some non-touchscreen navigation method given the size. I keep thinking of the Apple Watch crown and how easy that makes moving between options. I've ordered the classic keypad to see if it solves some of my QWERTY frustrations.
- Screen real estate. Apps aren't optimised for this size, which compounds the touch target problems.
App ecosystem:
-The essentials pack is still restrictive and takes some tinkering to get fully working.
Routing custom email domains through K9 Mail was difficult, so I had to find a different email app that handled it better. The Notes app is clunky and too basic, with no formatting at all. I'm not trying to write a novel on this thing, but basic bullet points or to-do lists would add a huge amount of functionality already. Key mapping UI was confusing enough that I gave up on it.
App icons had no titles, so I had to guess which app was which by trial and error.
- Personalisation: Getting the phone to run apps that already worked on my old phone still requires some research. I found how to get Spotify working through the subreddit, but it would be a big win for the sidephone team if apps like this worked out of the box, or at least were readily available through Aurora Store.
Small nit on quality control. The first time I opened the app, it loaded in testing mode, in Chinese, and I had to guess my way through the menu using Google Translate.
Finding my rhythm with the sidephone
Having installed my basics (whatsapp, spotify, email, duckduckgo, substack) the sidephone is now my main phone, with my iPhone 13 Mini as backup. I carry it everywhere and don't feel the pull to bring my phone's usual apps along. With an Apple Watch that supports Apple Pay, I don't feel the need for a banking app on the sidephone either.