Your phone wants you to put it down

The most interesting phones of the year do less. One makes calls and plays music. Another has a screen that only refreshes once a minute. Their makers measure success in hours not spent on them.

We lived with four of them for a month and kept a diary of what we missed, which turned out to be less than we expected.

Four phones, one month

We tried a basic phone with a physical keypad, an e-ink phone with a handful of approved apps, a minimalist smartphone with a monochrome launcher, and a clip-on device that only does calls, maps and music. Each of us carried our usual phone in a drawer, for emergencies.

The first three days were hard. By the second week, the most common feeling in our diaries was relief.

The most useful thing a phone did all month was stay in the drawer.

What we missed

Maps, mostly. Banking apps, occasionally. Group chats, less than we feared: people adapted to texts. Nobody missed the news feed, and two of us have not reinstalled social apps since.

Should you switch

You probably do not need a new device. Most of what these phones do can be copied on the one you have: grayscale mode, a single home screen, notifications off. The new phones help because they make the choice for you, and for some people that is worth the money.