A week in with the Punkt. MP02
Image source: jaspermorrison.com || Photography: Nicola Tree || not my hand
Having used this for a week as my full-time phone I thought it might be helpful to provide the kind of review I was looking for online but couldn't find before buying it. So I'm not going to be reviewing features and specs - they're readily available elsewhere in better detail than I could provide. I'm just going to talk about using it, and whether switching to it achieved the lifestyle transition I was, and you are, looking for.
Background
A good place to start might be to explain what attracted me to the MP02, what I hoped to get out of it, and some details of my digital experience to help understand the review in context.
Prior digital usage
Before using the MP02 I used a Huawei P9, a MacBook Air and a Chromebook. I still use both laptops, and have the P9 floating around the house to check Twitter, the occasional email and to Chromecast Netflix etc. The only social media I actively use is Twitter. LinkedIn only when I absolutely must. Deleted my Facebook account over a year ago and don't use WhatsApp.
Not being a heavy social or messaging user made this an easier transition for me than many I have to admit. But I do text a lot.
Lastly: work. White collar: advertising. The last few years has seen the false belief take root and spread violently that it is impossible to be a real businessman without emails constantly pinging on your phone, alerting you and the world to your importance. But it is perfectly reasonable and possible to be productive without it. Try turning sync off on your email app for a week. Either no-one will notice or you need a new job.
What I hope to get out of it
Without going into too much detail here one reason was a desire to extricate myself as much as possible from the current state of surveillance capitalism rife on the internet and increasingly the physical world through the IoT. I'm assuming if you're reading a review for this phone you don't need any more background on that point, but if I'm starting to sound like a lizard person conspiracist - try this.
If you described the kind of data a smartphone captures, where it gets sent to, sold to and can be accessed by to someone in 2003 and then told them that all citizens would be forced to carry one on their person at all times they'd be rightfully horrified.
But apart from all that, which should be enough, there are some lifestyle aspects. I wanted to try and shift back to a more uninterrupted lifestyle. One without incessant pings and business and the anxiety of always being 'on'. The Web 2.0 has been designed to be addictive. This is no secret: our distractibility has over the last decade generated billions of dollars in revenue for a handful of companies. As a result we risk selling our existence.
Punkt. give a nice little guide here on switching to a more minimal technological existence here. It's reassuringly practical.
People are starting to take a long hard look at the way we live; in particular, whether the “always on” lifestyle, the avalanche of convenience, really serves us as human beings. In particular, there has been a surge of interest in the subject from people in their twenties who are challenging the dehumanising system they have been born into.
It’s not too late to get the upgrade: it is still totally possible to function in modern society without an omnidevice welded to your soul. But it does take a bit of planning, in order to be able to step off the conveyor belt.
I was horrified to have become one of those people that couldn't stand in line at the grocery store without endlessly and aimlessly scrolling. Worse: finding myself distracted from my family.
So I hope that this little phone will help me out just a little with that. That it will remove a lot of distraction and give back so much more experience: that I might sit in a cafe and create horrid or triumphant back-stories for my fellow diners, stretching my brain instead of letting it atrophy for someone elses commercial gain.
What attracted me to the MP02
The above.
Which begs the question: why not just get a cheap burner?
Functionally the 4G tethering was the main reason. While I have decided I definitely do not need to access the internet or emails on my phone, my work sometimes necessitates being able to access these away from the office or home.
Other than that it is very nicely designed. I like nice things and am fortunate enough to be able to spend this kind of money on this kind of phone. I really can't see the value in it unless you also like nice things.
Reading through the Punkt. website though I found their philosophy very appealing also. I like that they are prepared to forge this difficult, non-conformist and niche path. I wanted to support that.
We must support any and all diversity in product design and manufacture. For all the fan-boy mania hyping the supremacy of iOS over Android and vice versa there is no real difference in these products. An oversised slab of glass sucking you in to a self-esteem black hole. The internet and new technologies were supposed to be a vehicle for greater self-expression, but a world run increasingly by algorithms will necessarily converge to the worst most popular thing.
Physically Using The Phone
I live in Newcastle, Australia and am using the MP02 on Telstra. So far I've had no issues with coverage.
Getting that out of the way: overall I find the phone an absolute pleasure to use. It's so small compared to every smartphone on the market. It feels sturdy. It's tactile. The surfaces all feel quite premium. The screen is brilliant in full sunlight. It feels worth the price from a design and ergonomic point of view. It feels like the person who designed it - Jasper Morrison - actually cared about what he was doing.
Texting
This will be difficult for most people to go back to, especially any younger people who's first phone was touch based. I am old enough to have used T9 predictive text a lot in the early oughts, so muscle memory definitely kicked in here.
But I have to be honest here. The predictive engine in the MP02 is a bit shit. I have two main issues. But before talking about them I have some faith that these issues will be remedied. I installed the first firmware update, and based on the information posted Punkt. are working on fixing this. I reckon it will take them a couple of updates to really iron it out. I think to some extent this is the price you pay for bucking the mainstream. Like running Linux: it's infinitely better and worse.
At the time of writing this the MP02 is sold out and on back order, so it may be the case that these issues are fixed by the time you can get your hands on one. Lucky you. Nevertheless, here are the current issues:
1. The suggested word list order is out of whack. Often much longer words come up first meaning a bit of clicking to get a two letter word. For example, if I try to type 'the', which you have to imagine is something you do a bit, the phone defaults to putting 'there' into the text body. I need to click down twice, past 'these' to get to 'the'. There are other similar examples, most annoyingly 'at': I get 'Tahs' by default (a word I saved to the dictionary - a rugby team, and it should come up when hitting t then a, not a then t!) followed by 'Tags', 'bullshit', 'Audrey', then, finally, 'at'.
2. Contractions: sometimes they come up in the list of suggested words, often they don't. To type 'don't' I have to type 'don' (366) and then click down twice to get to 'don't'. Not too bad. But typing 'I'm' is a nightmare - seven keystrokes: 'i' + '#' (to capitalise) + '*' (long press to bring up punctuation) + '8' (to select the apostrophe) + 6 + down + down (last three strokes just for the 'm').
Before using the Punkt. I was using an old 2007 Sony Ericsson and the T9 predictive worked a lot more intuitively. Words were in the right order according to length and contractions were easy - the predictive engine predicted the punctuation and capitalisation, so 'I'm' was just 4+1+6.
Calling
I've only made a few calls, none using hands free. It works. Quality of the calls is great. Holding the phone for a call is really comfortable - you don't worry about dropping it and don't have to worry about your cheek hitting things on the screen and doing random things.
Tethering
Haven't used it yet. Assuming it will work - looking forward to the next software fix around the tethering password reset.
EDIT: The first time I tried to tether it flat out didn't work. But!
I logged a support ticket with Punkt. and they were absolutely brilliant, got to the bottom of it and got me connected very easily. Just a simple update to the settings.
First they asked me to send them some info as per below - in that you'll find the path to the settings you'll have to change.
If you too are in Australia on the Telstra network and tethering isn't working then try updating your settings as per below. If that doesn't work don't lose hope. Just log a support ticket and the good people at Punkt. will sort you out.
Social Reactions
In some ways this is the most interesting aspect of using the phone. Everyone comments, and they all want to know why you use it, what it does/doesn't do, what's wrong with you and how much you paid for it. You will find yourself sounding like a conspiracy nut explaining the horrible things GoogBookAzon do with your personal and private data. They will then tell you you could have just bought a Nokia and then defend their lifestyle choices (read: default) by pointing out how stupid you are for using such a stupid phone. Well, not all of them to be fair, but enough for you to realise that using this is in some way a political act. Doing anything that isn't the norm is a political act in 2019 though.
It is a curious little device in 2019, but one that reveals how curious life has become in 2019.
Emotional Outcomes
If I'm honest I think these are yet to come. I do feel good having taken such a decisive step to securing some more personal and digital freedom, to shoosing to prioritise the more important, simple and rewarding moments in life. But this phone isn't a silver bullet - it's a bit much to expect it to be one.
I still find myself wondering/worrying about a Schrödinger's email that might or not be waiting for me if I'm at lunch or over the weekend. I still find myself using my old phone around the home on WiFi to scroll too much through Twitter instead of reading the growing stack of books I apparently don't have time to get to.
Returning to a normal relationship with technology - and most of us do not have a normal or healthy relationship with it - is not an easy task. It is a battle of hundreds of minute habits etched in dopamine. The Punkt. MP02 won't win that war for you, but it is a handy little tool. I'm loving mine more and more every day.