Cat S22 Flip Phone
We have push-to-talk, group chat, and live video software for similar devices: Kyocera DuraXV https://kyoceramobile.com/duraxv-extreme/ Sonim XP3 Plus https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/
Both flip phones are based on AOSP (https://source.android.com/) and we've had to deal with custom implementations of soft keys, and push to talk headsets. Even Kyocera's implementation varies between the ATT version (https://kyoceramobile.com/duraxe-epic/att/) and the Verizon one.
This phone is made by https://bullitt-group.com/ and they very smartly license the CAT brand. We have not worked with them yet, but I'm guessing it would be relatively trivial to support the phone.
Without good soft-key support, these phones are unusable. Any questions, please LMK.
Looking at the reviews on the T-Mobile website, you can't type using the number pad. That's an insane oversight!
When Sprint/T-Mobile forced me to get a new flip phone because my Kyocera would no longer be supported, I had to decide between the Alcatel Go Flip, the Cat S22 and a Sonim XP3 Plus. I went with the Sonim and I am very happy with it.
https://www.sonimtech.com/products/devices/xp3plus/
The Alcatel had many bad reviews. The Cat seemed huge and defeated many of purposes I have for having a flip phone in the first place. The Sonim has incredible build quality, no apps, internet works fine. I have no complaints. I haven't tried using Google Maps on it yet, but if that works I will love it even more and ditch my Garmin GPS.
I'm currently reading Digital Minimalism from Cal Newton and have started preparing for a 30-day digital declutter. So I was really excited to read this title and immediately disappointed after clicking - the Cat phone has a web browser. If you have access to the entirety of the internet in your pocket, it is hard to limit yourself and no little trick or hack is going to actually help - in my experience.
I'll go ahead and take advantage of this post to ask, what do other digital minimalists on HN use for their phone? I'm looking for something with messages, maps, a camera, and WhatsApp with no access to a browser or an app store. The most difficult item on that list is definitely WhatsApp. Unfortunately, if you travel a lot (which I do) it's not really optional. Outside of North America, EVERYTHING happens on WhatsApp. I've started looking into custom Android ROMS but that feels like an extreme step for what must be a common problem?
This phone selling point hides behind the fact that probably most apps won't run well on it :)
i handle corporate phones for a few ONGs. Blackberrys with keyboard are still somewhat supported on android, but even gmail (gmail! the main app from the main company behind android) have bugs that break main functionality (reading email!) because they do not care to test the odd screen size.
one of the largest use bases on tiktok are contractors. My guess is that this phone will be sold as a way to provide a work phone to employees which won't break and won't allow them to waste too much time.
CAT phones (and all cheap/rebranded phones listed as "corporate ready" by google) are already know for that to be honest. They are all behind android release versions even on launch day.
I like that they describe Android 11 not as the world's best operating system, but as the world's biggest operating system.
Oddly, this seems like the perfect phone for elders that from my experience have:
- dropped the phone into the toilet, on ground cracking the screen, etc.
- can't figure out how to end a call.
- get addicted to reading garbage news on their phone instead of trying to use a laptop for thinking about news, writing, organizing instead.
My biggest impediment to downsizing my cell phone: maps and navigation. In my vehicle I need to have at least a moderately sized screen in order to navigate safely. And the device needs to have mobile internet access.
How do folks who are downsizing their cell phones work around this? Do you use a non-phone GPS in your car? Do you keep a larger cell phone around for "when you need it"?
The thing is, I don't want Android smushed into a less useful, more fustrating to use, form factor. I want a dumbphone that calls, texts, and has a wifi hotpspot.
No battery draining screen, no app store, no navigation... if I need any of that, I can use the hotspot and a tablet/old phone...
It looks like fairly weak specs for an Android phone (4x Cortex A53's @ 1.3Ghz & 2GB RAM)[1], but I guess that's not really the point.
On the upside: it supports a lot of LTE bands, including all of the primary bands for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, & T-Mobile in the US, as well as bands used in many other countries - so if you can get one unlocked it should work on most carriers.
Also, there are some complaints about battery life, but the battery is user-replaceable, so you can just get two and swap them out as needed.
I've been looking to reduce my smartphone usage, and I would be really tempted by this if it weren't limited to T-Mobile. The ability to make a hot spot and run a handful of 2FA apps really seals the deal.
I hope this brings back the ear-splitting PA-DURRRP that I heard everywhere in my old job where Nextel (later Sprint, now T-Mobile) cell-phones were basically walkie-talkies. /s
Oh, I miss the tiny rear screen on my HTC Star Trek. What a great feature for quick status updates or just using the phone as a clock.
I would love a reboot of the Samsung Galaxy Folder 2[1]. Worked just like this phone, but looked way better, as it wasn't ruggedized and just a "normal" (well, as normal as a flip-phone can be today) phone.
Will probably never happen, though :D
[1] https://www.gsmchoice.com/de/katalog/samsung/galaxyfolder2/
The promise 13 day standby battery life. Looks like it costs $240 from t-mobile. I'd love to get phone like that for my kids. Not sure it would withstand abuse though. Would be nice if there would be iPhone like that .
Does anyone know if this has a built in Hotspot? I want a simple flip phone so badly, but in the rare case I need to get online while out of the house, I don't want to have to pay for and carry a separate device/plan.
Is the name an (un)intentional pun on the catch-22 [0]?
The specs are on T-Mobile's site: https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone/cat-s22-flip
Oh I want it. Looks like it's only available in the US though :(
this stock(?) android doesn't look well-suited to the flip phone form factor. Is there an android UI made for feature phones?
Still runs Android, so it will be obsolete and vulnerable long before any iOS phone.
Plus, it’s Android, so all your personal data and behaviour will be flowing to the mothership in volumes that will give the NSA and CIA some serious chubbies.
And then, it’s Android, so it has an App Store that sees more maliciously exploited and just plain malicious programs in a single year than Apple has had to work with with since theirs first opened.
If you’re gonna put out a traditional flip phone, do your users a favour and make it a non-smart feature phone that can stay dumb, not leak your entire life to an evil company, and is commensurately more difficult to infect with malware due to its dramatically smaller attack surface.
Just once I would love to see a dumb phone built on the same principles that OpenBSD uses. Simple, secure by default, and has nothing that isn’t absolutely needed for essential operations.
I just bought one of these and installed a GSI from phhusson Unfortunately there are a few things that keep me from daily use with the GSI, notably the lid switch doesn't work without the stock firmware. Less importantly, the front screen also doesn't work, but I can deal with that. WIP https://github.com/phhusson/treble_experimentations/issues/2...
There is no T9 keyboard on F-Droid that I can find, and everything on the Play store is adware.
Last complaint is that it's thick AF. Yes all the reviews mention it. But it's the same WxL as my iphone SE 2016, and TWICE the thickness.
When I contacted CAT to retrieve the original ROM so I could fix the lid switch issue, I was met with "we do not redistribute ROMs outside of the company". Aside from the usual "You are not GPL compliant if you don't release your kernel now!" style response, this is an asshole move.
I want to like it, I want to use it, we'll see how much resolve I have to fix the aforementioned issues. Does anyone want an unlocked CAT S22 with a GSI installed? ;)
The world has changed when Cat Man pictured emphasizing manliness and durability of Cat Flip Phone has a ring in 'their' ear.
https://www.catphones.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Cat-S22...
I love how they're like "Oh yeah it's so tough, it can be dropped, dunked and washed regularly using the harshest of chemicals, bleaches and sanitizers."
"It's backed up with our 2 year warranty."
It's a cool looking phone but the warranty is hilariously short for what they claim you can do to it.
For all the fliphone enthusiasts here check out https://forums.apps4flip.com . It’s a great community dedicated to flip phone users.
Had me excited thinking for it to not be an android phone.
I miss the days when companies made their own operating systems for their phones, with their own OS/Firmware. Using your friends phone which had a completly different set of features really made the expirence fun. Every year I would get a new phone for xmas and it was a whole new expirence.
Every phone was different but now when a new phone is released, it's just a new rectangle with X camera's we don't even need. All running the same bloated OS with less privacy and restrictions on customisability to boot.
Any hope of custom roms on this thing?
The thing I always hated about clamshell phones (I was a flip phone guy.. eg, Ericsson T28/T39) was the duplication of screens. It seemed so silly to need a 2nd screen to be able to see anything while it was closed. That said, for a rugged phone I sort of get it; you protect the fancy inner screen.
I always loved flip vs candybar because of the active answer/termination of the flip function. I guess that doesn't matter so much these days since I never talk on my phone.
This is exciting in general, but I'm sad they went with Android. I certainly understand the practicality of this decision, however. It's not as if building your own OS is feasible for most manufacturers.
As has been well-reported, it's effectively not possible to turn off a lot of the spying built into Android.
That said, I'm still happy this phone exists. While imperfect, it seems like a step closer to phones which are primarily phones, and are made with practical concerns in mind.
I used the CAT B35 all of last year (and some). Loved it. Battery lasted forever. Only pain points were in social scenarios bust most of those are mitigated with planning.
More on what I learned with the "dumb phone" experiment here: https://encapsulate.me/writing/2021.html
Damn that is a nice looking phone, actually. I hate typing on virtual keyboards; going back to something with buttons would be amazing
Had an S35 a few years ago, bought it because of the waterproof factor. Worst phone I ever owned.
They dont provide android updates (at least for that model) and would just stop working randomly, I had to hard reset it at least once every 2 days, but sometimes twice in 1 day.
Might have been just my phone though as I knew someone else with the same model and they didn't have that issue.
>The Cat S22 Flip takes the cell phone back to what it should be… a phone. Made for those who want a device as simple to use as it is tough, the Cat S22 Flip features physical buttons and a large touch screen, letting you choose how you interact with it. The Cat S22 Flip’s ‘Snap it to End it’ calling gives you confidence that when it is closed the call is over.
Yay!
>Android™ 11 (Go Edition)
Yuck.
> giving you access to ... security benefits of Android
As secure as Google's scout's honor about it, and as private as a mesh fence.
Back in my day, flip phones had swappable batteries. It doesn't sound like this one does. Does it?
If Apple made a flip phone I’d buy that. The reason I wouldn’t get something like this is just that it’s not in the ecosystem, and not privacy focused.
FaceTime calls on a flip phone would be pretty bad ass, as would getting my usual app notifications.
Lineage/Calyx/similar ports possible for such a device?
What is "Programmable PTT Button"? I assume it's "Push to Talk". What's the use case for it? Who uses it?
This is the kind of thing everybody says they want until they discover it exists and then they’ll find a reason to not buy it.
(spring-loaded) candybar slider would be superior...
Half as thick (no fold) yet protective cover
In other news they removed the last payphone from NYC this week.
That's amazing! I was just saying how I missed the HTC StarTrek and wished someone would do a modern take on it.
If I were to get a flip phone, it would be because I didn't want Android. This is a little weird to me.
I actually confused this with Samsung S22... interesting that there's no branding issue/trademark?
Am I the only one who thought this was going to be a flip phone startup in the Summer '22 YC batch?
”I want a smartphone and a fliphone”
Thats a Cat(ch) 22
I kind of want this.
What are the limitations of "android go", can you not install any arbitrary app?
few things:
- there is a big bezel that is occupied by CAT logo
- impossible to type
- most smartphones are already quite durable, so it really isn't a killer feature.
- im confused as to who would use this. somebody working on an oil rig will likely appreciate more screen estate, ability to pinch zoom, type, etc.
I wonder if you could run a Linux distro on this instead of Android.
I want one! Probably the coolest looking flip-phone I have seen
Will this make me less addicted to my phone? If so, worth it!
Why hasn’t push to talk (ptt) taken off on smartphones?
They had me until "Android Go Edition"
i guess if it's not claiming to be a 'multimedia device' no 3.5mm jack isn't that big of a downside
The current mobile software ecosystem makes me so angry. We could truly have flip phones if only whatsapp, imessage, and whatever else were open protocols. Just program a simplified client that sips battery and is optimized for number keys and I would be golden. Instead if you want to have the privilege of sending text messages you have to pack a whole android distribution to install some bloated unoptimized app
I feel like most people that want flip phones want something reliable and durable. I don't think shoving Android onto a tiny screen in a flip form factor accomplishes this.
Not what I want in a flip phone at all. If I ever do make the switch to a flip phone it'll be to get away from all of the smart phone features. So that means no Android or iOS, just a basic feature phone "OS". Call and text only, no internet.
I have been using CAT phones for a few years. They really are tough, work pretty well with gloves, do not care much about water, etc. Can recommend, and the infrared sensors are worth it just for the wow effect alone :). From the downsides - some of the smaller things break faster than you'd like (e.g. laser meter, or rubber covers for the USB port, or the painted/glued layer on the back in one of the older models). These downsides do not invalidate the main purpose(s) of the device. Also the phones rather quickly fall out of the supported Android version range, but this seems to be a common problem with all Android phones.