Smart phone detox: Nokia 8110 review

I picked this phone up a while back to detox from using an LG Phoenix smartphone. I had to stop using the smart-phone for one primary reason: it was legitimately hurting my hands. I like to practice guitar and drums and I was suffering from a major bout of "Smart phone claw" or whatever it's called, where I couldn't bend my hands properly and was in pain from using the smart phone for ALL of my web-browsing, and texting

This phone is unique in that it allows for 4G LTE service, on AT&T and works flawlessly. It also allows for two SIM cards to be active at once, both a regular SIM and a smaller "Micro SD." I'm not sure why you'd need two SIMs, or who could even afford such a setup, but if you need that, this phone will work with it.

The phone itself is smaller than you'd think, and therein lies the major issue. Because it's so small, the keypad is almost unusable. The buttons are miniature and don't allow you to text (SMS) effectively whatsoever.

The major plus of this phone is that it's actually comfortable to use and talk with. The 4G LTE service works perfectly and phone-calls sound very clear. It's an interesting sensation to experience a great cell connection on a phone based on technology from a past era. It's actually awesome.

The other major plus is with the ability to tether the 4G signal to create a wireless network. In fact, that's worth the price-tag of the phone, in a sense. I made the decision that the Smart phone was hurting my hands so I just took my SIM out of it and put it into the Nokia 8110. From there I tether my phone's "Pay as you go" 4G LTE Data plan and create a WiFi network from the phone and instead of having "Smart phone claw" I just use a laptop (to connect to the Nokia 8110 WiFi network), like I used to back before Smart phones existed. This way I don't hurt my hands and I limit my usage. If I'm at the coffee shop, or donut shop, I don't spend the entire time on my phone, because this Nokia 8110 doesn't allow for that. Instead I just wait until later on to fire up the laptop if I want to use the Internet. That's the main draw for me.

The phone runs on a new OS called "KaiOS" that is popular in India, and it's decent, but utterly useless compared to what you can do with a Smartphone. In terms of an experiment, I do enjoy using this device as a traditional cell-phone, but in terms of replacing a smart-phone with this, it's not even a comparison. When it comes to mobile phones and how I like to interact with others and also use the Internet in a day-to-day sense, I'm still searching for the perfect handheld device. Until next time. - Mike