This will be an in-depth review of my dumbphone experience thus far and of the phone I chose (Cricket Debut Flip).

I have only had this phone for around 4 full days, but I have definitely used it enough to make a decent review.

I have always been a fan of the dumbphone "movement" as you could say, and tried it previously two years ago but ended up going back to my smartphone full time. I wanted to rejoin the dumbphone community because I was literally using my smartphone around 8-9 hours a day, every day. (My work has some idle time). I couldn't be without my phone. Constantly changing settings, and just fiddling with customization. I was having headaches daily, probably from poor posture of looking down at my phone and being on a screen constantly.

I am with Cricket wireless and decided to go with the Cricket Debut Flip. I purchased it from Walmart for $31 and some change after tax, and swapped my SIM from my smartphone in and have been using it as my main phone ever since. Below are pros and cons in my opinion of the phone thus far.

Cons:

-The biggest one (Not sure if Cricket's fault or the phone manufacturer's) NO WIFI CALLING. I live in an absolute dead zone especially when I'm inside my home. There aren't any carriers that have cell signal where I live. I fully relied on WiFi calling while at home. I have to place the phone in the window sill in my kitchen and leave it to get texts. Calls are intermittent as far as failing.

-Little phone bugs (when I change ringtones, it doesn't actually change the sound when the phone is ringing.) That's the biggest bug I have found so far. (If anyone knows of any fix for this, please let me know. I've tried everything lol.)

-Camera quality is comparable to an early 2000s dumbphone. No flash/flashlight, makes pictures in dim environments abysmal. Forget about the camera pretty much.

-Not great build quality. The top half of the phone can kind of "wiggle" back and forth when open if you want it to, should be a lot more stiff in my opinion. But for the price, it's great!

-Micro USB charging port. I know for $31 I'm complaining a lot, but I would much rather have a $50 phone and USB C lol.

Pros:

-KaiOS is great so far. I love the speech to text via Google Assistant, maps are okay(ish) (coming from an android smartphone the google maps on KaiOS are quite lacking, but I could get used to it for as little as I use maps). I love how limited it is, but yet has Google Assistant and maps.

-Call quality is amazing compared to my smartphone. The smartphone I have is the Motorola Moto G Stylus 5g 2021 version. The speaker on the Debut Flip is much louder and clearer.

-The flippiness, lol. I have always been a fan of the flip style phones over the brick style.

-WhatsApp. I love the fact I can still use WhatsApp on this device.

-Predictive (t9) typing. I have become pretty decent at texting on this device, and I like the fact you can add your own words. You can add your own words by scrolling all the way over when predictive texting is enabled while texting. Scroll through all the words and you will see where you can add your own word.

-Google Assistant is fast when searching for a local business' number or something similar. You cannot tell it to call a business, but you can say something similar to "Walmart <insert town and state here>" and it will bring it up fairly quickly.

-Google Maps brings up your location pretty quickly (I know this is dependent on cell signal).

-Battery life is decent. I have around 75% after it being unplugged for around 9 to 10 hours with moderate usage at work.

Overall and where to Purchase:

This phone is a great "transition" device for someone that may be wanting to get away from their smartphone. I have to bring my smartphone with me to work because I use an app to clock in and out, but I leave it in my car. I also use my smartphone to browse reddit and YouTube at night before bed for about 30 mins to an hour. I would highly recommend this device if you are with Cricket. I know there are other variants for other carriers but I know nothing about those. From my understanding they are the same phone with different branding.

For some reason, this phone isn't on Cricket's website anymore to buy from what I have seen. I keep checking their website but it hasn't been on there. Not sure if they are weeding this device out and are coming out with something else or what, but I guess we will see. But I was able to purchase it via an online order from Walmart and go pick it up the same day. So I'm not sure if you would be able to find this device in your area.

Here is a link to Walmart's posting of this device: HERE

So far I highly recommend this device. It's very affordable, you can buy cases/holsters for it from Amazon. KaiOS is great in a flip-phone form in my opinion. It is what it is, a phone. It calls and can text. Don't expect this to be a smartphone because it isn't, (but hey, you wouldn't be in r/dumbphones if you wanted a smartphone haha.)

Thanks for reading this, please feel free to leave any feedback on your use of this device or any questions, and I will answer them if I can.

Also, thank you to Jose Briones for what you do. I picked this device via your recommendation from your YouTube videos.

This is a great community, and I feel so much more free after making this switch.