SMS-lifestyle or not, I'd take the Nokia (at 2/3 the price or less) for the 10+ years of industrial design that went into it.

To be honest, this doesn't seem to be a phone for children or the elderly (neither of which have some sort of cognitive short circuit that keeps them from grasping a simple Nokia while allowing them to embrace the idioms of this particular phone) -- but rather a phone for hipsters who need to very loudly announce that they don't have an iPhone.

I like the hipster angle. It affords a better tagline:

"John's Phone: It's not an iPhone or anything. You've probably never heard of it."

Pshhh... I was using John's Phone while it was "still" underground.

John's Phone: matches your fixie bike.

I think you vastly overestimate the level of technology people can pick up.

My grandmother couldn't figure out how to work the new radio we got her - which just had two giant large dials. We got her a dead-simple cell phone and it was never used.

One thing she does know how to do is use the 12 button landline phone thats mounted on her wall, and this looks exactly like that and works nearly exactly like that. This would be perfect for her.

> and this looks exactly like that and works nearly exactly like that

Except for the two small switches on the side, having to charge it, and having to push pick-up and hang-up instead of lifting and replacing the receiver.

A friend of mine bought one for his grandma, and she absolutely loves it. The big feature for her was that the buttons were big enough for her to see and push accurately. Works great for that use case.

Well, my grandmother can operate a wireless home phone, so the pick-up and hang-up are OK. And she can probably just ignore the switches on the side. So the only hurdle for her would be to remember to charge it.

Maybe we could get her to drop it in her keychain bowl when she comes home, and outfit it with one of the charging pads.

What I found strange though is to see that it's from an Amsterdam-based company. Maybe it's different Out There In The West but in most of the Netherlands, iPhones aren't a big deal, and we don't have US-style hipsters at all.

You guys wear straight-leg pants, listen to obscure European bands, ride utilitarian bicycles and drive small cars. You're all US-style hipsters.

Haha yeah I guess so, hadn't looked at it that way :)

Uh, in which part of the Netherlands do you live?

Dirty South Maastricht, so maybe these peasants here just aren't hip to what's hip ;)

(disclaimer: I'm culturally close enough to the people here to get to say that ;) )

I also would take a Nokia, but they are not water proof!

I've showered at the beach with my nokia in the pocket of my bathing suit. It was fine. My nokia has fallen out of a moving vehicle. I drop it several times a day. It's been run over by a bicycle.

The thing is a rock.

Same experience here. Nokia phones (esp. basic ones -- the less buttons the better) are virtually indestructible.

:-) Then, I'll buy a Nokia to go to the beach.

This is a great recent roundup of cheap mobile phones, if you are looking to buy simple cheap (GSM) phones:

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/12/03/ten_essential_cheap_vo...

does anyone know of cheap mobile phones that are easy to connect to via USB or rs-232 (or whatever) from Linux? I want to have some remote sensors be able to send SMS...

3g modems are quite cheap and can send sms.

most of them? what software do you recommend?

All of them AFAIK. Huawei is one of the most popular ones: http://www.3gmodem.com.hk/Huawei.html Just double check on the forums that your linux knows how to talk to them. Some models have integrated storage which includes windows drivers and need a special application to send them "start acting normally, I don't need that crap" message.

Where do you find them for that money?

I've got a friend visiting me in the UK from the US, where she's on Verizon, which is incompatible with the GSM/UMTS networks we use here. I've got her one of these to use while she's over here - http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/ALCAT... - and mailed it to her in America so she can call me as soon as she steps off the plane.

It was £0.99 when I bought it, and has been as low as £0.01 recently - with the only catch being that you have to buy £10 worth of prepaid airtime when you buy the phone. Ideal for a couple of weeks' travel in a foreign country. (It's SIM-unlocked too.)

Here is a nokia for 30:

http://azerty.nl/producten/product_detail/1058/302405/nokia-...

and here a samsung:

http://www.pixmania.nl/nl/nl/3598464/art/samsung/e1080.html?...

for a little less

It's a shame that Nokia doesn't make CDMA versions of simple phones like that for the US market. I'd buy one in an instant. Though I do admit I'll probably finally break down and get an iPhone this year now that they are available from Verizon.

I have actually been using a Nokia very similar to that one for over two years... I just went to the T-Mobile store and said "I need to replace my phone, what is the cheapest thing you have?"

I only have to charge it every week or so, and it has lasted longer than any other phone I have had.

Oh wow, didn't realize phones had really gotten that cheap. I did do a quick vergelijk.nl search before posting but I guess they got buried under the bundles that I got.

tweakers pricewatch ftw.

never thought tweakers would be mentioned on HN.

that site has been ftw for a long, long time :)

Pixmania and Amazon.de, for example, have a Samsung E1080 for 25 euros and a nokia 1616 for for 30. However I've seen big box electronic retailers selling off old stock for less than that.

Here's a Motorola for $20 US: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875209...

The "Motofone" is simpler and would cost less if they sold it in the US. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2143197

I pop the SIM out of my iPhone and put it into one of these whenever I go biking or camping. Mine cost $15 as a GoPhone (not unlocked). Couldn't be happier.