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Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by MrWiffles on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:01PM (#28176381)
Just clarifying in case someone else isn't sure either - by "feature phone", you mean NOT a smartphone, right? Like those old-school flip phones? (e.g. Motorola Razr or something?)
Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by Minor49er on Friday August 13, 2021 @08:45PM (#28176680)
"Feature phone" is the term for cell phones that have limited additional functionality, but aren't as sophisticated or complex as a smartphone. So yeah, it's basically referring to flip phones, Blackberries, etc
Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by Jtsummers on Friday August 13, 2021 @10:15PM (#28177198)
BlackBerry phones were smartphones, not feature phones. They were the smartphone to beat when Apple's iPhone and the various Android phones started coming out. They were just business oriented smartphones instead of consumer oriented smartphones (like iPhoneOS and Android devices).
Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by Minor49er on Saturday August 14, 2021 @11:55AM (#28181637)
The ones with the pull-out keyboards? I thought they were just well-made feature phones. I could be wrong
Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by Jtsummers on Saturday August 14, 2021 @02:01PM (#28182706)
Feature phones are pretty much limited embedded OS phones. Rarely with app installation. And almost always camera and text messaging. Maybe web access.

Blackberry devices were more like a proper PDA with phone support.

Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by Minor49er on Saturday August 14, 2021 @09:28PM (#28185459)
Yeah, you are correct. Though it depends on what you mean by "app installation." Many feature phones supported Java applets. I had some third-party games on my first Motorola feature phones.
Re:Ask HN: What feature phone do you use and recommend? by muzani on Saturday August 14, 2021 @08:53AM (#28180230)
Technically they're the first smartphones. To differentiate, I usually call the two feature phones vs touch phones. The non-smartphones usually don't have internet access.