punkt mp02 – credit: Matt jancerThe more that touchscreens conquer the world, the more I appreciate a physical button. A splendidly tactile, clicky, crisp button. We don’t get much of that anymore. Computer keyboards, sure, but how much of our day-to-day computer use has been replaced by touchy-touch iPads and smartphones. Even the damn center stack that lives in the middle of cars’ dashboards nowadays is just a big touchscreen.That golden glow of nostalgia for the lost art of physical buttons was exactly what drove me to call the Punkt MP02 the top dumbphone for button lovers in my Guide to the Best Dumbphones. It wasn’t the most expensive dumbphone I’ve tested, nor the fanciest-featured, nor the best built. But the way in which it wove the (somewhat) analog simplicity of buttons with a super sleek, stripped-down user interface won me over.punkt mp02 – credit: Matt jancermy quick verdict on the punkt mp02The Punkt MP02 isn’t for somebody who’s looking for a replica of a smartphone with just the internet connectivity and attention-robbing social media apps stripped out of it. The MP02 leans heavily into its dumbphone aesthetic. The Punkt MP02 stands out because it neither tries to ape an old-fashioned flip phone, nor a smartphone, like the Light Phone III does. It treads the middle ground, for those who desire the simplicity of the flip phone era, but with just a few more tools (such as a calendar and end-to-end-encrypted texting) built into it.(opens in a new window)PunktMP02(opens in a new window)Available at AmazonBuy Now(opens in a new window)how i testedI’m still on the smartphone train personally, with a nearly three-year-old Apple iPhone 15 Pro, but I was all-in on the Punkt MP02 as I wandered around New York with it. I ended up picking the thing up and playing with it more than I anticipated, lots of times just because it was sitting nearby and I liked pushing on the buttons.The longer that the MP02 has been on the market, the more I’ve begun to track and take into account customer reviews and testimonials on forums dedicated to smartphones, such as on the dumbphones sub-Reddit. We’ll dig into it later, but there are lots of variables not just in peoples’ choice of cellular provider, but also their regional location and local surroundings, and not everybody has had the most reliable service with the Punkt MP02.a very analog dumbphone Whether it’s a car’s dashboard or a phone, I can much more easily reach out and use a device without looking if it has physical buttons. It’s an underrated aspect that’s fast disappearing from most gadgets. I still wistfully think of whipping my Motorola Razr flip phone out of my Jeep’s cupholder and letting muscle memory dial up whoever I needed to, all without taking my eyes off the road. Try doing that with a touchscreen. No, wait; please don’t. We don’t need more wrecks.Tools and FeaturesIt’s a dumbphone, so by definition you won’t be able to download apps from the Google Play Store (or the Apple App Store, for that matter). You can’t connect to the internet and browse websites, and you’re purposefully cut off from social media apps and WhatsApp.There’s no navigation app. Nor is there a music player built into the phone, even for downloaded music files for offline listening. And there’s no camera. Go buy a point-and-shoot camera if you want to take photos. Among dumbphones, it’s not pushing the boundaries of what makes a phone “dumb.” It’s firmly comfortable with what it is.There’s a contact book for saving favorite and frequent contacts’ details. You can also make notes, set alarms and reminders, use the simple but clean calendar, and use a stopwatch and countdown timer. There’s no fluff here. Everything you (probably) absolutely need, but nothing to distract you. Who ever heard of someone losing hours of their attention to a black-and-white calendar or a stopwatch?Texting the Old-Fashioned WayThere’s no keyboard, neither on-screen nor of the slide-out variety. You have to do it the old-fashioned way. That means pressing the number keys to select each letter one by one, and because there are three selectable letters to each number (except Z, which gets four), texting is much slower. It was reminiscent of the old T9 texting flip phones, but it worked better than them, thanks to the Punkt’s arrow buttons.That can be a con or a pro, depending on your outlook. If you’re a heavy texter and feel no desire to change that, you’re going to drive yourself crazy with the Punkt MP02. But if you’re no big fan of texting (like me), you may actually appreciate how much more deliberate your texting becomes. I found myself sending fewer useless texts. Instead, I’d ask myself “How much do I really want to send this text?” before deciding whether to type the whole thing out. It didn’t feel frustrating. It felt liberating.You can also use Signal through Pigeon, Punkt’s own messaging service that uses Signal’s protocol and is designed specifically for the phone, if you want a promise of more private, end-to-end-encrypted texts.The Punkt MP02 doesn’t support 5G connectivity, but it’ll connect to 4G LTE, 3G, and even 2G networks. Without the ability to play games or stream video, I didn’t miss the lack of 5G support. I didn’t need 5G to use the calculator on the phone, send simple all-text messages, or make calls.punkt mp02 – credit: Matt jancerFor those who like the idea of a dumbphone but don’t want all the buttons, Punkt sells a touchscreen dumbphone called the Punkt MC02. It looks more like a mid-priced phone than, say, the Light Phone III, which is a very premium dumbphone that rivals the best smartphones I’ve held. The Punkt MC02 also doesn’t cost quite as much, so it’s priced more like a mid-tier phone at $500 versus the Light Phone III’s $700 (and its consistently long wait times).the punkt mp02 at a glanceThere’s no camera, internet browser, app store, music player, navigation app, or 5G support. You get the basics of letter-by-letter texting and phone calls, the sort of tools you’d expect on a phone from the 2000s: a contact book, notes, alarms, reminders, calendar, and stopwatch, and countdown timer. That’s it. Oh, there’s also Pigeon, an end-to-end-encrypted messaging app based on Signal. You buy the Punkt MP02 because you specifically want a dumbphone that doesn’t have these things to clutter up your day-to-day life. And it doesn’t hurt if you really, really like buttons.what about reports of signal unreliability?As the Punkt MP02 has spent more time on the market, I’ve begun to see scattered reports in Amazon customer reviews and on Reddit that some are experiencing sporadic signal dropping, which of course cuts their phone calls short and leaves them unable to make or receive texts during the brief intermissions of service.Some curse the Punkt. Others proclaim their love for it and say they’ve never had any signal reliability problems with it. I’ve combed through what I could find, but it’s all anecdotal, and even then I can’t say that any patterns jumped out at me. You may be blessed with fine signal strength, or maybe not. If not, make up your mind about whether you want to keep your Punkt MP02 before the return window closes, and then pick another model from our Guide to the Best Dumbphones to take its place.the bottom lineIt seems like there should be more phones like the Punkt MP02 on the market, but most of the dumbphones I’ve seen coming out lately have instead tried to emulate the smartphone’s form, complete with touchscreen, like the Wisephone II, Ghost Phone, and Light Phone III. Those are wonderful dumbphones, top of their (dumb) classes, and it’s great that we now have that option these days: nearly everything a smartphone can provide, minus the unhealthily obsession-inducing social media apps and unfettered internet access.But that’s still too complicated for a fair chunk of the population who want a dumbphone. The return of buttons and more-deliberate texting. Not even a camera or a music player to distract them. But also not a refurbished, 10-year-old flip phone. The Punkt MP02 finds itself in a remarkably scant wasteland of competition. You may—or may not—experience acceptable cellular connectivity. If it works for you where you live and frequently travel, though, it just may bring a smile to your face like it did to mine. Buttons—glorious buttons—and a sleek menu so simple that I could use it in those brain-dead 30 minutes between waking up and downing my first coffee. Everything you need, nothing that could possibly distract you. And lots and lots of buttons.The post Punkt MP02 Dumbphone Review: Buttons, Glorious Buttons appeared first on VICE.