This is a lazy journal entry
I normally hand write my journal entries, but I’ve been a bit slack lately. While I remain pretty consistent to at least do it every few days, the content of each has never really dived too much beyond describing the same things; what I’m doing & what I need to do that day.
I’m trying to give myself a mental break, to say that I’m uninspired at the moment is an understatement. Unfortunately this applies to many aspects of life at the moment; feeling like life is just happening and I’m just going through the motions.
Managed to put a TV up yesterday which feels like a slight accomplishment; but then I look at how I’ve let my front garden go and I feel ashamed.
Things are not bad in the slightest, it only feels like a period of meh. Could the weather (winter here in Australia) really be getting to me? I normally love winters though.
Trying to find connections with how I’m feeling with recent events is frustrating because I truly don’t know the answer. It would be so easy if this is just a continuation of grief over my Dad. However, while I miss him and think about him often, I am truly at peace with his passing given the alternative was a quality of life he didn’t want.
So as I sit here having a morning coffee while my kids are doing their Sunday Karate training sessions, I lack the drive to even hand write. Giving into my laziness a little bit and typing this up, as I’ve always been a digital native and typing my thoughts is less friction than handwriting.
I’m making an effort to try and read more blogs to get some inspiration. Some of the writing and storytelling is very good. Don’t know if I’m inspired or just envious of their talent to craft a story; but I’m enjoying it nonetheless.
I should really reach out to some of the bloggers I read. Not to collaborate or anything, but just to express my appreciation for their posts.
Getting some time to head to a conference in just over a week which I hope will be a good chance to take stock and focus on one topic for a few days. After that, my wife goes on a girls weekend with her friends; which I hope does the same for her as I can feel she could use a breather too.
I’m out of coffee. I should probably go back to watch the kids at karate, but they have a few hours left. I don’t mind watching them honestly, but they are at an age where they are very self sufficient and probably prefer to hang out with their karate friends without their Dad hanging around.
We have a Google Hub that displays their pictures throughout the years. My wife an I always stop and admire any cute photos from when they were babies; pining a little for just 5 minutes back in that moment. While I absolutely miss them as babies, I really like who they are becoming so I wouldn’t have things any other way.
Boy this really was a random ramble of thoughts. I feel better, I really need to let go of the aspirational on how I write and just do.
The follow up - back at karate training watching the kids. Moved writing this from my old iPad to my Minimal Phone (thanks technology).
Feeling grateful watching the kids train with others they have now spent a good time growing up with, as well as senseis who have guided them through their journey.
Minimal Phone review - I love it, don’t buy it
In a world where even folding phones are becoming more mainstream, it’s increasingly rare for someone to ask about your phone specifically. After all, the smartphone is now so intertwined with modern life that its more rare to see someone without one.
The Minimal Phone generates questions…everywhere. It also says a lot about the current state of smartphones that the first person to ask about my phone didn’t really ask anything, outside of what phone is that and where can I buy it? People seem to be craving something different than glass slabs again.
Part of that could very well be social media and their current infatuation with Blackberry’s of days past. However Minimal’s ePaper display (not E Ink as that is a brand, but the same technology) is also a noticeable differentiator to the big, colourful OLED displays people spend their days staring into.
But whatever it is, the phone prompts questions. The biggest problem is that, in its current form and company concerns, I can’t recommend it to anyone else.
Hardware & software: under development
Looking purely at the phone itself, things start out promisingly. While the phone is of a lightweight and plastic build, it feels like a well put together device. Not premium, but not cheap phone either. At it’s current pre-order price ($399 USD at the time of this post for the base 6GB model), the build feels more than acceptable.
From my perspective, there’s two main detractors from a hardware space: the squared design can dig into your hand, and the ePaper display is of low quality.
Regarding the display, for those used to modern ePaper or E Ink devices, you will notice the difference in quality compared to displays found in Kindles or Boox devices. It does the job as intended, but it’s low resolution, low contrast and ghosting issues may put some people off who aren’t willing to manage the tradeoffs.
I’d dare to say for most people, regardless of the quality of the ePaper display, are going to have to adjust their phone usage compared to regular LCD or OLED display devices. I don’t care how good the ePaper technology from others like Boox are making it, if you buy an ePaper device and expect to watch videos even only once in a while; don’t. Stop here, go back and enjoy your regular smartphone.
However, any hardware trade offs the company has made pale in comparison to the issues with the software at the moment. These range from extremely annoying to unusable depending on your experience.
Speaking personally, I’ve had to manage the fingerprint wiping bug multiple times; where the fingerprint sensor would stop responding until you reboot the phone, at which point the existing fingerprints will be wiped and need to be re-setup. However at one time, no amount of reboots would bring the sensor back online; which required a factory reset to fix.
There’s also the slightly more concerning issue of the phone forgetting the phone PIN. Again fixed by a reboot thankfully, but what if it didn’t?
I’ve also had a handful of random reboots and times where calls wouldn’t connect. I know it’s not an issue with my carrier as the Minimal Phone supports all the 4G bands my carrier uses in Australia, and outside of the call issues the mobile performance has otherwise been solid.
For these reasons, I still carry around my Pixel 9 Pro as a backup just in case.
Normally you could make the case that I might have a ‘lemon’ outlier device and to do a warranty claim. However, both Reddit and their own Discord server are full of other impacted customers, many with far worse issues than mine.
Some of them have indeed started a return or warranty claim, which unfortunately leads them to an even bigger issue.
The Minimal Company: Maximum excuses, minimal delivery
I know this part may trigger some to come to the defence of The Minimal Company as a small startup, and as such being a new company and dealing with the issues is hard work.
I agree it is hard, I’m not going to sit here an argue that they don’t have a difficult job. I always thought their initial timeframes from the crowdfunding campaign were extremely optimistic (even so if it were an established company), and getting a product out in the timeframe they did is still quite the effort.
However, whenever I hear this argument and excuses for any company, I always am very deliberate and forceful in reminding people: paying customers do not have to give a damn how hard it is!
I prefix this section with the above emphasis because I’m constantly hearing excuses for small startups for not delivering on their promises, and I’m tired of it. I’m also a bit tired of small startup phone companies in this space delivering unfinished products as “market ready” without appropriate awareness of the current issues.
To call out another popular phone in the space, the Light Phone 3 shipped with a non-functioning fingerprint sensor (which I believe is still non-functional at the time of this post). While they advise it is coming in a future update, and I don’t doubt they will deliver; the fact is others have exposed the underlying Android system and enabled the fingerprint reader without any additional work. A weak effort from Light honestly.
Back to The Minimal Company, and it’s honestly difficult to choose what area to start.
Let’s start with the poor backers from the crowd funding campaign; putting their money down in early 2024 and some still not receiving their device, others needing to forcefully follow up with the company to get answers to their order status, others finally getting a delivery recently but in the wrong spec they ordered. All the while, the company continues to sell the device online with shipping dates; where some maybe delayed yet others receive it within a month.
These issues alone are enough for me to not recommend anyone order from Minimal. I avoided all these issues by ordering my phone through an eBay seller as a second hand purchase; after I had given up in trusting their ability to meet their delivery timelines.
Then there’s the software updates, missed deadlines and lack of clarity on progress. This one I could almost understand as software development and bug fixing can be a process. As I bought the device already knowing the issues and understanding it might be a journey before this is reliable, I am more forgiving on this front than others.
However, remember we are dealing with paying customers who expected a working device and are experiencing issues making their devices unusable in its current state. The lack of updates, missed deadlines on fixes, extremely poor communication, attitude occasionally bordering on dismissal of these user problems by company leaders, & occasional silent treatment when things aren’t going smoothly are all symptoms of a company customers cannot trust.
The silence, dismissal and unresponsiveness is more concerning when dealing with unhappy customers who are looking for a warranty or refund claim; all of which is seemingly met with avoidance and silence as a first response.
I don’t care how small or new you are as a business, this is unacceptable. And this is why I can’t recommend the device to anyone.
Missed opportunities
Reading back on the review I’ve called out a lot of problems. But the title of the review also includes the words “I love it”; and it also remains the phone I keep my primary SIM card in. So why?
Purely looking at it from a form factor perspective, the Minimal Phone ticks off a lot of the boxes I’m looking for in a modern smartphone that no one else is yet offering in a similar package.
An ePaper display to improve and encourage reading of text while minimising the pull of distracting multimedia and social apps, a physical keyboard to address ePaper’s input lag and improve typing feel over touch screen keyboards, Micro SD card expansion, a headphone jack, and a full Android OS to allow access to needed apps for work and modern life.
It’s a niche product for a passionate group of users who would be willing to champion the benefits of the form factor to others who ask about their device. Given how many questions I’ve had in the few weeks I’ve owned it, there are many who ask.
But for the reasons above, they have never resulted in “you should buy this phone”. In fact, they have resulted in a very deliberate “don’t buy this phone”.
With all their issues, The Minimal Company have alienated and lost the trust of many of the ones who would be their biggest champions. Even if a software update tomorrow would address every software bug, the bigger issue is that I can’t trust the company enough to recommend this to anyone.
Even if the company for some reason was to respond to this review and outline all the reasons they think I’m wrong about their company and management; my perception aligns with many others already, regardless on how incorrect they think that is.
If they thought building a product was hard, wait until they try to rebuild trust.