Some of the biggest strengths of a dumbphone are a durable build quality, multiple days of battery life, and a compact form factor. This makes them great options for kids or elderly folk who don't need any smart features but simply basic communication features. The best dumbphone is also relatively inexpensive which makes it a great starter phone for a young adult or a backup phone.
The best dumbphones come in all shapes and sizes and are usually quite affordable. One of the best ones is the Nokia 2780 Flip which has a classic design, a secondary screen on the cover, and some basic smarts. We have plenty of other good options that are worth considering too on this list.
At a glance
Best overall
Nokia is still the best at making hardy dumbphones that can live through an apocalypse. The funky Nokia 2780 Flip is a blast from the past, with two displays, a traditional flip form factor, and plenty of new-age features as well.
Best for seniors
Easyfone targets segments like seniors and younger children, making its phones easy to use. The Easyfone has a large display, big buttons, and other aspects that are all designed with heightened accessibility in mind.
Best budget
This cheap and cheerful device costs well below the $50 mark. You get exciting specs like a flashlight built-in, two SIM slots, and a microSD slot for expandable storage.
Best for Google services
The Nokia 6300 4G is a dumbphone with plenty of smarts. You get Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as access to modern applications like Google Maps, YouTube, Google Assistant, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Best rugged
The Cat S22 Flip is the smartest dumbphone in this price range. It runs Android 11 (Go Edition) and is rugged as they come thanks to an IP68 and MIL-STD-810H rating. The flip form factor also makes it super cool to use.
Best for kids
Looking for your child's first phone? This colorful dumbphone is only equipped with necessary apps, comes with a throng of exciting kids' accessories, and has a mirror on the front.
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Best basic
Not in the market for anything fancy? The Nokia 110 4G should do the job. It's just skin and bones, with basic features such as SMS and calling. You also get a flashlight, a camera, and an audio port.
Best overall
While this isn't a proper dumbphone because it has some smart apps, we think it brings the best of both worlds in one body. The Nokia 2780 Flip offers you four days of battery life, basic apps on KaiOS, USB-C charging, a camera, a headphone jack, a removable battery, and an FM radio. You also get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. You go off the grid if you want, with up to 18 days of battery on conservative use. Its big buttons and loudspeaker make it friendly to use.
The beauty of KaiOS is that you get access to a much better selection of apps compared to most dumbphone operating systems. The 2780 Flip can run lighter versions of YouTube, Facebook, Google Maps, and many more apps and games that you'd typically find on a smartphone.
Android Central Senior Editor Jerry Hildenbrand switched from Android to the 2780 Flip as an experiment, praising the "simple and intuitive" KaiOS interface, its four-day battery life saving him daily charges, and how it "can do just about everything I want my primary communication device to do." While he did switch back to Android — that's his job, after all — he appreciated what the 2780 Flip brought to the table, merely wishing it worked over the 5G network because of his area's poor reception.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Dual displays, basic low-res for cover and higher-res inside screen | ★★★★☆ |
Design | Classic flip phone look, comfortably light, IP52 rating | ★★★★☆ |
Price | A tad expensive for a feature phone but still affordable | ★★★☆☆ |
Camera | Average photo quality for a low price | ★★★☆☆ |
Smarts | KaiOS support for popular apps, intuitive interface | ★★★★★ |
Battery life | Lasts 4 days with normal use but only 3.5 hours for 4G calling; lasts twice as long with 3G | ★★★★☆ |
Best for seniors
Easyfone focuses on building user-friendly phones that provide essential services to your elderly loved ones. The Easyfone Prime A6 is made for seniors in particular, which is why the font is very large and the buttons are huge. The UI is very simple and requires no prior knowledge or experience. There's no internet or cameras onboard, but you do get an SOS button for emergencies.
Other helpful features include a prominent slider on the side for locking the buttons, to avoid accidental presses. The earpiece and rear speaker is loud, and is M4/ T4 hearing aid compatible. The phone can be easily charged by placing it in the included dock, so you don't have to fumble with a charger. The basic features include an FM radio, alarm, MP3 player, notes, calculator, calendar, and flashlight.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Compact and black-and-white, but with large, readable text | ★★★☆☆ |
Design | Perfectly suited for seniors with large keys, but comfortably compact | ★★★★☆ |
Price | Normal feature phone price, if a bit limited for cost-to-value ratio | ★★★☆☆ |
Camera | None included | N/A |
Smarts | Limited to safety, music, and basic apps, though that's kind of the point | ★★☆☆☆ |
Battery life | Not much standby juice, expect frequent charging | ★★☆☆☆ |
Best budget
Most feature phones cost less than $100, but if you truly want the cheapest dumbphone possible, the BLU Z5 costs about half of what most of our other picks cost.
The BLU Z5 is dirt cheap, but it has a few essentials: an audio jack, chunky buttons, a flashlight, and a microSD slot, though not much else. Unlike the other semi-smart picks on this list, we'd truly call this phone "dumb," but some people will see the simplicity as a perk.
The 600mAh battery in the Z5 promises up to six hours of talk time, and there's an extremely basic rear camera for capturing that occasional photo. You get 32MB of local storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Tiny display doesn't matter too much, since there's not much to do with this phone | ★★☆☆☆ |
Design | Comfortably light; only get this if you prefer small phones | ★★★☆☆ |
Price | You won't find a functioning phone cheaper than this. | ★★★★★ |
Camera | Ultra-low-res VGA | ★☆☆☆☆ |
Smarts | Flashlight, FM radio, and Dual Sim, but no other apps to speak of | ★☆☆☆☆ |
Battery life | Decent 2G talking hours, not as long as it should be for its simple OS | ★★★☆☆ |
Best for Google services
The Nokia 6300 4G is a few years old at this point, but people still choose it because the list of KaiOS Nokia phones is fairly short. If you can find one, and accept that its smarts will take longer to load than smartphone users are accustomed to, then the 6300 4G is a great feature phone option to bridge the gap from Android and make the transition easier.
The Nokia 6300 4G runs a slightly older version of KaiOS than the newer Nokia 2780 Flip, but you still get apps like YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook, powered by built-in Wi-Fi and GPS, and some may prefer its non-flip design. Also unlike many current Nokia phones, you get 4G LTE support instead of 2G for better call quality and data speeds.
The Nokia 6300 has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a 1,500mAh battery (comparable to our top pick). The key difference is the significant RAM dip compared to newer Nokias; you get the same apps, but a slower time using them.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Larger QVGA display built for apps | ★★★★☆ |
Design | Comfortable to hold, plenty of useful buttons | ★★★★☆ |
Price | Normal dumbphone price (if you can find one) | ★★★☆☆ |
Camera | Ultra-low-res VGA | ★☆☆☆☆ |
Smarts | A few useful apps like Google Maps | ★★★★☆ |
Battery life | A few days of standby or a couple of hours with calls or app use | ★★★☆☆ |
Best rugged
The Cat S22 Flip is easily one of the best phones under $100. Like the Nokia 6300 4G, it too has access to Google services but takes it a notch further thanks to Android 11 (Go Edition). This, along with the touchscreen display, allows you to use this dumbphone like a smartphone if you need to, but it also has buttons for navigation and dialing when you're working with gloves.
Being a Cat product, it's as rugged as they come. The S22 Flip has an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, along with a MIL-STD-810H rating for toughness. You can throw it around on rough terrain or dunk it in water, and it should work just fine. It's also backed by a two-year warranty in the event something does go wrong.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Larger, higher-res touch display than competition, petite cover display | ★★★★★ |
Design | Fully dust and water resistant, will withstand falls | ★★★★★ |
Price | Reasonably priced for what it offers | ★★★☆☆ |
Camera | 2MP camera is slightly more competent than other 0.3MP sensors | ★★☆☆☆ |
Smarts | Many more apps than KaiOS via Google, though performance will be iffy for some | ★★★★☆ |
Battery life | Drains quickly with app use but lasts a couple of days in "dumb" mode | ★★★☆☆ |
Best for kids
It's not always in the best interests of a child to give them a full-blown smartphone, which is why most parents turn to alternatives like kids' smartwatches and dumbphones instead.
If you're not keen on buying your 10 to 14-year-old an Android phone or an iPhone, the dumb HMD Barbie Phone is a fantastic choice. It maintains the right balance of connectivity, modernization, and limitation necessary for a younger child without taking the fun out of owning a phone.
You basically get a modified version of the fantastic Nokia 2780 Flip, with the external screen encased inside a mirror instead. The battery is still removable, the phone still has apps like Google Maps and a web browser, and there's even a 3.5mm audio jack. However, apps are limited so there's no social media on the dumbphone.
It also helps that this dumbphone is brightly colored, comes with fun stickers and rhinestones, and kids can customize it to their heart's desire using the other various accessories in the box. Everything from the battery to the charger and cable are pink, emulating the true Barbie spirit. The Barbie Phone isn't pricey either, costing only about $10 more than the regular Nokia 2780.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Nice TFT dual displays with higher-res inside, mirror on the outside | ★★★★☆ |
Design | Fun play on the classic Nokia look, Barbie design is customizable | ★★★★★ |
Price | Costs more than its regular Nokia 2780 counterpart but has fewer features | ★★☆☆☆ |
Camera | Photography is mediocre, as expected for the price | ★★★☆☆ |
Smarts | Exciting Barbie-fied interface, KaiOS supports many apps but this is a limited version | ★★★☆☆ |
Battery life | Lasts 4 days with normal use but only 3.5 hours for 4G calling; lasts twice as long with 3G | ★★★★☆ |
Best basic
This is a basic dumbphone with no extras. There's no meat around the bones here. The sleek Nokia 110 4G has physical buttons, a 1.8-inch TFT LCD display, basic calling and texting functions, a generic camera, micro-USB charging, and not much else. Since you do get a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot, you can use it as an MP3 player as well as a phone.
The first Nokia 110 4G (2021) and the newer Nokia 110 4G (2023) aren't too different from one another. The 2021 model had more colors, while the 2023 added a more textured, scratch-resistant finish. Nokia also gave it a newer CPU and extra battery capacity. But either way, you're getting an affordable, straightforward feature phone that you probably won't use for much besides calls and texts.
Attribute | Quick look | Score |
|---|---|---|
Display | Compact 1.8-inch display isn't wowing anyone | ★★☆☆☆ |
Design | IP52 rating, on the thick side with a unique textured finish and cool Arctic Purple finish. | ★★★☆☆ |
Price | Affordably priced | ★★★★☆ |
Camera | 1MP camera will do its job (barely) | ★★☆☆☆ |
Smarts | Gives you basic internet access and radio, but little else | ★★☆☆☆ |
Battery life | Great standalone capacity, especially the 2023 model. | ★★★★☆ |
Other feature phones to consider
We've tried to point you to phones that skirt the line between smartphones and dumbphones, as well as ultra-basic feature phones where cost, simplicity, and battery life are your main concerns.
Unfortunately, you'll often find that these phones can be hard to find, depending on where you live — especially in the U.S. where smartphones have the market all but cornered. So we're including a few alternate picks, in case these previous options can only be found used or don't work well with your particular network.
The Nokia E72 offers nifty multimedia features at feature phone prices. Powered by the Symbian operating system, the E72 offers a QWERTY keyboard, large display, email and calendar shortcut buttons, and access to apps and games. It even has GPS with Ovi Maps navigation, a 5MP camera, and push e-mail via Microsoft Exchange.
Don't flip out about the price
You can find this phone for much cheaper than many of our top picks, in exchange for 2.8-inch inner and 1.4-inch outer displays, stripped-down Android 11 AOSP software, and days of battery life. You can technically browse the internet on this phone, but it's really about keeping things stripped down and simple, and it does the basics very well.
Making dumb phones smarter
The Nokia 225 4G was a favorite dumbphone for a few years, but the latest 235 4G (2024) has replaced it in some territories. Its design is petite and skinny with a couple of fun colors, but it fits the same 1,450mAh battery as our other Nokia picks for the same longevity. It has minimal RAM and the simpler S30+ OS, so only buy this if you don't want other Nokias' KaiOS apps and tricks.
Flagship feature phone
Most people buy dumb phones to save money, but some wear its simplicity as a badge of pride and want a fancy dumbphone. In that case, the Sunbeam lineup could be for you. It sells different versions of the Pro based on specific features you might want — like Waze navigation or a weather app — but this is essentially a rugged flip phone with touch and keyboard controls, a multi-day battery, and the essentials.
How to choose
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As we explained above, different feature phones (or dumbphones) handle their "dumbness" differently. All of them focus on phone calls as their primary purpose, but a few use semi-smart OSs like KaiOS that have enough memory and functionality to make streaming, GPS navigation, and other simple tricks work.
For some people, that'll defeat the purpose of buying a dumbphone in the first place! That's why we point people towards options like the Easyfone Prime A6 for seniors or cheaper Nokias that give a better connection than 2G/3G flip phones — which won't function in the U.S. anymore — but strip out the crap that make Android or iPhones untenable to niche users.
Otherwise, as a starter dumb phone to transition from your current smartphone, your best bet is the Nokia 2780 Flip. This fantastic feature phone has physical buttons, a small display, and it folds in half. It has all the makings of a great dumbphone, with a few extras thrown in the mix. This is a good thing since you or your child could definitely use an app like Google Maps during emergencies.
