Best dumb phone 2025

Some of the biggest strengths of a feature phone are the durable build, multiple days of battery life, and compact form-factor. This makes them great options for kids or elderly folk that don't need any smart features but simply basic communication features. The best dumb phone is also relatively inexpensive which makes it a great starter phone for a young adult or a backup phone.

The best dumb phones 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

While this isn't a proper dumb phone, 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 dumb phone 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.

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.

Best budget

Most feature phones cost less than $100, but if you truly want the cheapest dump phone 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 extemely basic rear camera for capturing that occasional photo. There's 32MB of storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB.

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.

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 dumb phone 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 a 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.

Best basic

This is a basic dumb phone 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 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.

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Other feature phones to consider

We've tried to point you to phones that skirt the line between smartphones and dumb phones, 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.

How to choose

As we explained above, different feature phones (or dumb phones) 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 dumb phone 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 dumb phone, 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.