Looks like some are preferring to go full retro with their choice of phones. Dumbphones are a term used to refer to the old handsets we used before the rise of smartphones, like Apple or Samsung, without the current features that we enjoy now.
The revival of these retro devices started between 2018 and 2021 when a jump in the Google searches for them went up as much as 89%. In terms of sales, while incomparable to the number of smartphones that get sold every year, “one report said that global purchases of dumbphones were due to hit one billion units last year, up from 400 million in 2019,” BBC wrote.
According to mobile expert Ernest Doku, the revival of the “dumbphones” is due to nostalgia and trends online. "Many of us had a dumbphone as our first mobile phone, so it's natural that we feel a sense of nostalgia towards these classic handsets," he explained. While these retro phones can’t outshine the current devices on the market in terms of performance or functionality, their appeal, aside from their aesthetic, would be in terms of battery life and durability.
Image credit: Isaac Smith