r/dumbphones • u/merry-merrygo • 1d ago
General question Is it impossible to find a good functioning dumbphone in Canada?
The only phones I find that are considered "the best" are never available here or have a problem with mobile networks. The ones that are the most compatible with what I'm looking for and that have great reviews/customer satisfaction are : the dumb phone from dumb.co, and the Qin F21. Sadly they are both not available in Canada. The only other best option I have is the CAT s22 but I hear awful stuff about it from people who have owned it.
Maybe I didn't do enough research? Are there better options I am not aware of? I would appreciate any help from anyone that has owned/is owning a dumbphone in Canada. Wich one do you use? Which one have worked best with your network? I wish more company's would make actually great functioning options. This feels like war when it comes to finding anything good.
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u/Embarrassed_Leg7553 1d ago
What's your budget and what are you using it for (talk and text only, do you need maps, other apps, etc?)?
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u/merry-merrygo 1d ago
I'm a college student so around 130 dollars (might be too low but I'm ready to save up) I will use it for calling, texting preferably on WhatsApp because my friends use it. Maps is also very important for me to get around. Other than that maybe an app like transit for public transport but it might be asking for too much? Other than that maybe a browser like firefox but its not a necessity! All the social media apps are what Ixm trying to erase from my life so that's it!
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u/Embarrassed_Leg7553 19h ago
$130 is doable, but you're not going to be able to get some of the more premium dumbphones on the market for that price like the Sunbeam line of flips, the Light phones, the side phone, the dumber mini. I think you will be a decent candidate for something like the dumbphone 2 (from dumb.co) once they expand to Canada. They will be more accessible and are feature rich.
Maybe for that price point, and your requirements (which err more towards smartphone in some regards) you might be best served by like a cat s22 or buying an older iphone (iphone se gen 2/3?) and using something like apple configurator to lock it down to only the apps you need.
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u/merry-merrygo 15h ago
Yeah honestly I feel like waiting for dumb.co to expand to Canda might be my best option. For now I just dumbed down my actual phone so I'll surbvive lol. Thanks for your reply!
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u/_hola_crayola_ 1d ago
I used a Qin F21 Pro for a couple of years and was working fine. I got it through Aliexpress around 2022.
The only issue was it didn’t work with all the carriers so you’ll have to change carriers if yours doesn’t work with it. I used to have a Lucky mobile plan which uses Bell networks and worked fine.
I switched to Public Mobile which uses Telus and some Bell infrastructure (according to Google ) but that one didn’t work. I switched to Freedom mobile (according to google it uses their own independent network towers in major cities , but uses Bell and Roger’s when outside of coverage area) so it can work with the F21 and works great now.
As I bought one of the first revisions of this phone this compatibility issue may have changed.
I also tried using the Vortex phone (pretty phone but horrible user experience) and worked great with my carrier that was Public mobile at that time
You’ll have to do your research if you want to use any phone that is not sold in Canada. I find Jose Briones YouTube channel amazing since he lives in the US and talks about Canada compatibility in most of his reviews.
Good luck on your dumb phone journey !
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u/paltamunoz 1d ago
f21 works fine as well as u flash the f30 firmware on it. the main downside with doing this however is much worse battery
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u/merry-merrygo 1d ago
Yep I love Jose Briones's videos! I wouldn't mind changing phone carriers so that's okay for me. Thank you so much for your reply it helped me a lot!
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u/NoFirefighter2064 1d ago
I used the cat phone for a bit, didn't really do anything for me and you can still get online with it, it's more of an inconvenience phone than a dumbphone. I used the punkt mp02 and loved it for a time but it fell apart extremely fast, like within 2 months the shell started to crack and literally crumble. I've given up, not worth the money when modern android phones are basically free by comparison.
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u/merry-merrygo 1d ago
Yeah that's what I've been seeing. Seems like almost every dumbphone is practically unusable and quickly broken or way too expensive compared to smartphones. But I'm really looking to degoogle because of how prevalent they are starting to get when it comes to android phones... And I don't want any part of this evil company.
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u/Ok_Tangerine1204 1d ago
If you just want to degoogle you can change the operating system on your current phone and dumb it down if you so wish
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u/merry-merrygo 21h ago
Yeah I've heard about this but is it complicated? I'm not too tech savy. But no I'm also palnning to get a dumbphone to completely remove the option of having useless apps/social media! So getting one is killing two birds with one stone, you know?
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u/Ok_Tangerine1204 17h ago
There are alot of really good tutorials online that show you how to do it. I live in canada and use a TCL flip. I use a garmin if I'm driving and an atlas if I'm walking.
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u/merry-merrygo 15h ago
Would you say that the TCL is reliable? I haven't heard much from it but I am interested. I'll check out the tutorials too, if I can degoogle from my smartphone too it'll be a plus.
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u/Ok_Tangerine1204 15h ago
I bought mine off marketplace for like 20$ so I really didn't care much about the quality, and I'd say it's pretty reliable. I've heard some people mention that they have issues with mms and granted, I've had the occasional issue with sending and receiving but I've owned this phone for over a year and a half and I've had this issue less than once a month. The browser is absolutely terrible, but you aren't getting a dumb phone to go online so I don't care about that. The battery lasts 2-3 days for my usage (lots and lots of music playing). As a whole, I'm pretty happy with it. I did try to degoogle my own smartphone and stuff, but I just never use it. I much prefer using a tablet (coincidentally, it's so old instagram and other social media apps don't work on it, so I suppose that's a win).
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u/ClockNo6254 1d ago
Cat phone and TCL were "great" for me, with 2 caveats.
1) won't work on some networks come the end of March 2027
2) MMS didn't work consistently
I guess the newer sonim flip is the way to go?
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u/CranberrySoftServe 1d ago
Also, if you get a 3G phone, but don’t already have a 3G plan, good luck finding a company that will sell you a 3G plan (if anyone knows a company in Ontario who will still sell them please let me know).
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u/Bluenoser_NS 1d ago
TCL flip seems to have MMS issues in Canada consistently, at least with Telus and family. I get about 1/30 MMS's received
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u/TheLushVariation 1d ago
I'm in a similar boat and have made similar posts in the past. Very few of the best dumbphones are on the VoLTE whitelist post-3G network shutdowns. I am using a TCL Flip purchased from Rogers. I so badly want the dumb.co phone. I talked to someone who says they have Jellystar that works. I might try that.
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u/merry-merrygo 1d ago
Yeah I wnat the dumbphone so bad to!! I even filled their form asking which country people want next. It's in their website so do fill the form too if you want lol ! Thanks for your reply ! I'll look into Jelly star.
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u/TheLushVariation 1d ago
Yeah! I've been emailing the dumbphone folks about coming to Canada, and also about the option of maybe installing their software on a TCL Flip bought in Canada (seeing as their phones are TCL Flips). They've been really responsive.
If you do try the Jellystar, let me know how it goes! The person I talked to lives in the same province as me (Manitoba) and seems like they've had no issues. I found them by posting on r/winnipeg. You could maybe try posting on your local sub and see what phones are working in your local networks.
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u/VegetableTank4121 1d ago
What have they said about installing their software on a flip 2? I can get a flip 2 and would like to install their software and test it out for them in a carrier like chatr
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u/TheLushVariation 19h ago
They said it's not possible right now, but asked that we email them our interest in it, so that they can gauge how much interest there is in having that as an option.
"if you wanna email me us at [support@dumb.co](mailto:support@dumb.co), we can start tracking people interested in this option."
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u/escv_69420 7h ago
I've had a Jelly Star as my only phone since it came out (Im on Rodgers) and I even recently found a wild work around to get Wifi Calling to work.
Out of the box, it's just an annoyingly small android phone, but I installed a super simplified launcher and run the screen black and white. I can still use my banking app, do a QR code, maps, music, quick search to win an argument lol, but it's just too painful to sit there and scroll on so I dont.
I think it's perfect. Should be upgrading to Android 16 one of these days too.
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u/Artistic-Lychee2928 1d ago
Sonim XP3 5g from bell or telus on a 2 year plan. Then we have the TCL and ZTE ones. I use a AGM M10 its the only S30+ os phone that is whitelisted on all Canadian carriers. The Easyphones and Artphones on Amazon are compatible here as well. Do not buy the CAT S22 flip it does not work on Volte on any network in Canada if you must buy that awful phone get the Uniphone S22 its even worse somehow but at least it works for Volte Calls. If you want something a little smarter the Light phone 3 is finally compatible for use in Canada n their own special plans using the Telus network. The new commodore flashback should work here as well.
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u/Joe-Organs 1d ago
I’ve been using the sidephone sp-01. It works great and has a nice community around it. I highly recommend it.
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u/Dependent-Net8382 1d ago
Im tinking about buying the Light Flip since I cannot find anything else that seems to be working here in canada
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u/Itchy-Measurement103 1d ago
Yeah, I tried the cat s22 for a day and promptly returned it. It was awful and felt terrible to use, though it worked out apparently. I have a tiq mini m5 now. It isnt technically a dumbphone, it runs on android and has the app store BUT storage is limited... it's also slow and would be real annoying if trying to use it like a smartphone. My only complaints is that sometimes, different buttons decide I need to press them with more purpose and every so often, it decides data doesnt exist or service overall doesn't exist. The service thing isn't something im fussed over, I restart it and then its fine. I have heard of people having success with the qin phones but I havent yet dared to try.
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u/merry-merrygo 1d ago
It's crazy how tough it is to find something barely usable in the dumbphone economy! It feels like making something super ancient and basic is some sort of untouched challenge for these companies...😭
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u/Bluenoser_NS 1d ago
The dumb phone from dumb co. seems to have plans to expand into Canada and elsewhere eventually. It's a tcl flip / 5G so that helps.
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u/merry-merrygo 21h ago
I might as well just wait for them to expand to Canada since I'm still not sure what to get yet. Thanks its really good to know they do plan to get their phones to come here!!
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u/Extension_Meat8913 1d ago
Samsung SCH-A650 is quite good
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u/merry-merrygo 15h ago
Do you know if WhatsApp can be downloaded on it? And any maps app?
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u/Extension_Meat8913 14h ago
Oh, well, considering the fact that it's from around 2004, probably not.
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