I’ve been a fan of minimalist phones for a while now. They help me focus and get more done, and also help a bit with social media addiction.
When my social media exploded (to a total of nearly 500K followers across all platforms) I honestly admit I kinda lost it. It felt NECESSARY to be constantly online. To grow. It was a dead end that led to a lot of anxiety.
Used the second LightPhone for almost a year (until it broke), then the Mudita Pure for a couple months.
I also used an old Nokia 3310, but my national carrier discontinued the 2G bandwidth.
One thing all those phones were lacking was a camera. Going “light”, or minimal is all good, but not being able to take a photo of something in 2025 wasn’t helping. Photos have become such a big part of how we live, it really was the last big missing feature (and Signal integration).
Cheating
Having a camera and an album on a phone, can of course lead to cheating. You can technically take a lot of photos of memes, and then doomscroll those on your minimalist device. But it’s a lot more time consuming.
Chances are the gallery will actually be used as it was intended. To capture moments. And after a moment is captured, to put the phone away where it belongs.
In your pocket.
Light Phone 3
I really like the phillosophy behind the company behind this phone. Everything they do feels like it just makes sense. When the 3rd phone got announced, I instantly went on and bought it.
Because I’m a designer, I explored my perfect third iteration of this phone before too. Mocked it up in an article called “The Light Phone 3“
As you can see, my idea was closer to an iPhone 4 in shape and sizee, but it did include a camera. What we got ended up slightly different but so far I really like it.
I’ll publish a review once I spend more time with it.
Let’s talk photos
The main question everyone has is whether the camera is good enough. We got spoiled with our shiny iPhones and their extraordinary photo quality and expect that level from everyone.
I took the same photos with my Light Phone 3 and the iPhone 15 Pro.
First thing to note, for some reason the photos on the LP3 display (both in camera mode and album) show up uglier than they are after you download them to your computer via USB.
If you chose to “send to your email” the photo will be shrunk and compressed. USB is the only way to get full quality.
I won’t keep you waiting until the end. The photos from the iPhone were generally better. Sharper. Better background separation. Better colors.
A lot of that happens with iOS AI photo processing. Which means iPhone photos are slightly more “artificial” and “beautified”.
There’s also slightly less detail in the photos when you zoom. It’s pretty visible in complex pictures like this one – with lots of branches and reflections in the water.
But were they dramatically better? Only in low light.
The iPhone gets a lot sharper and captures (or AI generates) a lot more detail in darker environments.
But is it the difference really that big? I don’t think so.
Why do you take photos?
It all boils down to a fundamental question.
Why do we even take photos? Social media has taught us to create “quality visuals” in everything we do.
To “look pro” every time. But is it really that important for daily snaps? The photos are still usable. I can edit them a little bit and post to my website without issues.
Sure, the iPhone is better. But I think the Light Phone 3 is where it needs to be.
Completely good enough.
