[dmattia]

I had a dumbphone for two years, it was fine.

For the past two years though, I've been using just an Apple Watch, which I was able to connect my old phone number to. It has maps, texting, calling (works best via bluetooth), weather, heart rate monitoring, alarms, email, sports scores, and some music apps. When attached to my wife's phone plan, it costs me $5 per month for all service.

I think the unfortunate reality of dumbphones is that of the folks searching for dumbphones, we all have fairly specific ideas on which features we want and which ones we don't, but there are only like 5 reasonable options available, and most don't hit the mark for many of us. If you want good maps, that rules out many. If you want a camera, that would rule out the watch like I use. If you want reasonable texting ergonomics that isn't speech-to-text, that rules out pretty much all of them

[peebeebee]

I think a watch is indeed a better 'companion' for people that want to detox from screentime. I do find Apple is hesitant to make it act as a primary driver. I find myself needing my iPhone too much for my liking. Hopefully this will change in the future.

I want the connectivity, I just don't want to... - carry 2 devices. - have a media consumption device with me all the time

[ethbr1]

I imagine the profit on a Watch dwarfs that from an iPhone, so they're leery to kill the golden goose.

And they've prioritized iPhone >> MacBook, so they're likely not interested in encouraging watch + laptop uses.

[rssoconnor]

Can you tell me more about your watch use? I wanted to do something like this, but I got the impression that even if you get an Apple watch with a SIM card, you still would practically need an Apple phone paired with it.

[dmattia]

Yeah for sure! So you sort of need a phone paired with it, but only as in you need a family member (or someone on your phone plan) to have an iPhone, but the watch owner themselves doesn't actually need any other phone that the watch.

It's called "Family Setup": https://support.apple.com/en-us/109036, and it lets me use the watch in what is sometimes called "Standalone mode" or "Companion mode" in different apps.

If you go down this route, know that many apps in the app store will not be downloadable, as they don't support "Companion mode", but I can still get everything I personally needed just fine.

As far as the SIM goes, I think I'm using an electronic sim card? I'm not positive