Meet the BoringPhone, designed specifically to bridge the divide between the smartphone and the old Nokia "brick'' some may remember.
Alex Davidson, founder of the Kiwi startup, makes an important distinction between his locally developed "BoringPhone'' and so called "dumb phones''.
"We straddle the middle ground, offering people a minimalist smartphone with none of the distractions. This versus a really basic dumbphone which can be rudimentary and difficult to use,'' he said during a visit to Dunedin yesterday.
The development of the aptly named phone was motivated by Mr Davidson's own overuse of smartphones, and a desire to bridge the gap between dumbphones and modern gadget-laden offerings.
So he and co-founder Jasper Mackenzie decided to strip away the non-productive stuff, but keep the useful things that a smartphone offered.
In the belief that if you want help doing something then you have to do it yourself first, the two entrepreneurs launched a Kickstarter campaign to develop the concept as "proof of life'', offering the phones at price points ranging from $350 to $499, depending on options.
To date, 85 phones have been pre-ordered, raising $32,000 in funding.
"Opinion has been divided. But via Kickstarter we've discovered a pioneering group of people out there - generally in the 30-50 age group - who support the idea of a smartphone that is not actively seeking to monopolise their attention,'' Mr Davidson said.
The hardware itself is the Xiaomi Mi A1, a 165g Android phone with a 5.5-inch screen. It does come with camera and video functions, offering a dual 12MP camera and 5MP "selfie'' camera.
"There's no secret, no magic to these phones. We use existing, proven hardware and it looks like any other sleek smartphone. It just doesn't come with internet browser, social media, mobile games or other downloadable apps,'' he said.
The phone provided maps, utilising OpenStreetMaps which were available offline, meaning users did not need data to know locations.
Mr Davidson said the BoringPhone brandmark could also be removed, both for the younger market and also for organisations which might opt for a branded, more productive phone for staff.
