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TechRadar
TechRadar
Simon Cocks

I swapped my iPhone for the distraction-free Balance Phone to curb my social media habit, and it wasn't quite the digital detox I expected

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The Balance Phone being held in the hand.

Are you keen to spend less time staring at a screen, but don't want to sacrifice the practical benefits of owning a smartphone? The “balance” of the Balance Phone is that it’s about halfway between the dumbphones of yesteryear and the attention-grabbing overload of today’s best phones.

Crucially, it is still a smartphone (a basic Samsung one, to be specific), so it solves all the usual dumbphone issues of lacking WhatsApp, maps, and music, but runs a limited operating system called Balance OS that’s designed to help curtail your scrolling habits.

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