You Can Now Pre-Order Justine Haupt’s Rotary Un-Smartphone Kit

We often hear about how smartphones are bad for our mental health and how social media is destroying the world. The latter statement is obviously false and you should definitely be following us on social media, but smartphones can absolutely be detrimental to your wellbeing. Instead of actually enjoying our lives, we often find ourselves beholden to our tiny pocket computers and every little ding they make. We should be living in the moment, but instead we constantly pull ourselves out of the moment to look at our phones. That’s why Justine Haupt designed the Rotary Un-Smartphone, and she is now offering it as a kit that you can pre-order.

The old school rotary phone dial perfectly encapsulates the entire philosophy behind this design. While it is built with modern components, it is the antithesis to today’s smartphones. You can’t use the Rotary Un-Smartphone to look at Instagram or to post on Facebook. It doesn’t take photos and it certainly can’t capture videos. It won’t notify you when you have an upcoming calendar appointment and you can’t use it to listen to your music. It can’t even send text messages. All it does is allow you to quickly and easily make calls. As a small concession to modern life, it can also receive text messages so you that you can go about your day like a surgeon with a pager.

This is, of course, a very niche device for a very small market. It’s for people who want to break the prison shackles that are smartphones and who also want everyone else to know about it. It’s undeniable that this phone will make a statement every time you pull it out, because it is a pretty large device and it has a rotary dial that is impossible to miss. That dial can be used to either dial a full phone number or to speed dial one of your contacts. A small OLED screen just below the rotary dial displays the number you’re calling and a larger flexible ePaper display on the back provides more room for text messages or contact lists. Because this phone puts the phone calls front and center, particular attention has been paid to call clarity and reception. It has an internal antenna, but you can also attach an external antenna if you want to get the best reception possible.

Haupt originally designed the Rotary Un-Smartphone for her own use, but it created a serious stir on the internet. That’s why Haupt’s company Sky’s Edge is now accepting pre-orders for kits so you can build your own. These kits come with everything you need to assemble a complete Rotary Un-Smartphone and are more polished than Haupt’s original project. The new design includes injection-molded parts in a variety of colors, a polished brass mechanical ringer, a physical microphone disconnect switch, and bright incandescent-style LED indicator lights. It has 2G, 3G, and 4G connectivity and can accept SIM cards from most manufacturers. The pre-order price is $390 and kits are expected to ship before this summer.