Light Phone 3 For Minimalists: Barebones Specs, Launch Date And Preorder Details

Remember the minimalist Light Phone III from last year? If you were one of the first to order one last June, you'll be receiving your phone starting March 27. That's a couple of months behind schedule, but no worries, Light hasn't reneged on any of the qualities and specs that make the Light Phone III so enticing. The device, like its predecessor, is a phone pared down to its simplest form: it has no apps and an AMOLED black-and-white display with basic functions like messaging, navigation, alarms, calls, NFC, and calendar to help users disconnect.

Since the first Light Phone came to be in 2015, the series has remained a welcomed breath of fresh air in the smartphone space. Eschewing practically everything we've come to accept of what makes a smartphone a smartphone, the folks at Light have a product that's shaped slightly taller than a square (like the offspring of a Palm Pre and HP Veer) with almost everything else stripped to the bare essentials.

For customers who want to escape and disengage from social media or just want the least amount of distractions, the latest Light Phone III doesn't support apps—that means no app store, no Facebook, no TikTok, no web browser, not even access to your email. Instead, users navigating the black-and-white display can make calls, send and receive text messages, set alarms, use navigation, listen to downloaded music/podcast files, take notes, use the calendar, and set timers or alarms.

That's not to say that the device is behind the times either. Light upgraded the Phone III with a 3.92-inch 1,240 x 1080 AMOLED with a matte surface. The shell is still thoughtfully compact at 106.0 x 71.5 x 12.0 millimeters and 124 grams with IP54 dust-water resistance. There's NFC for contactless payments, a 50-megapixel camera in the rear (photos are binned down to 12MP), and an 8MP selfie. Running the whole show is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 paired with 6GB RAM/128GB ROM, so performance should be sprightly considering the phone's modus operandi.

The new phone supports LTE and 5G (via nano SIM and e-SIM support), plus has an 1,800 mAh battery (double that of the previous gen, promising a full day of normal use).

If you want Light Phone III, there's a limited-time pricing of $600, after which it'll rise to $800 after the official launch. For a minimalist phone, the price sure isn't.