Punkt MP02 Review
I've used the Punkt MP02 as my daily driver for a little over a month now, and in this post I am going to share my thoughts on it. Enjoy!
Expectations
I bought this phone looking for an alternative to my iPhone.
Even though I've kept my iPhone setup minimal, I've been keeping an eye on the different minimal phones appearing on the market lately.
I like the idea of having good alternatives to a smartphone, and I thought that the Punkt MP02 would be absolutely perfect for me, as it has all the features (or lack of) that I need.
Build
I want to start of with my favorite part of this phone: the build.
It might be the nicest looking phone I've seen. Designed by Jasper Morrison, it features a tiny LCD display, a T9 keyboard with tactile buttons and a slightly slanted back that makes it fit nicely in your palm, in your pocket, or on a table.
No complaints here!
Features
The Punkt MP02 runs a skinned version of Android, with a nice and fairly intuitive UI.
From what I've read online, the software of this phone was outsourced, and the updates the phone has seen since its launch has only been for various bug fixes.
And let me tell you, the software of this phone is full of bugs. So many that using this phone as your daily driver is almost comical.
Most of the bugs are small UI glitches, like incorrect contact names in your texting list, but I've also experienced complete freezes of the device.
But more often than not, the phone functions as expected. And the feature list well thought out and includes just what you would need in a minimal phone.
Calling is good, although the quality is significantly worse when compared to the WiFi calling between iOS devices that I am used too. I also wish the ear-level speaker would be louder.
Texting is very good, the T9 keyboard is responsive and you even have emoji support. You can also receive MMS images, although they are very hard to see on the tiny display. But still nice to have!
Utility apps like notes, a clock with alarms and a stopwatch, calculator and even a calendar is also included. They all function just as you would expect, expect the calendar which does nothing except show you the current date.
Tethering is perfect. I can toggle it on and off using a shortcut with only one keypress, and I can connect my laptop to the 4G hotspot from the phone. This is something I missed when I used the 2G Nokia 3310 a couple of years ago!
Flip to silent is a pretty cool feature, automatically setting the phone to silent mode when the screen is placed face down on a surface. This works perfectly when inside, but has the side effect of turning your phone to silent mode when placed in your pocket, rendering the feature pretty useless.
Sounds and ringtones on this device are all very nice. The default received SMS sound is a whistle that sort of reminds me of the old Samsung sounds. And bonus, they are all made by a Norwegian sound designer.
Navigation on the phone is non-existent, but the phone is actually built with a GPS unit onboard. It makes me wonder if Punkt had had bigger plans of the software on this phone, but has not been able to deliver?
Sideloading apps
I've recently started a new job, and to my frustration I am required to use an app to unlock the doors to my office.
I knew of this when I bought this device, and thought I could combat this by sideloading the app used for unlocking the office doors.
But no! Not possible.
And it makes me very frustrated, as the phone would be perfectly capable of running it!
This is the price we pay for a “secure” device, as the possibility of accessing adb (Android Debug Bridge) is not possible.
As a customer of Punkt I think this is such a shame, as I have bought the device and would expect to have the possibility to modify it however I want.
I've seen some people online try to get adb on the MP02 without any success, so I'll keep looking out for a potential root in the future.
Conclusion
Not being able to sideload apps on the Punkt MP02 was ultimately a dealbreaker to me, so I won't be using the phone as my daily driver anymore.
Maybe this says more about the society we live in and how dependent we have become of our smartphones, making it impossible to do something as easy as going to work without one.