Thank you both for the warnings. I have been looking for a "dumb" phone and arrived at the Nokia and now I am eyeing up the AGM M8 FLIP Security+ [1] instead.
I'm noticing that the pricing is completely different on my desktop and mobile - I'm seeing the M8 Flip Security+ for $79 on mobile and $116 after sale cuts on desktop. I don't think it's a currency issue, I think it's a "my VPNs are set to exit IPs in different countries" thing. High in CA (with currency set to Global US$), low with Swedish IP.
Interesting, it has the same stylings as the old Samsung flip phones - which were horrdendous to develop for on J2Me because of various bugs and the tools not giving you any good ways to get debug data from them.
Yeah I wanted to like the nokia, but it was such a cheap plastic-y build.
Nokia refusing to repair it did leave a bad taste also.
Funny enough the software on the nokia and the M8 was very similar.
I also had the CAT S22 flip, but I couldn't warm to it.
It's really heavy and bulky, runs android so can be a bit sluggish, not amazing battery. I even rooted it and removed some of the bloatware it comes with, but it just isn't a great phone.
I had no issues with the M8 Flip, I got the normal version, not the security plus. Even though the camera is not great, sometimes it can be useful to be able to send an image over MMS.
It's nice and light but still feels quality. Good loud speaker etc.
It has call recording, optionally automatic, which is important for me.
It takes an SD card and I was able to transfer contacts as a vcf file, podcasts, and even exercise videos after some conversion. Not that the screen was amazing for watching things, but for following an exercise video would work in a pinch.
Another thing I found cool is the ability to selectively lock the screen.
It's kind of painful to have to type a pin if you just want to use the calculator or something.
It has the option to choose which menu items are protected by the pin. So for example, things like call recordings, media, sms I would have locked, but not some other things.
I'm actually not using it at the moment, I moved to a jelly star by unihertz, which I love, but it's a very different offering. Though I am considering going back to the M8 for a few months.
[1]: https://www.agmmobile.com/products/agm-m8-security