When I bought the Nokia 2780 Flip—a bare-bones device frequently recommended by “dumb phone” devotees—I wanted it to be bad. Ideally, it would be clunky to hold, tediously slow, and devoid of the kind ...

Some things were just better with flip phones. Being mostly buttons and not cursed with touchscreens, one could reach over, open it, hit a speed dial button, and tuck it between shoulder and cheek ...