When mobile phones first hit the mainstream in the mid-1990s, they all had one thing in common: buttons. There were buttons to help you ploddingly compose a text, buttons to help you navigate menus, and buttons to direct a hungry snake around your screen.
Fast-forward a decade, and these pushable interfaces all but disappeared, swept aside by the rise of touchscreens. However, for one ethical smartphone company, buttons are making a comeback, as part of an effort to help users intentionally switch off.
The newly released Fairphone (Gen. 6) doesn’t have many buttons, but it wants to make the ones it does have count. Like the fluorescent lime-coloured switch on the right-hand side, which flicks it into Fairphone Moments, a mindful mode that cuts out notifications and allows just five essential apps.
