With new iterations of smartphones emerging every
other week, boasting new tech and hardware, rendering their predecessors
obsolete and consigning them to the scrap heap, some have been clamoring for a
less complicated approach to smart phones. Blloc offers a departure from the
tech-swarmed smartphone market with their Blloc Minimalist smartphone.
It’s odd to see something so inextricable from
technology marketing itself as a “return to our roots.” But it speaks to the convolution
and technological gratuity in the smart tech market that a lower-key smartphone
is viewed as something organic. You can’t knock the mission from Blloc, which
is to curb tech overuse and even addiction to technology and social media. An
efficient, if spartan, OS puts the focus on the people in your contacts book,
and a simple messaging system removes users from spurious interactions,
regrounding them in meaningful communication.
Blloc’s interface reassembles
your fractious interactions and app-usage into a single timeline. Instead of
fragmented conversations and piled up apps, Blloc aims to focus everything into
a single, present-locked scroll. A monochromatic screen reduces battery usage
and keeps it simple – though you can unlock colors with a single touch, if you
prefer. Return to a time when you controlled your smartphone, and not the other
way around, with the BllocZero18. You can buy it for US$ 425.
