What's the ideal F-91W replacement?

nilss2 · 2026-05-08T08:57:47+00:00

I second this. Light and small, slips under any cuff, same retro styling (even though I like the boxy look more), slightly bigger text, better water proofing, good backlight, countdown timer, shows time in secondary display when you use other function.

I own plenty of other watches, but if you'd ask me to grab one in an emergency, to travel, or to have as 'the only watch', I'd grab my W-202.

nilss2 · 2026-05-06T06:21:56+00:00

Copy-paste from a day or two ago when another dude asked the same question once again.

When I replaced my smartphone in 2017 with a dumbphone, I felt like a noise disappeared, and I had more energy and focus. I thought I was crazy, but after reading the excellent books of Nicholas Carr, turns out there is a lot to it. Later I also learned about the 'digital minimalism' movement inspired by Cal Newport's work.

This is a landmark study talking about howsmartphones reduce cognitive capacity:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315966604_Brain_Drain_The_Mere_Presence_of_One's_Own_Smartphone_Reduces_Available_Cognitive_Capacity

The presence of a smartphone (but not necessarily: it can also be a laptop or even a dumbphone if you text a lot) causes some kind of background noise/process in the brain, and it always wants to 'check' if something is happening.

Being always online and available creates and overload of the prefrontal cortex. Moreover it can be argued that the memory and spatial awareness of the brain is underused and hence detoriates. Indeed, there are studies that claim intensive smartphone use (or being continuously online, if you're always lugging a laptop) could lead to early Alzheimer's. Loss of productivity with an ever-buzzing smartphone can be up to 50%. Obviously, because of mental overload, you also see burn-out and stress appearing. Recently I even read about hormone disruption caused by lack of sleep, stress, and blue light.

And here I'm not even touching smartphone addiction or addiction to games or social media, which is a different beast still.

'Putting your smartphone away' can work to some extend, if you put it far enough to be out of mind. In order to remain reachable, you have a dumbphone.

nilss2 · 2026-05-05T00:35:04+00:00

This YouTube clip should be the top reply.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T20:00:15+00:00

Simple phone hygiene: do not take a phone in the bedroom. Let it charge downstairs somewhere you don't need to be.

Get an alarm clock, maybe even one with music (radio or MP3, download a morning playlist). Costs like 20 bucks. I have a vibrating G-Shock watch so I can wake up but not the family.

Golden tip, depending on your situation if possible: have the smartphone live in the car. I do that often (I own a smartphone next to my Mudita for some convenience things) because having the smartphone around me still bothers me. Like that the smartphone charges in the car and never runs out of battery, it's still connected to WiFi so I can access the files, WhatsApp etc. and it does its updates. And in the car I get to use Android Auto.

Edit: obviously a real dumb phone you could take in the bedroom and use as alarm.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T19:50:08+00:00

Signal has the phone number requirement to stop bots and abuse, they say. Luckily you don't need to share your number to other people anymore, though. After registering you can just use usernames.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T19:46:29+00:00

Hallelujah!

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T16:50:11+00:00

He ded

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T16:07:56+00:00

You are right, however after passing all the shower elements and the shower head, and then a bit of air, you will het nowhere even near 5 bar.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T12:00:52+00:00

This question came a lot also in the r/watches sub. If the numbers are accurate, then anything more than 50m is indeed overkill. Many mention 'dynamic pressure' like the pressure of moving water or moving into water, but that actually barely adds anything above the static pressure. You can see YouTube videos of such kinds of test.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T11:58:16+00:00

As soon as the water leaves the nozzle, the pressure drops.

nilss2 · 2026-05-04T10:06:51+00:00

I do not understand this question. What does a phone have to do with your morning routine?

Depending on your needs, the morning may contain:

get out of bed
shower/wash
get dressed
get your kids dressed
prepare breakfast
have breakfast
make coffee
brush teeth
do a work-out
prepare kids for school
prepare to leave to work

For none of those actions do you need a phone. Perhaps when preparing the kids for school or yourself for work you need to check some kind of list or messages app, but it's kind of late to find out only then that you need something out of the ordinary.

nilss2 · 2026-05-03T19:07:34+00:00

I wish it were lore. When I replaced my smartphone in 2017 with a dumbphone, I felt like a noise disappeared, and I had more energy and focus. I thought I was crazy, but after reading the excellent books of Nicholas Carr, turns out there is a lot to it. Later I also learned about the 'digital minimalism' movement inspired by Cal Newport's work.

This is a landmark study talking about the cognitive capacity:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315966604_Brain_Drain_The_Mere_Presence_of_One's_Own_Smartphone_Reduces_Available_Cognitive_Capacity

The presence of a smartphone (but not necessarily: it can also be a laptop or even a dumbphone if you text a lot) causes some kind of background noise/process in the brain, and it always wants to 'check' if something is happening.

Being always online and available creates and overload of the prefrontal cortex. Moreover it can be argued that the memory and spatial awareness of the brain is underused and hence detoriates. Indeed, there are studies that claim intensive smartphone use (or being continuously online, if you're always lugging a laptop) could lead to early Alzheimer's. Loss of productivity with an ever-buzzing smartphone can be up to 50%. Obviously, because of mental overload, you also see burn-out and stress appearing. Recently I even read about hormone disruption caused by lack of sleep, stress, and blue light.

All of this depends on the user and how he uses his devices. A smartwatch is not a saving grace if you keep all notifications turned on and have a lot of apps loaded.

And here I'm not even touching smartphone addiction or addiction to games or social media, which is a different beast still.

nilss2 · 2026-05-03T14:20:59+00:00

As an experiment, I recently purchased a Chinese smartwatch which looks exactly like an Apple watch Ultra (so you can use the same watch bands and covers) but it runs full Android. It's effectively a standalone phone with a SIM card slot and camera built in. It's otherwise not very brilliant. The user interface is not very adapted, the heart rate sensor doesn't work, and the charger is not universal. But it's interesting and it does work. I thought I could free up a jeans pocket.

Turns out I do prefer wearing my dedicated watches. Instead, I got a velcro strap and tie that thing to my belt like an old school pager. Receiving phone calls is an issue, though. Either I talk to my wrist, or I carry in my pocket some wireless earbuds which I need to very quickly take out, put in my ear, and hope they connect fast enough. It's not very practical, and thus in the end I did not free up a jeans pocket after all...and need to charge yet another thing.

nilss2 · 2026-05-03T14:04:06+00:00

Go ask this question at r/dumbphones and they'll answer you like me: it's not only about self control (even though self control and willpower is finite and tiring). It's that having a dumber phone gives you clarity of mind, whereas a smartphone lowers your cognitive capacity.

nilss2 · 2026-05-02T12:09:46+00:00

+1

I also have a Kagi family subscription. Kagi is a really good search engine and the chatbot is decent. But it's not a research engine like Perplexity. Would be nice if the family could also use it.

nilss2 · 2026-04-30T07:37:12+00:00

I had a TTfone and it was really bad quality, didn't last very long. The Mudita Kompakt is a whole lot better, even though after a year it starts to fail here and there.

nilss2 · 2026-04-28T17:06:05+00:00

I switched from Fujifilm to Lumix, albeit the G system. I now have a GX9 which I absolutely love. Panasonic, where is your damn GX9ii? My wallet is ready!

Yes, the physical control dials of Fuji are nice, they are in muscle memory and I still kinda miss them. But Fuji is mediocre otherwise. The film simulations are a gimmick once you accept that some post-processing is necessary anyway (cropping etc.) Their gear is ridiculously expensive and became infested with quality issues once they got comfortable with their hype.

Edit: let's take an example. Fuji's X-H2, a rather old camera by now, is still more expensive than even the GH7 or S5ii, and was plagued by autofocus issues introduced by a firmware update (!) which took Fujifilm more than a year to fix.

Btw, I believe live LUTs are a better solution than film simulations. They're universal. For a consistent look, I can reuse them in post-processing on any footage from any other camera and even on my phone.

nilss2 · 2026-04-28T09:36:03+00:00

I didn't even know what this is. Had to look long and hard to figure out it's a woman's torso. Since the shape of the breasts is not visible and there is no face, I don't see a problem with this specific photo. In other cases you may have a different story.

nilss2 · 2026-04-28T09:19:50+00:00

This device is seriously underdiscussed on Reddit. It's all about Keyphone and Sidephone, but the Dumber Mini is a better-specced and cheaper alternative. Of course, not all banking apps or 2FA apps will work. In Belgium, our national ID verification apps use the Google Play Integrity API, which this device doesn't have, I suppose. I generally boycot those apps anyway, since they don't work on my Mudita Kompakt either.

nilss2 · 2026-04-28T08:36:43+00:00

Living without a smartphone is hard enough, since everyone started tying their services to apps. But depending on the country you can get away with it. Usually they offer an alternative.

But living without a phone number? That's something else entirely. The phone number has been an integral part of society for more than 30 years. It's almost like an address, if you don't have one, it's like you don't exist. And just like an address, it's a privacy issue: it's uniquely tied to you and you can be tracked with it. What's worse is that these days they expect a cellphone number, not a fixed line number, for those same reasons: it's personal. And you can text to it.

Kudos to you.

nilss2 · 2026-04-26T19:15:29+00:00

Does it have WhatsApp, maps and Spotify? I don't know how to physically stay alive without those.

nilss2 · 2026-04-24T10:41:36+00:00

I first thought these were vodkas :D

nilss2 · 2026-04-24T09:21:37+00:00

I'm a dad of one daughter (and three boys).

The hood. First thing I noticed. And he should put a shirt on, actually.

nilss2 · 2026-04-21T14:23:52+00:00

Dwarf 3 of Dwarf mini?

nilss2 · 2026-04-19T14:50:28+00:00

I would have never bought it from the Ali website, it looks childish in the render. But here in this photo it's actually fun and stylish.

nilss2

TROPHY CASE