Beta Testing & Mass Production Kickoff | The Light Phone

Beta Testing & Mass Production Kickoff

February 2025

February Update

Earlier this week the labs submitted our final FCC tests so we can be granted our certification. We also kicked off the mass production process starting with the SMT assembly line (populating the circuit boards).

Over the past few months various labs around the world have thoroughly tested the Light Phone III for different certifications without any serious setbacks. While there have been some minor logistical delays in that process, we are only about 2-3 weeks behind our previous update, with deliveries starting in late March.

We've been steadily increasing our beta testing size and the feedback has been very encouraging. We are in the final stretch before officially launching next month and we cannot wait to share the Light Phone III with the world. Here are some studio photos of the final product:

Mass Production Kick Off & Shipping Timeline

The Light Phone III launches on March 27th!

This is the schedule leading up to launch:

(approx 2 weeks for stamped approval)

Note: for our European users, while the regulatory certification for CE has been running in parallel, it is roughly 2 weeks behind schedule which will likely delay those first shipments until April. We're really sorry about this inconvenience and will keep everyone posted about that process.

When will I get my phone?

When we send out our order confirmation emails about your specific order number, we will have a more precise delivery window for your phone. The earliest pre-orders began to ship in the last week of March 2025. Orders will continue to fulfill chronologically into August. We are working hard to get another production line in motion so that we can increase our weekly output even more. New pre-orders have an estimated September 2026 delivery.

Light Phone III Beta Testing

Note - the examples shown in the video below are from our beta testing process; the screen designs are not fully fleshed out or refined yet. Our first goal was to thoroughly test all of the different functionality of the LightOS and the various optional tools we'll have for launch.

While there are still some features we're working out for launch, the core functionality is working as expected.

Light Phone III Beta Testing from The Light Phone on Vimeo

Keyboard Experience

One big goal of the Light Phone III design was to vastly improve the keyboard experience. Both the wider size of the device and the faster screen have helped achieve this goal.

A change we made through the beta process was moving the 'send' button to top right of the screen. We found that we would accidentally press it when editing longer messages. Now there is even more room for draft messages.

You can also see hints at some future features we are working on in the keyboard design like sending "attachments", things like contacts and images for launch, and potentially even one's location, calendar events or notes in the future. There is also a placeholder for where we'll support the ability to send audio messages.

Directions Tool

As we mentioned in the last update, another big priority for the Light Phone III has been reworking the Directions tool. We’ve redesigned it around an updated and dynamic live navigation map view for driving/walking directions. This simplifies the tool and makes it much more practical for day to day use.

In addition to visual improvements made possible with a larger and faster screen, we also spent a lot of time working with HERE and Foxconn to take advantage of the new hardware to improve the actual performance of the tool. Getting an initial GPS lock takes significantly less time. We are utilizing various sensors like the gyro and network antennas to refine that experience even more.

Going forward we'd like to explore features like offline maps, being able to pinch and move around the route map view, and offering a biking option for transportation mode.

Camera & Album Tool

The camera & album are two new tools exclusive to the Light Phone III. You can actually open the camera tool by pressing the shutter button at any point when the phone is awake. We've found this tactile experience to be really wonderful. For instance, with gloves on I could wake the phone, open the camera and take a photo without needing to remove my gloves to use the touchscreen.

The album tool allows you view all images/videos and screenshots saved on your phone (take a screenshot by pressing the power button + volume down simultaneously). You can sort the album tool by photos, videos or all media and delete any image from the tool. We're currently wrapping up the ability to send any image as a text or forward it to your email. Soon we'll also support manually rotating images (the gyro does auto-orient vertical images currently) and the ability to select multiple images at once to delete/send in bulk. You can offload all of your images to your computer using a USB-C cord. We'll continue to explore more options for sharing your images or syncing them with the dashboard or other platforms beyond launch.

Volume Settings Upgrade

Any previous Light Phone II user will appreciate the upgrades we've made to the the notification settings to allow for more clear control of the device volume across the ringer and different tools. There are more levels for controlling the ringer itself (from 5 levels previously) and when using the volume buttons there is a shortcut to this page (Settings > Notifications) where you can control the volume all of the different audio streams.

Podcast & Music Tools

So far we've only made some minor UX improvements to the podcasts and music tools, but we have been using them a lot and are excited to continue to add more features. For the music tool we plan for more sorting options like albums & artists since there is much more storage for larger libraries. We'd like to also eventually support custom playlists. We'll continue to beta test the bluetooth function across a variety of devices; we're working to support compatibility with bluetooth device controls for skipping/pausing as well.

Other Software Improvements

In building the LightOS to support a new device, we took the opportunity to step back and improve the entire system from what we've learned over the past 6+ years of developing the Light Phone II. A lot of this work is 'under-the-hood' so to speak, but we are confident it will provide a more stable, reliable and performant user experience across all aspects of the phone and dashboard.

We've reworked the onboarding process, adding new emergency SOS protocols and optional logging to help us more efficiently fix bugs and troubleshoot with users. We've built a more comprehensive firmware stack allowing for fast, consistent fleet updates & security patches. This new updater also shows end users much finer levels of detail of the exact status of the update. We've addressed handling some outlier situations, making it more robust. We have a stronger authentication protocol between the Light Phone III and its key services. We're better leveraging content delivery networks to improve file transfer speeds for both devices. We've also internally tested other features of the device like fingerprint scanner, eSIM, NFC chip and even making sure our camera can scan QR codes which might be useful for future features like setting up eSIM or beyond.

Accessories & Shipping Confirmation

We will begin emailing everyone starting in late February and into March to ask about adding any accessories to your existing order. We will combine everything and ship them together (free shipping for the accessories themselves).

For the initial accessory offering we will have a slim plastic case, screen protector, extra cables, USB-C to AUX dongle and a custom leather cover from the brand Lemur.

At that time we will also need to confirm everyone's shipping address, regardless of whether or not you'd like to add any accessories. If we do not hear from you, we will hold your order and keep following up until we have that confirmation and can release the shipment. Please be on the lookout for that email in the coming weeks!

Slim Cases

We have finalized our custom slim case for the Light Phone III. The case is made from 100% recycled plastic (TPU). Since our last update we were able to improve the structure of the fit by making the case a bit thicker to about 1.6mm. We also improved the clickability of the buttons by adjusting the thickness around them. We finalized the texture of the finish and the colors we'll have available for launch which are: white, black, yellow, blue, pink and orange.

The slim cases will cost $15.

Screen Protectors

We've also finalized our final screen protector design, having optimized for front-facing camera and exact matte haze level.

A set of two glass screen protectors will cost $15.

Cables

We'll offer our braided 1m Light USB-C cables for $15.

Lemur Covers

The Lemur brand has made another custom cover for the new Light Phone III. They went for an "all sides" protective solution, closed with one snap button and a few features like a loop (top left corner) for attaching to carabiner or otherwise, speaker holes so you can hear the device through the case, and room for a few cards as well. The cover will be offered in four colors: black, red, blue and light gray. We'll have more details once the cover is live, but they did share this video of it.

The Lemur recycled leather cover retails for $47.

Next Steps...

In the coming weeks leading up to launch and beyond, we'll continue our momentum to keep rolling out software updates. We'll finalize the ability to preview/send image messages for launch. We'll keep working on the other new features like fingerprint ID and eSIM support. We'll ensure we're prepared to help with troubleshooting any unexpected issues promptly.

We're working to upgrade a lot of support assets to help make the onboarding and adjustment process as simple and straightforward as possible.

We have lots of ideas for other things we can develop from other battery covers to additional third-party accessories. We'd like to develop some kits for the Toyo toolbox packaging so that it can be as useful as possible.

But most importantly, we seriously cannot wait to get the Light Phone III into your hands and into the world. We are so proud of it and really think you're going to love it too.

We appreciate your patience and support with us.

A sincere thank you from all of us at Light!

Thanks for reading this update, we're so excited!

You can still pre-order the Light Phone III for the limited time discount of $699.