Light Phone III Launches

March 2025

On March 27th, we began shipping the Light Phone III to our earliest pre-orders. It's been truly amazing to hear from the users about their experiences with the new phone.

"Just got my light phone iii - the build quality is insane. it's feels like a brick and I love it."

"I was blown away by the major improvements, the new screen felt extremely responsive and removed the lag problem with the last model, and the new GPS felt much more accurate and easier to use."

"I truthfully just wanted to send this email to extend my utmost appreciation to you all and the entire team for your work done on the Light Phone III! You certainly nailed it out of the park, and a lot of my friends are interested (and pleasantly excited/surprised as well). It's a joy to go Light with a device like this in my opinion, with the build quality, speaker, and camera being some of my favorite parts so far. Even the sound quality of a call is crystal clear like no other phone I have used or tested before!! Anyways, I just wanted to share this to let you know that a long-term Light Phone Il user is incredibly happy with what you guys have done."

"Wow!! Incredible phone. My wife and I are very privileged to be holding these. I've been a light phone ii user for years and this phone checked all the right boxes for my wife to ditch her iPhone. Very happy about that."

"Had the phone with me the whole day, it was such a great experience. Everything works perfectly, have full bars in the middle of the woods in Germany and in Denmark too. The display is amazing and I had a lot of positive feedback from strangers along the way."

"I absolutely LOVE this iteration of the Light Phone. Thank you all so much for giving me back my most precious commodity: time. :)"

"I recently received my Light Phone III and love it! I came from the Light Phone Il, and you guys really nailed it. You answered (or will with updates in some cases) all my frustrations with the Light Phone III."

"Day 1 with the Light Phone 3. Love love love it. I am already seeing how much my brain tweaks for distraction. It was refreshing to let my brain just 'boot up' on its own and just 'be'."

We also shared some prototypes with a few journalists ahead of the launch so we could have their reviews on the new phone out there as well. It was cool see someone like Becca Farsace mention their plans to continue to use the Light Phone beyond their initial test review.

Below are some excerpts from our launch day coverage:

Photo: David Pierce / The Verge

From David Pierce at the Verge:

"It won't be the right device for everyone, but I am awfully charmed by it.

Light Phones have always been nicely designed, but the newest model is my favorite yet. The all-black-everything design makes the Phone III feel a little like something a spy might carry, and the sharp-edged boxiness kind of makes it feel like a weapon.

I was surprised how quickly I adapted to most of life with the Light Phone.

The idea of the Light Phone is to turn "using your phone" into a thing you do on purpose, not absentmindedly whenever your brain is unoccupied for three seconds. Having instant, always-on access to everything is not a good thing, and the Light Phone takes it away. I have used the Light Phone III less than any other phone I've ever reviewed, and that is a great thing."

Photo: Julian Chokkattu / Wired

From Julian Chokkattu at Wired:

"A significant hardware upgrade over its predecessor, the Light Phone III is the digital detox we need right now. It's super fluid and smooth, no doubt thanks to the upgraded Qualcomm SM 4450 chipset inside with 6GB of RAM.

Microphone quality is also rock solid. I took multiple calls, and no one found my voice quality lacking. The bottom grille is the stereo speaker, and the audio is surprisingly good - it can get decently loud!

The Light Phone III is a lesson it letting go and learning that you don't need access to that bus-load of apps every waking moment.

I reviewed the original Light Phone II in 2019 and said it's not the cure for smartphone addiction. Now? It absolutely is.

Yes, you can buy a feature phone and enjoy the same levels of digital detox, but there's nothing else quite like the Light Phone III. It might have sat it my pocket far longer than any other phone I've tested, but it has an aesthetic that makes me enjoy using it in those limited interactions. Best of all, it's given me more time to take care of a few things around the house this past week, instead of scrolling through Instagram all day."

Photo: Kyle Kucharski / ZDNET

From Kyle Kucharski at ZDNET:

"It's setting a new standard for simplified phones by combining a sleek, minimal product with a focused purpose.

The idea of going back to a flip phone or lo-fi early-2000s Motorola might be exciting in theory, but navigating a 2.8-inch display, physical buttons, or worse - T9 texting - is, in practice, more trouble than it's worth.

The Light Phone III addresses these problems with a compelling product and third iteration of an idea: it's a dumbphone, but with an enjoyable - luxe, even - user experience and hardware package."

Light Phone III spotted on Seth Meyers show

Amidst the reviews of the phone, we do think it's important to remember that the most important feature of the Light Phone III isn't listed on the spec sheet. That is that the Light Phone III is designed to be used as little as possible, and using a Light Phone is a true lifestyle change. The biggest benefit of going light is the countless hours of your life that you reclaim. We think Christopher from Slate said it well:

"Two and a half years ago I gave up my iPhone. I never regretted it once.

What started off as a yearlong experiment turned into a different way of life.

...you really have to stick with it longer [than the one week a lot of reviewers try the phone] (accepting all the challenges that come with it) to feel the liberating effects of what the company calls “going Light.”