Cat S22 Flip (16GB) 2.8" Touchscreen, Android 11, IP68 Water Resistant, 4G LTE GSM (T-Mobile Unlocked for MetroPCS, Global) (Black)

I used to be in the habit of always reaching for my iPhone whenever I was idle. My iPhone was terrible for my mental health, and I wanted a phone that was a utility, not a perpetual attention-suck. So I decided to get a flip phone. But I wanted one that still had the basic utilities I use regularly: messaging (WhatsApp/Signal), GPS, wireless hot spot, 1Password, Spotify, etc. At the same time, I didn't want something I liked too much or that was too inviting to use, because then I'd reach for it all the time. Enter the Cat S22. It's perfect. First of all, the thing is a brick — a far cry from the sleek, thin flip phones we used to have in the early aughts. So I usually keep it in my bag or something, not in my pocket. Second, it's got Android (albeit a stripped down version called Android Go), so I can download any app I want. I have the basics I've mentioned above, and I'm not even tempted to download e.g., Instagram or Facebook, because the screen is so tiny and the phone is so clunky to use that I'd never want to use those apps on it. Third, it's slow as hell. I mean, some screen taps take full seconds to register. Google Assistant on this thing is a joke — most of the time, it's faster to just do things manually. It completely gets in the way of idle usage because it's such a freaking pain in the ass to use that you'd never even be tempted. For example, I'm still occasionally in the habit of reaching for my phone when I'm stopped at a red light to e.g., check text messages or something. But the S22 is so slow to switch between apps that it's starting to beat that habit out of me. It's worth mentioning that the integration between the T9 keyboard and the software keyboard is pretty crappy. Most of the time, I just want to do voice to text, so I just use the GBoard and click the mic icon instead of typing. One note in the plus column is that this phone is indestructible. I've dropped it a number of times and it's still good as new. Aside from that: absolute garbage phone. So pick one up if you're sick of being on your phone all the time!

Frequencies: It has a lot of frequencies covering 2G, 3G, and 4G. Also, since it came out in 2021 as 5G was advertising, it has all the 4G fixings that some cellular companies denied phones for not having even when they had 4G. Additionally, it has a radio built with several country's radio frequencies as selections, meaning you could visit a lot of different countries and simply use the phone as a portable radio player without even connecting it to cellular service. It's not a HAM radio, but for a phone, it's pretty nice. Glass: Gorilla Glass 5 on both the inside and outside. Looking into glass quality, today's nice phones should have Gorilla Glass Victus. Curiosities: A flip phone with cameras on both sides and can be closed and put upside down which makes both cameras unable to gain any picture - you watch these movies of this or that specialist breaking into a phone and looking through the camera... not on an upside flip phone, lol. Guess that's why it's not in the movies. Hardware: The phone 'could' handle 3GB of RAM, but Google would not put Android 11 Go on any phone that had more than 2GB of RAM, so the CAT s22 has the cap of 2GB of RAM. The storage included is 16 GB, while the hardware can handle 128 GB MicroSD card, preferably the SanDisk High Endurance memory as specifically noted in other CAT phone documentation I read. When this 128 GB MicroSD card of SanDisk High Endurance memory is used, the choice to use it as an external memory source(not encrypted) or as part of the phone memory(safer because it is encrypted) becomes a choice of yours. Most apps and games and games will not run on the MicroSD card, but some will. The app game works like this, install the app, login, download whatever you use, then close the app, move it to storage and see if it keeps working(Do NOT do this to apps you need, like your Firewall). If it stops working when you try to run it, or when you try to run it after a restart, then it needs internal memory. Battery: The battery is not much smaller than the screen size, which is what you want today's smartphone battery to be, the size of the screen. Bluetooth is probably going to eat battery... certainly wouldn't be the first phone to do that to. An unfirewalled phone will eat some battery, so the efforts to get your firewall down as tight as you can comfortably run it is worth it for the life of your battery. Battery saver should probably always be on, and some apps use more battery playing voice or music than others. The ESV Bible app, when playing voice, eats battery. Still, that Kristyn has one of the most amazing voices I've never paid for. It's definitely one of the best voices I've ever heard, easily the quality of the best voices I have paid for. The battery is user replaceable. Operating System Updates: The two most popular lines of CAT update for 3 years, counting the year they come out. A phone that comes out in 2018 will have at least one update in 2020 - in my experience. However, the Cat s22 was not one of these 2 popular lines. The Cat s22 released in 2021 and updated into the middle of 2022. Keyboard: A lot of wimpering has been made on this keyboard. The screen is fully touchscreen, and so that while the Kika(the physical keypad) and the Gboard are installed, the Gboard is set as default. Simply set the Kika as the default keypad, and then go into settings and turn off the soft keypad display. You'll find the Kika keyboard is very space efficient, definitely has a dictionary built in to guess words you haven't finished typing, and doesn't like spaces. Wait, what? My Japanese dictionary said Kika was a sunflower(rare)... so... that makes as much sense as anything else. Japanese doesn't use spaces, it uses particles where spaces are. That is to say, if you press the space button, the Kika's guesses clear, and it starts over. However, space-less sentences the Kika is very good at. Or, if you happen to be going for minimalism, and figure if you know enough words, one word should always do, the Kika has got you covered. What about the choices in the Google Play Store? There are three T9 keyboards in the Google Play store. One is from France, one is from England(Tappy), and one is from India. The most glitchy option is the one everyone recommends(Old T9), primarily because it works with the physical keyboard. Each of the T9 keyboards has a different set of language options, though I find Tappy's option including the gaelics Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Welsh, as well as other languages, the most interesting. Japanese is available from the T9 keypad from France, but it seems to me that Tappy is the T9 option most cared for by the developer. That said, Tappy doesn't appear to work with the physical keypad, or if it does, I don't know how to do it, so Kika will do - because it is not glitchy like Old T9 is. Also, dice passwords from dmuth would be ideal using the Kika keyboard with something like KeePassDX + Donate. You could easily use it for a password chain of 8 words without spaces insanely fast with the Kika keyboard. That is, your KeePass password database could feasibly be safer because of the Kika keyboard than on your laptop. Compatibility: Most everything runs on this... save a few oddities... like Bible Apps? I mean, just for the craziest test, I installed the MMORPG Elemental Knights R Platinum, logged in(after I finally figured out how to make an account so it worked other place besides one phone - hint, the real username that is not shown is a random hexadecimal combination) and after I moved it to internal memory, it worked. Here I am, on a 2.8 inch touch screen, logging into an MMORPG successfully. Then OliveTree Bible doesn't work. Explain that to me? If you have this phone and want to memorize scripture from the Holman CSB, then the Audio Christian Standard Bible, The Bible Memory App(You might prefer Fighter Verses to this one), and Bible Memory: VerseLocker would be a good trio of apps to own. eSword: Bible Study to Go and ESV Bible work well on the CAT s22 also. Especially with the 128 GB MicroSD SanDisk High Endurance, the need for space for CDs you imported from the laptop is ever present. Use Neutron Player and you can play .flac audio files on the CAT s22. Bloatware: This phone has bloatware, but not the sort that eats all your storage space, rather the sort that has no battery optimization options. There were 20 apps on my CAT s22 with no battery optimization options after all updates. The easiest solution is a Firewall, such Glasswire, or InviZible. Limit the apps that are allowed to communicate and your battery will be a LOT happier. There is no need to change permissions. You can choose what talks using the Firewall. Security: I run DNScrypt 24/7. The website and everyone else can know I'm coming when I get there, I don't need a sign on my back while traveling. It's a phone, though, they aren't high security. The apple phone that had a fingerprint hacked was by someone who looked at pictures of the person on the internet who owned the phone until he found one that included a good picture of their finger. Ecryption is always CBC on storage. I mean, sure, you can set the memory card as part of the phone memory, run DNScrypt, get the firewall tighter - by maybe starting with limiting system apps that anti spy mobile pro flags, tighten your web browsers down a bit, use SilentNotes, and use Threema to talk to family... but the rest of the advertising is smoke and mirrors. (I find my comfort allowed system minimums with this Cat s22 using InviZible firewall are 1.Carrier Services, 2.Chrome, 3.DNS(R), 4.Gmail, 5.Google Go, 6.Google Play Store, 7.Google Play Services(GSF), 8.Internet Connectivity Check(R), 9.Meet, 10.Messages, 11.T-Mobile, 12.TDC, 13.YouTube,14.com.android.server.networkpermissionconfig(R) , though your comfort allowed system minimums may vary.) Annoyances: The throttling sometimes causes issues. Particularly if I am putting it through it's paces because it's a new phone to me and I want everything installed, logged in, and working by the weekend. I went from an 8core with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB RAM for app storage to this CAT s22, a 4core with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB RAM for most app storage. It's a little different, but there is something nice about a flip phone. Now if I can just convince Kika that spaces are Kika's friends. Camera: The display is 4:3 (480p, 640Hx480W), front & rear have 640x480 4:3 options(ratio=ratio, so proper display), however front & rear also have 16:9 higher resolution options marked as 4:3 options. It may be an image edit(app or desktop) away from a presentable picture, or simply mistaken notes. This wouldn't be the first 'oops' where ratio was mistakenly recorded wrongly giving mysteriously weird pictures that are only a simple fix away. NFC: there is no tap the phone to pay option on this phone - as my prior phone had this, which was a feature that was as unnerving as it was convenient App Default Screen Limits: 6 apps on screen, 4 apps on quick app bar Apps that have worked for me: ibisPaint, Stop Motion Studio PRO, Space Weather, Facts, Concise ISL(the screen never needs to be touched for this one - the thoughtfulness of testing that went into this app is easy to see when it works so nicely with the number keypad - the speaker button shifts the location the arrow buttons control from), Fighter Verses, Visible Body Physiology & Pathology, Audio Christian Standard Bible, Threema(chat works fine - i am having some odd issue with pics I upload into chat displaying, but it might be a setting I have wrong), Asahi Kanji, Ap Beibl, Anti Spy Mobile Pro, AIDA64, Audible, Microsoft Authenticator, Avery Cat, Bandcamp, Beginner's Go, Bioball, Biobla, Braille Tutor, Brightwheel, Caoga Caoga, Caustic 3, Privacy Cell, Crunchyroll, Crypto-Encryption Tools, Cwrs Mynediad, Cwrs Sylfaen, Docs To Go, e-Sword, Easy Thai Read, Elemental Knights Online Platinum, ESV Bible, Exploding Kittens, FreeBSD Doc, FreeBSD Handbook, HamStudy, HP Prime Pro(seriously, the keys are too small on this one, this is for a seven year old's enjoyment), iBless Torah, Judo Reference (Paid), Collins Irish Dictionary, JA Audiobook Learn Japanese, Kanji Quest, Kanji Tree, 'Kanji, Kana' (Readings of Chinese Characters... 300MB), KeePassDX, KeePro Unlocker, Kobo Books, Lamh Time, Learn CSS - Pro, Learn HTML - Pro, Learn Javascript - Pro, Level 22, Morse Code Practice Oscillator, Morse Trainer, Nemo Irish, Nemo Japanese, Neutron Player, Photo Editor (dev.macgyver), PlayerPro Music Player (Pro) (this plays videos you import), Pixiv Sketch, Pocket Mathematics, Pocket Physics, Posing App, Prime Video, Reddit, Remind, RPG Scribe, RPG Simple Dice PLUS, Ships Lights(well, the whole collection - there's 3), Kanazawa Shogi 2, SilentNotes, Sketch a Day, Skype, Survival Manual, Taekwondo Forms, The Chess - Crazy Bishop, Turnlehrer @home | gymnastics , Tumblr, Uciana(Kittens Game too), Bible Memory: VerseLocker, VRM Posing Mobile, WhatsApp, WHRMeter, Winzip, Word Games PRO (100+ games in one app), Yahoo Mail Go, ザ 花札, ラジオFM日本 Practical Memory: Stay less than 10GB of the 12GB of app space available to prevent automatic triage deleting by the phone software. Use SD Maid and SD Maid Key to keep your phone purring. Perfect apps: Concise ISL (Irish Sign Language), Magi Ann series (Learn Welsh), eSword - these work with the physical keyboard well. Nemo Language Apps do work fully with the physical keyboard, but the clicking to do so is not intuitive Note: running i2p purple along with dnscrypt breaks Tumblr. dnscrypt alone does not. The bottom line is there's enough smartphone here to use apps, but a small screen without small fingers can make it more useful as a device for audio books, music, and talking to human beings - although it certainly does receive spam calls as well as any other phone. My child regularly plays this or that video game on this phone, particularly Avery Cat(Every Cat: Match3 link) and Level 22, and those small fingers are perfect for this phone. I press a few times to get my audiobook playing. Still, as Gorilla Glass 5 is on $500 US phones in stores today... I tend to look at other phones and then hold onto this phone. Of course, my child is eagerly waiting for the day I get another phone... because she wants this one.

After two weeks of using this, I've found several things frustrating about it simply because this version of Android wasn't meant for flip phones. CONS: 1. While typing on the touchscreen with gesture or voice isn't terrible, the fact that this requires a separate app to be able to use the physical buttons as actual buttons is annoying. 2. The physical buttons and screens are both fingerprint smudge magnets and require constant cleaning. 3. If you use a password to unlock the phone, the screen locks every time you flip the phone closed, even changing the "screen lock after timeout" time doesn't do anything. Personally I hated having to enter my password every time I flipped the phone open, and I removed the lock. At this price you could buy 2 of these, keep 1 locked with all your accounts logged into and the other one as an unlocked dumbphone you just use for music/calls and texts that you leave unlocked since you're flipping it open more frequently. OR pair it with a smart watch so you don't have to constantly open the phone. 4. The included USB cable is for charging only and not file transfer, so you need to purchase or have another cable that works with file transfer to add music or other files to the phone. And after formatting an SD card in the phone, it remains permanently write protected if you try to transfer files directly from another device to the SD card. WTF. 5. Even for a basic phone from 2021, I'd say the camera is pretty crap. An Iphone from 2015 takes better pictures. 6. Despite supposedly being "rugged" the phone overall feels plastic-y and less durable than early 2000s Nokia phones, or even a Doogee phone that's actually encased in metal. 7. Would be nice to have a 3.5mm jack on a "throwback" phone like this. 8. Lack of a "symbol" key on the physical keypad. PROS: 1. Very good battery life, if you use it sparingly without any background apps draining battery, one charge could last you 4-5 days. 2. PRICE!! At $260 I would never consider this thing due to the flaws, but now ~$60 seems to be a fair price for what's included. 2. Removable/changeable battery that can easily be purchased and charged outside of the phone. 3. Easy to use SD/SIM card slots. 4. Decent speaker quality. 5. Very good touch-screen response for a screen of this size. 6. Very usable version of Android that can help transition people who are accustomed to full feature smartphones. 7. Being able to combine use a touchscreen and keypad is very Blackberry-like

EDIT: 1 stars. This phone has expandable memory, yet cannot handle an sd card formatted for extra internal memory. I've returned the phone, since thats a huge dealbreaker for me. Good luck having any pictures or data outside of a few apps with a measly 16gb internal. Not to mention it always read the sd as corrupted, and would restart itself randomly. Shame. I really liked this phone save for these issues. ------------ I was looking to switch to a flip phone since the smart phone is too much these days. It was a big distraction for me at work and home and figured enough is enough. The Cat S22 Flip is like a dumphone with some smart features. Its running Android 11 and has the Google Play store meaning you can install apps on it. There are some issues I have with the device after approx. 5 days of usage though. 😓 The native T9 keyboard on this phone is atrocious and you're gonna want to get the 'Old T9 Keyboard' on the app store if you want to use the physical keyboard properly. It has expandable storage which I've been having some issues with (Rebooting causes the 128gb microSD I bought for it to wack out and deletes all my pictures/data..) thats an issue you may run into dealing with this phone. Sometimes it behaves well, other times not so much. But try not to handle it like a tanky Galaxy device, its processor does the job well but it does run a little slower as one would expect. The battery life is good. My previous phone (Galaxy S21) died almost every day! I was impressed to find out that the Cat S22's battery has lasted almost 2 days on a single full charge. I downloaded some music and even during streaming that it didnt drastically drain the battery at all which has me suprised.

This phone is awesome, especially for the price. I bought the first one for myself from a different online vendor. It arrived and was exactly what I wanted, so much so that my husband wanted one too. Bring us to Amazon, where it was priced better and you have the Amazon A to Z guarantee. My husbands phone arrived and he was just as happy as I was. It can function as a sort of smart phone if that’s what you want, but we bought it for the opposite reason. We love that this phone actually gives you the option to shut down apps, you have control over what can run and what can’t, unlike other smart phones that have tons of unnecessary apps running in the background. The battery charges quickly and lasts much longer than other devices. The audio is loud and clear. The only change is that the keyboard is either on screen or an odd version of the number pad, not like the old school version but something drastically different. I’ll will be looking into the downloadable keyboard another review mentions. If you do opt to use the screens keyboard, it IS shockingly accurate for how tiny it is. Even my husband, who has larger fingers than I do, has no issues using the tiny screen pad to type if he has to. All in all it’s a great SOLID phone. Like a slightly thicker and more durable RAZR.

The phone is slightly more than a "minimalist phone," but it has some issues. A couple are the small amount of storage (16 gb) and it can be slow. With small amount of storage you'll need to limit the amount of Android apps you install to the ones that are a priority. Apps, and with using the phone in general, may be a bit difficult to use on its small screen. They're the same or similar apps, but it won't be the same as using them on an average Android phone. Using the web browser may be a challenge. The slowness will be apparent on some apps more than others. An example is Skype. There are delays when making choices and even dialing a number manually. I've needed to wait two or three seconds between each number pressed, before selecting the next. When using Skype the sound comes out of the speaker near the mouthpiece, not the earpiece. There may be a way to change that, but I haven't figured that out yet. Getting the rear compartment open to access the SIM, SD card slot and battery may be a bit difficult after loosening the screw. I was concerned I might accidentally crack the cover. Putting the cover back in place after opening it is also a small chore. It has to do with a red rubber seal that keeps water out if the phone gets wet. The phone I purchased is unlocked, but the software is designed for T-Mobile. With this model you'll see the T-Mobile logo when starting it, and a pre-installed T-Mobile app. It's worth a try, but don't expect it to be your primary phone. Don't toss out your other phone when this one arrives. It has a front and rear facing cameras, but if you're looking for picture quality that's on mid to higher end devices, this phone is not for you. The phone accepts a MicroSD card for extra storage, but I haven't installed a card as of yet. The sound quality is acceptable, but don't expect it to sound like you're sitting in an orchestra pit. No stereo sound. When watching videos/YouTube, all the sound comes out of a speaker where the mouthpiece is. As for the price, it's come down a lot since the phone was introduced. On Amazon, I've noticed the price alternating between $52 and $63. I don't know what that's about, but try to catch the lower price when ordering. In all, for what the phone is, it's a decent phone. It's compact, seems sturdy, but is on the heavy side. It's possible you might like it, but in my case I'll keep it handy as a spare and to play around with, but it won't be a phone I'll primarily use.

Got this because I was tired of carrying around a boring rectangle and also wanted to stop mindlessly scrolling. It's *just* smart enough that it will run the few apps I need (bank app, MFA, email) while otherwise working like an old dumb phone. But this is no dumb phone. I can do just about everything I could do on my old rectangle with this. Yeah, it's a little slower, the screen is smaller, and you have to type things out in tap/T9, but the latter two are features as far as I'm concerned. The great thing about this phone is that, if I need to, I can do anything I could do with my old phone, but it's *just* annoying enough that I don't want to make a habit out of it. If you're a social media addict, this phone is not for you. (Again, a feature from my view). If you're looking to downsize to something that's not a time/attention suck but can't give up a few necessary apps, this is definitely for you. Pros: - Great for digital detox while still allowing access to apps you have to have - Feels way more comfortable in your hand compared to the boring, cookie-cutter rectangles - Screen is surprisingly crisp and readable for being portrait-oriented VGA. (480x640) - Browsing the web is surprisingly snappy and fluid (used FF mobile and Chrome) - The programmable key can be used to toggle the flashlight - Good call quality. Supports VoLTE and VoWiFI (at least it does on T-Mobile) - Solid build, water resistant (haven't tested), and durable - Physical keys - Has GPS, and map apps work - Most apps seem to just work even though this is Android Go instead of vanilla Android. The few apps that didn't work just didn't work correctly on the small screen (most apps scaled just fine). - WiFi hotspot works (may be carrier dependent; my plan allows it). - Supposedly unlockable bootloader. I'm buying a second one of these to experiment with custom ROMS; hopefully a newer version of Android can work since these come with, and are stuck at, Android 11. - Minimal bloatware. I disabled pretty much all of the default/Google apps and replaced them with better alternatives from F-Droid. The only pre-installed app that cannot be disabled (without rooting, anyway) is the T-Mobile app. Meh: - Speaker is just okay. You'd think with the space available it would be a little better. Nothing to complain about, but also nothing to write home about. - The default Google apps aren't really optimized for the small screen. Google Maps, in particular, with its ridiculous amount of clutter was frustrating to use (granted, it's become frustrating to use even on a larger phone). Installed Organic Maps from F-Droid, and problem solved. GPS seems accurate and even works indoors. Cons: - Camera is not great. It's a little better than the cameras on flip phones of yore, but don't expect anything like you're used to with even the worst smartphones. It's basically an afterthought. If you're in broad daylight, they'll probably turn out okay. If you're inside without full illumination, you're better off committing the moment to memory than trying to capture it with this. - Dead end device. Bullitt, the manufacturer of these, left the phone market in early 2024. All CAT phones were made by them, and these are the last of them. It has two updates (which it should check for during initial setup), but after that, it's stuck in time on Android 11. Which is really sad because I love this thing, and it's truly one of a kind. - Programmable key is limited in what it can be programmed to do. It's also not recognized by the KeyMapper app. Long pressing it can do one of a few pre-programmed actions or launch an app. Double-clicking it can do a bit more, but that is the only action which can turn on the flashlight, so I leave it on that. - Outer screen is very low resolution and sometimes the indicators are cropped off. Also, sometimes the outer screen will show a really tiny, low-res version of the inner screen when you close the phone (will 'reset' to the proper status display if you press a volume button or the programmable button). - The default launcher does not allow adding web apps to home screen. I thought this was an Android Go limitation at first, but after replacing the default launcher with a different one, that functionality became available. - The default T9 keyboard annoyingly does not remember the last mode you had it in. I tend to use tap mode for most things, but it always defaults to T9 English despite showing "Abc" mode. Replaced that with Traditional T9 from F-Droid.

Awesomne flip smart/dumb phone. Works great, setup is a breeze.