TCL Flip2: A Modern Flip Phone, Cure for Doomscrolling, and a Fashion Statement

Tue Jul 21 2026 (E: 2026 Aug 06)

Q&A
In Summary

No compensation was received for writing this review.

For just $100, I’ve given myself 1-5 more hours in the day by going with simpler technology. (I kept my SIM card; it’s just put in the flip phone from the old smartphone.)¹

A TCL Flip2 supports 4G. At its side, it has 1 audio port and 1 USB-C port. Besides calling and texting friends, this phone comes pre-installed with:

a clock
file manager
music player (needed to set ringtone)
a web browser
photo gallery (and camera app)
calculator
e-mail client
calendar
note-taker

Out of all of these, the most pointless feature is the camera because there’s barely anything to be seen on a 320 pixel screen. At that point, it’s better to use an actual camera to take and review photos.

See cat picture (1200x1600) for an idea of photo quality.

The phone also doesn’t come with an app store although it appears to be a thing for it’s operating system (KaiOS).

If you’ve ever been told to download an app from a cashier or front desk rep and you’re an Android user without a Google account the conversation typically goes like,

“I use F-Droid near exclusively.”

“But that’s an Android.”

“But I don’t have a Google account.”

Visually, this phone gets to the point that I have no business with the GooglePlay store or any QR codes.

The phone is also totally incapable of capturing my fingerprint. No touchscreen also means the flip phone also can’t click and drag, making online maps including OpenStreetMap near unusable. Any page elements with x-overflow:scroll can’t be seen or used. Even though its considered unprofessional or low quality to have overflowing page elements, it’s better for the phone as I can still pan the viewport left and right.

From a privacy perspective, it’s sounds great to be able to stay in contact with friends and family without carrying a weighty brick of sensors. It’s lighter than a smartphone enough so it doesn’t inconvenience me to put it in a sweater pocket. It’s also small enough so I don’t have to stuff it in my butt pocket either.

Neither of the companies behind the phone TCL for the hardware and KaiOS Technologies for the operating system are explicitly pro-privacy however. The former is a Chinese company partially owned by the Chinese government; otherwise, they seem to just sell electronics. The latter’s business goals are to target “the next billion” (markets outside of Europe and the Americas) with affordable hardware.

The phone operates KaiOS which is a stripped down version of Android, and KaiOS Technologies operates KaiAds, included in most third party developer apps, which leads me to wonder what they did to whatever Google does to Android. Going back to how there isn’t an app store pre-installed, the device is also far less capable of collecting data than a smartphone.

Q&A

How does the phone interact with modern cars?
How secure is it?
How do you type on that thing?
How did you (of all people) develop a doomscrolling habit?

How does the phone interact with modern cars?

Even with Bluetooth enabled, a car’s infotainment system does not recognize the phone.

(The car correctly recognizes a Samsung Galaxy and an iPhone had been inside of it, but the flip phone is a ghost as far as this display is concerned.)

How secure is it?

The phone must be unlocked to initiate USB file transfer. ✅
The Gallery app can be accessed on a locked phone by going to Camera -> Gallery; therefore, an attacker can delete all photos and videos on the device. ❌
- the device will prompt for a PIN in attempting to edit the photo but does not for deletion.
- if the folder DCIM/Camera is empty, the Gallery app will then expose pictures|videos from other folders on the device.

I can only set a 4 digit PIN to unlock the phone. So an attacker has a 10/9999 chance in unlocking the phone. After 10 tries, the phone wipes itself. A 4-digit PIN does not give me much confidence, yet it is not my social media client, my wallet, or ID. It’s limitations also means it doesn’t serve as a custodian of personal data.

If I ever have to deal with the police in Utah,² the clam shell design guarantees the phone is locked when I pull it from my pocket. While I can somewhat count on the lock screen to prevent the police from planting cringey manifestos or porn on it, I can’t count on the phone to store audiovisual recordings.

How do you type on that thing?

There’s Abc input and Kt9 text prediction. For the former, I would have to press 2 once to input ‘a’ then 2 twice to input ‘b’.

With Kt9, typing ‘hello’ translates to dialing 43556. So far, it works okay. However, the predictive text program prefers the word ‘rarely’ (adverb) over ‘screw’ (can be both a noun and verb) when dialing 72739, and ‘S’ would have to be specified with the D-pad on the first ‘7’.

How did you (of all people) develop a doomscrolling habit?

It started with stock market trading. The market opens at 6:30 AM Pacific time, which is before I need to go to work. The daily fluctuation is generally +/- 1-6% for any given stock, and the volatility (= opportunity) at opening is the highest.

Sliding my thumb down could mean getting x amount of money. From there, it spiraled into other stuff because laying on my belly to read stuff is too comfortable (in a bad sense).

In Summary

While a simple phone can appeal to pro-privacy people, I see no indication that the companies TCL and KaiOS Technologies align as well as going with a Linux phone from Pine64 or Purism.

If I had things my way, I would change:

unlock PIN to be longer than 4 digits
unlock PIN/password to include alphabetical characters
- and ideally special characters like !@#$%^&*() and so on
the lock screen to add ‘Change Input Method’
- rebind ‘Emergency’ to Right Soft Key; unbind ‘Camera’
- also if someone can’t Kt9 or abc input on a flip phone, it clearly isn’t the owner.
the Gallery app to require the phone to be unlocked to delete photos
- or remove ‘Camera’ from the lock screen
- or uninstall the Gallery app entirely
the Browser app to allow the user to change the default search engine from Google.

Of all devices, a smartphone still exclusively fills the function of:

turn-by-turn navigation, online map access
password-protected | secured camera

I had gotten the flip phone to get away from a touchscreen. So far it has served as a head-turning fashion statement that speaks of data minimalism. If you had ever thought technology has progressed in the wrong direction since the early 2000s, then a modern flip phone can also represent a measured synthesis of both old and new. I can definitely appreciate simplicity and classic phone designs paired with contemporary security standards. (In this case, the latter needs work.)

As the price ranges from $40 used to $100 new, if not free when bundled with a plan, the price is in the same range as dinner with friends or new clothing. Even though I bought the phone at the upper range of its price, cutting doomscrolling and the stress of downward stock market fluctuations out of my life was well worth it. It’s impossible to add more hours in the day, but the phone effectively saves that time.