Mudita Kompakt Review: A Minimalist Phone That Might Help You End Your Smartphone Addiction

We exist in a world of screens everywhere. It’s impossible to live in the modern world without feeling overconnected. It contributes to anxiety, fear of missing out, and just generally makes us antisocial. Mudita believes there’s a middle ground between smartphones and dumbphones that can help give us all some relief, and that’s why they’ve created the Mudita Kompakt phone.

The Mudita Kompakt takes treating your smartphone addiction seriously, and they made sure the hardware was satisfying and impressive, even if it’s not flashy. The unit we received is gray, but the Kompakt also comes in black and white. Mudita also sells cases and screen protectors, but honestly, for a plastic phone, it’s quite robust and tough. The screen is sharp and clear…and eInk, making it easier on your eyes and much less tempting than your iPhone 16 Pro.

It’s hard to explain why, but there’s something super charming about the Mudita Kompakt. When my girlfriend first picked it up, she said, “This thing looks like a toy for one of my nieces!” But after playing with it, she agreed there’s something comforting about the case’s curves and the phone’s overall feel. It has a nice heft to it, and while it looks simple, it feels really solid and high quality.

Specs take a backseat here to the minimalist approach of the Mudita Kompakt, but for reference, here they are:

• Display: 4.3” E Ink, 800×480 resolution
• Battery: 3300 mAh Li-Polymer, up to 6 days in standby mode
• Processor: Quad-core MediaTek MT6761V/WBA
• Memory: 3GB RAM, 32GB Storage (expandable via microSD)
• Audio: ACC Speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Connectivity: 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
• Location: GPS
• Camera: 8MP with dual-color flash
• Operating System: Custom Mudita OS K (De-Googled)
• SIM Configuration: Includes eSIM, 1 nano-SIM, and a hybrid slot (second nano-SIM or microSD)
• Durability: IP54 dust/splash resistance, reinforced internal metal frame
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro, Ambient light sensor, Proximity sensor, Magnetometer
• Languages: English, Spanish, French, Polish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch

Mudita put many little things into the design of the Kompakt’s hardware that make it enjoyable to use. The volume buttons are delightfully clicky, the fingerprint reader in the power button works really well, and there’s even a HEADPHONE JACK! Sorry, but that’s such a rare occurrence that it’s exciting to see.

Thanks to the Mudita Kompakt’s eInk screen, the battery life is measured in days, not hours, and when you need to top off, there’s a USB-C connector on the bottom.

There’s one area of the hardware where the Mudita Kompakt really leans into disconnecting. On the left side is a physical switch that turns off all the radios, meaning no Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, or cellular connectivity. The idea here is that not only can you take a physical action to disconnect, you can also trust that you’re definitely disconnected. Privacy is a big focus on the Kompakt, and this is to help you trust that when you want privacy and disconnection, you’re sure you’re disconnected.

Even the Mudita Kompakt’s navigation is designed around simplicity and consistency. Instead of the gestures that most modern Android phones use, there are dedicated buttons for navigation. There is a left arrow for exit, a circle for the home button, and a symbol to bring up a settings screen where you can access flashlight, brightness, airplane mode, Bluetooth, WiFi, and hotspot, then delve further into settings if needed.

There’s no app drawer, so if you throw on extra apps, you’ll just have to scroll through the screens to get what you need.

There’s a built-in meditation app, but as an added bonus/gift, Mudita includes physical meditation card prompts. It’s a reminder that sometimes being tactile and completely disconnected isn’t the worst thing in the world. They also included a paper to make an origami lotus flower.

Aside from the meditation cards and the phone itself, the Mudita Kompakt’s box also includes a USB-A to USB-C cable and a SIM tool to release the tray. There’s also a basic getting-started pamphlet, though most of the information and additional tips can be found on their website.

Before we get into the experience of using the Kompakt, we need to tackle what the Kompakt is and is not.

The Mudita Kompakt is not exactly a full smartphone; it runs Android, but a de-Googled version of Android 12. There’s no app store, no web browser, no selfie camera, and definitely no email app. It does have a basic ebook reader and music player, but both of them can only handle files with no digital rights management, so your Kindle library isn’t coming along for the ride out of the box.

The Mudita Kompakt does sort of support sideloading apps, but first, let’s start with the built-in ones.

There’s an SMS app that’s basic but effective, as well as phone, maps, calendar, calculator, camera, chess, ereader, meditation, music, notes, record, and weather. Weather is simple but effective, recorder and notes are basic but work well, alarm is pretty self-explanatory, and chess is a cute and fun game. Meditation is also pretty basic but offers a countdown and interval chimes, so if you’re serious about meditating, it should work well.

The Mudita Kompakt’s calendar is simple but charming and reminds me a little bit of the old Palm calendars. The biggest downside there is that there is NO task feature or reminder. You also cannot currently sync a calendar to it, so you’ll have to manually add anything.

The calendar sync is a slight issue for me, but the lack of tasks is a much bigger issue. I can’t function without a good daily task manager. I have recurring reminders for everything from medications to nightly chores, and not having a reminder in my face means I will not get things done.

The camera is okay, but the biggest issue with it is that you really can’t tell how good or bad your photos are until you upload them. There is a flash, and you can pinch to zoom, and that’s the extent of any settings or features. We dive deeper into the camera itself below.

Overall, 95% of the Mudita Kompakt’s built-in apps are simple but incredibly useful. They’re not top of class, but they’re also not awful or impossible to use. The best term I would say is simplistic and utilitarian, like the digital equivalent of a well-organized planner. And if you’re not a totally ADHD flake like me, you probably would survive fine without a task list.

The only one that really falls flat is Maps. It’s basically like having an atlas on your phone; you can zoom in on your location and scroll around and locate other areas, but there’s no turn-by-turn navigation or traffic feed. How much of an issue this is depends on you. If you’re like me and can get lost on a walk in your own neighborhood, this is more of an issue than if you’re blessed with a halfway decent sense of direction.

To get your contacts onto the Mudita Kompakt easily and add any books or music to the built-in apps, you’ll need to utilize the companion Mudita app on your computer. It’s very old-school, and again, having to hook up to a desktop app made me think of Palm Pilots, back in the good old days.

The desktop app lets you add books, PDFs, MP3s, etc, onto the Kompakt. You can also sign into your contacts via Google or upload an Excel spreadsheet, so you won’t need to painstakingly save every contact individually, or unironically reply “new phone, who this?” when you get texts.

You cannot sync your calendar on the Mudita Kompakt (I’ve seen comments on r/Muditakompakt that this may come in the future), and you cannot sideload apps. Perhaps more confusingly, you can’t download pictures via the app but can delete them from the phone. To access the pictures, you’ll need to go into files on your computer, find the Kompakt as a removable drive, and drill down to the DCIM folder like it’s a digital camera from 2005. Once you do that, it’s a simple drag and drop to save them wherever you wish.

The Mudita Kompakt comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable, so you’ll need a dock or adapter if you have a computer with only USB-C connectors. I used a very simple dock that pulls power from the computer itself, and it worked fine, so any adapter or dock should suffice. You’ll definitely want to keep one on hand since the nature of the Kompakt is that there’s no easy way to wirelessly move files and photos around.

Let’s say you’re intrigued but desperately need WhatsApp, Spotify, or one or two must-have apps. While it’s not an officially supported action, you can add apps via Android Debug Bridge (ADB). This means activating developer mode on the phone and installing Android developer tools that utilize a terminal (on a Mac) or a Windows command prompt (on a PC). It’s not hard, but you do want to follow a guide, and a good starting point if you’re unfamiliar with it is this one from Mudita themselves.

I installed the Aurora app store so I don’t have to hook up to my PC whenever I want to add an app. Note that some apps will require Google Play Services, so you can’t add, say, Google Maps or Waze. Having said that, I had zero issues setting up Pocketcasts and Kindle, though I found the Kindle app was a bit sluggish at times. I was also able to use Telegram successfully, though the experience is a little muted when you get black and white emojis.

As I said above, the Mudita Kompakt’s camera gives you a black and white preview of what you snapped, and you have to upload it to your computer to really see how you did.

Honestly, the camera is not bad if there’s good light! Here are some side-by-sides of my Pixel 8 Pro versus the Kompakt. I tried to make sure all photos were casual, with nothing beyond basic zoom used for either camera. The camera quality is great for outdoor shots but falls off in low-light scenarios.

So that’s a hopefully exhaustive rundown on the Mudita Kompakt and what to expect if you use one. I went into this review really excited for the concept and to test it out…and not to sound like a cliche, but it’s not the Kompakt, it’s me.

I love the hardware. I love the idea of the Kompakt. I just couldn’t make it work with my life.

I’ll preface this section with this: none of my issues are insurmountable, and my hesitation and inability to adapt to the Mudita Kompakt is 100% on me; there were too many times where it was just too much friction to readjust my life right now. But hopefully, laying out where it’s tripped me up will help someone else figure out how to work around these issues and find some digital peace.

The problem is that if you strip away games, social media, email, and browsing, the things I need from a smartphone are still a heavier lift than the Kompakt can provide right now. As I go through these “deal-breakers,” I’m happy to note how I could have gotten around them. Again, this comes down to how much energy I had to circumvent the problems, not that the problems were insurmountable.

As I said above, my sense of direction is legendarily bad. I had an ex who never got lost with me because she’d ask me which direction I wanted to go, and she’d just choose the opposite. I cannot survive without a GPS in my car. I could go out and get a Garmin, but that’s an added expense and also feels a little wasteful to add yet ANOTHER device to my life. I could also have used the Mudita Kompakt to hotspot to my Pixel, but that just felt like a lot of extra effort.

I also alluded to Telegram feeling a little weird in black and white. That’s not a big deal, but what is a big deal is that my tween child loves to text me GIFs, YouTube clips, and memes. The workarounds here would be having him use Telegram or WhatsApp (not an option right now due to his age and how he’s allowed to use his phone), forward the messages myself to Telegram or WhatsApp, and look at them on a tablet, or tell him to show me when he sees me.

The third is probably the healthiest from a screen time standpoint, but my child doesn’t live with me full-time. I’m not willing to endanger or alter how he’s comfortable and happy to communicate because I don’t have the self-control to stop browsing Instagram.

As I said, I rely HEAVILY on task reminders to get through my day. I could go back to pen and paper, but my handwriting is awful, and that’s a bigger hassle. It’s not impossible, but it involves retraining my brain to a new way of remembering basic things, and that’s a harsh learning curve for me.

On top of that, it’s all the little things: my brother sends photos and videos of my baby nephew, my mother texts me memes and Instagram reels all day. Obviously, I could ask them to switch to WhatsApp or Telegram and access those via computer or tablet, but then I’d be asking everyone else to accommodate my phone choice. This is already an issue in my family, since my brother still hasn’t let go of me “turning the group chat green” because of my usual Android device.

Most of my issues with the Mudita Kompakt could be solved by carrying my iPad Mini with me or hotspotting the Kompakt to another device. But that means I’m just shifting the screen time from one device to another, not breaking the habit entirely, and I just don’t have the energy right now to implement every workaround I outlined. For now, it means the Kompakt is getting set aside, but with the intention that sometime soon, maybe this summer, I’ll be able to revisit and give it another try.

If you’re ready to take on your digital exposure and give the Mudita Kompakt a shot, it comes in both Global and North American bandwidth options. We tested the Global version and had no issues with Verizon connectivity, but that may depend on your carrier and signal.

The Mudita Kompakt isn’t for everyone, but that’s kind of the point. It challenges your expectations of what a phone should be and dares you to imagine a life with less noise, fewer distractions, and more intention. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by constant notifications, craving a quieter digital space, or just curious about how a simpler phone could fit into your life, the Kompakt is worth a serious look. It won’t replace your flagship smartphone outright, but it might just become the thoughtful companion you didn’t know you needed.

Ready to redefine your relationship with your phone? Maybe the Mudita Kompakt can help!

The Mudita Kompakt sells for $439 ($399 if you preorder the North American Version); it is available directly from the manufacturer.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I Like: Incredibly well built hardware; Lots of thoughtful touches like the physical switch to disconnect; OS commits to the focus on digital detox and mindfulness; Camera is surprisingly serviceable; Uses USB-C for charging; The speakers are decent quality; The underlying Android OS allows for some tinkering; Long battery life; Screen is sharp and clear; It has a headphone jack; It requires you to re-assess and re-evaluate your relationship to your smartphone and your means of communication

What Needs Improvement: Sideloading apps can be a learning curve; No notifications beyond sound for third party apps; No notification shade to track passive notifications; No task reminders; Potential to fall behind on the Android curve as it only runs Android 12; It requires you to re-assess and re-evaluate your relationship to your smartphone and your means of communication