Punkt’s MP02 has won an award in Japan’s ‘Good Design Award 2020’, being recognised within Good Design’s ‘Best 100’ in the Cameras, Mobile phones and Tablets category.
After evaluating the Punkt MP02, the awards team stated:
While this product is a monofunctional device intended primarily for voice communication, SMS, and tethering, swimming against the current tide of smartphones with ever-bigger screens and ever-higher performance, the question that lies behind its simplicity is “Are we spending too much time on information devices in our daily lives?”
This phone offers a uniquely pleasant perspective on the world, with a compact size and weight that makes it comfortable to hold, while careful consideration has been given to ambient noise and the tactile sensation of the buttons.
As such, we thought the splendid way in which its design expresses subtle concepts was deserving of high praise. Its tethering function enables it to be connected to a smartphone if the occasion demands, allowing physical control of information density by carrying both kinds of device.
Amid a situation in which products are often produced on the basis of technical specs, the fact that it is the theme of the ideal comfortable lifestyle that has driven the development of the specs for this item could become a catalyst that gives us fresh insights and options. The true design hidden within this product is the question of what constitutes an appropriate distance from information.
When you want connectivity, the MP02 is designed to be used together with a tablet, giving the user an adequately-sized screen for writing texts, viewing websites, and using maps. It creates two separate devices that each do their job well, rather than a single ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ that’s only really good at one thing: distraction. The tablet stays in your bag until you decide to use it. Or it stays at home.
As such, it remains a phone geared around speaking, through great ergonomics with excellent audio quality. Unlike smartphones it won’t pester you with notifications during a conversation.
The housing of the MP02 is reinforced with glass-fibre and finished with a tough, abrasion-resistant coating. Splashproof to IP52 standard. The display is monochrome+ (black, white, occasional red). Unusually, the interface is 100% text-based – no icons whatsoever. Click through in seconds: up, down, select, go.
The MP02 has nice physical buttons you can press multiple times to select a letter in old T9 fashion, and also lets you take notes, consult a calendar, and do calculations. The battery has 12 days of standby, and with its tiny monochrome display and limited data options, it’ll probably last that easily with normal usage.
See what the judges said about the MP02 here.
