10 reviews for F1 Orchid – with Navigation and Weather

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Brent L. (verified owner) – May 29, 2021

   After a month of use, I’m very pleased with my F1 Orchid. Call clarity is excellent, the Voice to Text function (with premium services package) works really well and makes texting incredibly quick and easy for a flip phone. A single push of a button gives you the weather forecast for the day, then the hourly forecast, the 10 day forecast etc. The GPS finds your location, and points of interest quickly, and if needed gives you turn by turn navigation. On a full charge the battery has lasted more than 50 hours. The F1 is a nice size, fits comfortably in your hand or pocket, has large buttons, and a quality feel. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a simple but high quality phone.

   For those of you who have the time and patience to read more, here is my full review:

   This review is being written by a person who has owned and used a F1 Orchid daily for one month, after 12 years of using a Motorola 3G GSM flip phone. I have never owned, and hardly ever used a smart phone of any kind.

   The F1 is a nice size, not too big, not too small. While bigger than older flip phones, it fits nicely in your hand, and when opened is long enough that when the earpiece is at your ear, the microphone is close to your mouth which makes it easy for you to hear and be heard. The larger size allows for a larger screen which is bright and clear. The phone is thinner than my Motorola and fits easily in a pants pocket. I have the volume set to the next to lowest setting and can hear who I am talking to clearly. There is plenty of volume adjustment available for those who are hard of hearing. The buttons are a sensible size, big enough and spaced far enough apart that you don’t have to have skinny fingers, or high dexterity to use it. The phone has a solid, quality feel to it, from the way the buttons work, to the way it opens and closes.

   Call clarity is excellent (Verizon wireless) with the new 4G VoLTE technology. In the past year using my old 3G GSM phone meant almost every call got dropped mid call, I could hear the person I was calling, but they couldn’t hear me or vice versa, or some combination. Since I started using my Sunbeam F1, I haven’t experienced a single dropped call. I can hear who I’m calling and they can hear me, there is no static or echo. Calls are clear enough that you can hear nuances in speech that were completely lost in calls on my 3G phone. The F1 works as well as one could hope for making telephone calls.

   I have kept track of battery life for the past month. On average the battery lasts 53 hours of my use on a full charge. With the phone on 14 hours a day that’s more than 3.5 days between charges. I don’t talk a lot, less than an hour a day, and send/receive a handful of text messages each day. Charging is easy with the supplied charging cradle. Just drop the phone in the cradle and 3 to 4 hours later it’s 100% charged. I like not having to plug and unplug a charging cable.

   I highly recommend the optional premium services package ($3.50 per month) to get the Voice to Text function. This makes texting incredibly quick and easy, especially for a flip phone. You just start a text, locate the person the text is going to in your contact list, then push and hold the message button. Once this is done you just talk to the phone. As you are talking you will see what you have said appear as text on the screen. When you let go of the message button, the phone then adds capitalization and punctuation to your text where needed. If you then want to add something to the middle of your text, simply put the cursor in the correct place in your text, push and hold the message button, and talk to the phone again. Once you’ve verified that what you see on the screen is what you want to send, click the send icon and off it goes. I have found this function to work extremely well. I do sometimes have to make a few corrections to the text after I have talked to the phone (I’ve been accused of being a mumbler more than a few times) but I would say that 95% or more of what I intended ends up in the text first try.

   The Orchid model has weather, and GPS navigation built in. I have found both functions to work very well. Each can be accessed by pushing a single button. The weather function gives you the daily forecast first, and with a few button pushes you can see the hourly forecast, the 10 day forecast, and moving weather radar (with premium services package). The GPS navigation finds my location quickly, and it is easy to find a point of interest and ask the phone to navigate you to it. While navigating the phone gives you warning both visually and verbally for upcoming turns. It also displays your speed (if used in a vehicle) and lets you know if you are exceeding the speed limit! Using the GPS to navigate does use up the battery noticeably so if you plan on using this feature often you may want to find a way to charge the phone in the car.

   I am very pleased with my F1 Orchid. Part of why I held onto my old Motorola flip phone so long was that I couldn’t find anything newer that I liked as well. The choices were either a touch screen smart phone (which I didn’t want) or a very basic and cheaply made flip phone. The Sunbeam F1 is superior in every way to my Motorola V195S and is a worthy successor. I highly recommend the F1 to anyone looking for a quality phone for talk and text.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Yehuda R (verified owner) – June 30, 2021

   Fantastic fantastic device. I bought one, then another for my wife, and I’m telling my friends about it.
   It has a very well thought out interface. The touch screen isn’t a gimik, it’s really useful for typing out weird slang etc which the T-9 predictive keyboard (which is also excellent) wouldn’t know.
   The call quality, both regular and speaker phone, are top notch.
   And the voice to text! Worth the extra few dollars a month. It works very very well.
   The weather is nice, the maps – I poked around with it, and it looks great, but I confess I haven’t been brave enough to go on a long distance trip relying on such a small screen. Maybe sunbeam could also sell a holding thing which would hold it open in the car on the dashboard or something?
   But whatever – the main thing is, I have a life again! It is such a blessing and a luxury not to be plugged in to a smart phone 24/7.
   This is the only flip phone I would consider buying. A carefully curated interface, no distractions, but it does call and text (and then some!) in the best way.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Alexander Medina (verified owner) – October 5, 2021

   This is exactly what I needed. I’ve been looking for a dumb phone to help with what is obviously a phone addiction. I tried a bunch before this one (nokia 225, lightphone2, go flip3), but there was always something it was missing or didn’t do correctly. The only things I really needed were phone/text and GPS since one of my cars does not have navigation. This phone didn’t come up on gsmarena, so I spent too long not knowing this phone existed.

   After two days I knew this was the phone. I reset my android phone to factory default and I officially have the F1 as my only phone. I had a doctors appointment and the GPS took me there with no issue. It was weird to be in the waiting room without a browser. I didn’t’ know what to do with myself… I had to pick up a magazine! Calls are clear. Bluetooth headphones work great for music and works great in the car, and speaker phone sounds clear. Getting re-used to T9 is a bit of a pain, but with the voice to text feature I don’t even type 99% of the time.

   With my old smartphone I got very used to wireless charging. And the dock makes it that I don’t have to plug this in every night in the dark. Honestly I really really love this phone. It just has everything I need, and DOESNT have anything I don’t need. Actually there is one thing I would have added to this phone and that is hotspot. But looking back to the last year, I’ve probably used my hotspot 1-2 times, so I’m sure I’ll be okay.

   I have yet to run into any glitches everything just works.. like in the olden days of dumb phones.

4. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   R. Yount (verified owner) – November 9, 2021

   TL;DR Summary: I love this phone, and I expect to buy another one when the time comes for a replacement. I feel more productive, less distracted, and believe my privacy is far better protected than it was with my old iPhone. I am telling my friends and family this phone, and I don’t usually get that enthusiastic about a device purchase. If you’re on the fence, I’d say (as an Orchid owner) to take the plunge already!

   The longer version:

   My use case is that I don’t need (or want) a lot of bells and whistles in a phone, just the literal basics of talk and text. I was looking for something that reduces as much of the creepy tracking by Big Tech companies as I could, and I don’t “need” all the apps, email, or internet connections that enables so much of that invasive tracking on phones these days. For reference, I am using Verizon as my carrier, and I generally preferred the flip-phone style phone over today’s smartphone designs.

   I initially came here looking for more info on the F1 Dandelion and Daisy models, which initially seemed like the best candidates for my needs. I narrowed my search to the Daisy because I did need text capability sometimes (mostly for two-factor authentication on accounts). The more I researched reviews and videos about these phones on the internet, the more impressed I was. While I really liked the two other phone offerings too, ultimately I decided on the Orchid because if I wanted to upgrade to wanted the additional voice-to-text and/or Navigation or Weather, I’d have to wait until my next phone replacement cycle. But by buying the Orchid instead, I can do a virtual downgrade to a Daisy simply by not buying the Premium Services, without having to buy additional devices.

   My set-up was a breeze; I was able to insert my existing SIM card (after following the FAQ instructions on turning off iMessage before transferring the SIM), and turned it on! The menu system is simple, so if you used a flip phone before you know what to expect here. The phone case is plastic, and the rear battery compartment is easy to access (I bought a spare battery as I travel to remote areas that may not have access to charger power, so swapping batteries is very simple and doesn’t require any tools. You have the ability to configure many aspects of your phone, including how and when it sends notifications. Buttons feel responsive and I expect they will perform well for the life of the phone. The phone feels good in hand and is virtually unnoticeable when carried in a front jeans pocket.

   Review of the phone features:

   Premium Services: At first I was on the fence about purchasing this, but after using them in the first 30-day free trial period, I can say I made the right decision on buying this phone and Premium Services…plus it helps Sunbeam keep providing this great phone, even if just a little bit. The price of the subscription services makes this a pretty painless choice.

   Texting: This is one of the best features of the phone, as you have three ways to create texts: 1) Type in using the keyboard; 2) use the touch screen; or, 3) via Voice-to-Text capability that comes with the Premium Services (which includes the Voice-to-Text, navigation, and weather service), and at this point, I’m almost exclusively using the Voice-to-Text method. The voice conversion system is highly accurate, and manual corrections are rare, so I can text super fast and easily using this feature. It is one of the best features of this outstanding phone.

   Navigation and weather: Immediately after I got the phone I took it on the road to test this feature (I also purchased the maps on the microSD card). The maps were accurate going through an ongoing construction project, which I found impressive. Viewing the smaller-than-smartphone screen is surprisingly easy, but you will need to ensure you use a hands-free set up (I’m trying to figure out a way to install it on a dash magnet mount for my application. During my test I found that my Orchid was frequently alerting about approaching exits or recommended actions sooner than my car’s built-in navigation system. The weather has been accurate as could be expected, with details about current, hourly, daily, and radar forecasts.

   Phone calls: I live in a major city and my call quality is crystal clear, even better voice quality/volume than my old iPhone. You have speed dial capability, and the keypad keys are large and backlit, making adding or dialing numbers a breeze even if your vision isn’t perfect. There are several ringtones, speakerphone capability, and ring volume buttons on the side of the phone…virtually anything you’d need or want is likely here. You have a jack for earbuds/headphones as well.

   Charging: The standard base works well, but since I don’t make a large number of calls, I find that I can go multiple days without needing to charge the phone. I like the stand as it is always at the ready, just set it in the cradle to start charging.

   Updates: This feature is a very limited way the phone can reach out to the internet; it basically “phones home” to check for updates, and notifies you if it finds one. The one update I performed so far was straightforward and painless. This website also provides details of past and pending updates, so if you experience a bug it’s a good place to look.

   Other features: The phone has a camera, but I don’t use it (I put a small piece of electrician’s tape over the lens to prevent someone from attempting to hack my camera) – remember that I was looking for a more private phone. It has a built-in alarm clock, calendar, voice reminders, calculator, notes, flashlight, a sound recorder, music, and other features like SOS capability and emergency alerts, as well as a way to report bugs built-in. For those in need of accessibility options, there are many configurations available in the Settings area. You can also lock your device with a PIN if you need to, and you can set up a Do Not Disturb schedule as well.

   Support: I sent several messages to the support email, both before and after my purchase. All of my questions were answered promptly and even explained, which gave me confidence in how the phone was built with privacy in mind, and that the company really cares about its customers. I like that they are frank about potential issues, and provide extensive support on the webpage FAQs.

   Last comments: I like to be candid in my reviews, and include things that I’d like to see improved as constructive feedback. In this case, I got the privacy-oriented phone I was looking for, with no major flaws found. Anything else I could mention would be so minor that it would be nit-picky. If I could suggest one thing, it would probably be to ask for a Orchid without a camera…and even that is a minor thing, considering the tape fix is a cheap and easy solution for users.

5. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   E. Lehman (verified owner) – March 8, 2022

   Very similar to the above reviews – I have nitpicky stuff below but they are far, far outweighed by the feeling that I am regaining my ability to be present and focus. At the risk of sounding hyperbolic, this phone has changed my life – like the frog in the pot of slowly warming water, I don’t think I realized just how much the modern “convenience” of the smartphone had chipped away at my productivity and general cognitive function. Now, it’s clear, and I’m clearly happier and healthier without it.

   If you are considering making the switch, do it. This phone has everything you truly need to navigate a modern world without sucking you into app-based madness. My final justification: yes, some of the smartphone conveniences saved me time and frustration. But it pales in comparison to the amount of time wasted and frustration created by toting around a scientifically-validated distraction machine in my pocket 15 hours a day.

   OK. The review:

   Setup: Easy peasy. Swapped over my Verizon SIM card, and away we went.

   Call quality: Perfect. More reliable than my smartphone, also something very satisfying about hanging up by snapping a flip phone shut

   Size: About right.

   Battery life: At first I was a bit concerned about this – it seemed like a day was about as long as I could get out of it. But now (and maybe it’s because I’m looking at it less as I settle in to lack-of-notification-land) I’m finding I get 2-3 days between full recharges.

   Charger: Dock is OK – love the idea and convenience, after a month I’ve found I need to jiggle phone a bit to get it to connect. Interested to see if that continues/worsens.

   Keyboard: I have huge hands, touch screen is OK but not great for me. Actual buttons are great – shortcut keys for contacts/texts are awesome. T9 keyboard works well, re-learning to use, includes ability to add “personal dictionary” vocab. Talk-to-text is very good, as good if not better than Google. But…haven’t been able to find a way to get it to allow swearing, which I would like…I don’t always want to swear in my texts, but when I do, I do, and it’s frustrating when it’s rendered as a row of asterisks.

   Navigation: Haven’t used much as of yet – for local travel I’ve just looked up addresses and drawn a map. The joys of reconnecting with analog navigation.

   Weather: Surprisingly good – much like the rest of the phone it’s everything you need, nothing you don’t.

   Camera: As you’d expect, pretty shitty. Fine for documentation/reminders, not for sharing/artistic use (unless you’re into old-school digital photography).

   Music: Have not uploaded any music to phone. Tunes and podcasts are the ONE thing I actually miss from the old phone. Some sort of ability to connect to a Spotify account would make this the ideal machine.

6. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   J. Porter (verified owner) – April 6, 2022

   A great slogan for Sunbeam as a company might be “tech that respects you”. After years of tolerating the vampiric pull of my smartphone and thinking of it as a “necessary evil”, I’ve found that none of that was really necessary. I’m amazed at what my F1 Orchid can do– and what it doesn’t do. It lets me keep in touch with family and friends, sets reminders and alarms, gets directions, and checks the weather. It does these things simply, reliably, and effectively, and then it stops when I put it down. It does not send me pointless notifications day and night. It doesn’t interrupt meals or sleep or conversations. It doesn’t try to sell me things, or sell my information to strangers. It doesn’t make me feel naked or bored when I’m not looking at it. I haven’t once looked up from my F1 Orchid to find that half an hour has passed with nothing to show for it but a hollow feeling in my brain and a crick in my neck.

   Pros: Solid and thoughtful design. The OS runs without a hitch and has a great range of settings that make it easy to customize your phone to your needs. The speech-to-text function is fast and accurate, and actually makes texting easier than it ever was on my smartphone. The navigation and weather features aren’t just gimmicks to entice people leery about leaving their smartphones– they work beautifully without any fuss. It’s physically solid– the buttons click and the hinge snaps and it can generally tolerate my clumsiness.

   Cons: The battery life is shorter than I’d like, and I’m not going to win any photography wards with the camera. A streaming music player would be nice.

   As other reviewers here have said, any cons are far, far outweighed by the pros of using a phone made with ethics and practicality in mind. It’s a piece of technology designed to serve the needs of human beings, rather than the other way around.

7. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Gaven F. (verified owner) – May 11, 2022

   This phone has everything I needed, the basics with a modern edge of Navigation and Weather. I have only owned this phone for a little over half a month now, but my life has changed so much in the way of positivity. I have been asked how to describe my experience so far of leaving my smartphone, and all I can say is “You just have to try it”. Thank you Sunbeam Wireless for making this an option for people, I know there are others out there but your product seemed to hit all the right spots perfectly. If you are a young adult or a teen thinking about trying their product, I say give it a shot. I am a 19 year old who came from having one of the latest and greatest folding phones to this and will probably never switch back. Take the chance, and again, Thank You Sunbeam Wireless!

8. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Serina Walker (verified owner) – June 10, 2022

   This phone has been wonderful, 30yo female, addicted to my phone even without social media. I was desperate, then I came across this company! I love what they stand for and through that they have truly created an amazing product! It has everything I need and nothing I don’t. Texting is superb, call quality is fantastic, better life is great once I broke the habit of checking my phone every few minutes, navigation works good even pushed me to actually use my brain and memory to read and remember street signs. I feel like I am becoming a human being again and it feels great! the calendar saves events and even has reminders, alarms work perfectly. It’s been so freeing to have my phone me just a tool and not an extra limb. You can tell the creators of this phone took the time to really make a smooth operating product. I’ve had no issues at all, it does everything I need it to quickly and smoothly. they camera isn’t good at all but I don’t mind because I have a point and shoot camera. it’s really forced me to be present even when I would normally be snapping photos. over all it’s a great phone! no google tracking either. I love the privacy. If you’re thinking about buying it you should! Worth every dime. Much cheaper then my iPhone 12.

9. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Nancy P. (verified owner) – July 8, 2022

   I love the concept of this phone and really want to like it, but it has several kinks that need to be ironed out. The main problem is texting. The voice-to-text function is ok, even pretty good, but it’s not great to have to speak all your texts aloud. Also, I inevitably have to go back in and edit various errors in the text. The editing is full of glitches–though the cursor appears to be in one place, the editing will often (not always) continue in the previous spot that was being edited (requiring editing that spot all over again). Maddening! The touchscreen keyboards are woefully small and error-prone, and they jump back and forth unexpectedly between a landscape and portrait orientation. The T9 texting is really quite decent, once I got used to it, although it takes a moment to start up and doesn’t always register the first button being pressed, so then I need to start over. The menu button to change between input modes is not very responsive. Also, from the beginning, texts have intermittently not sent reliably. This is a phone issue and not a carrier issue–I always have plenty of bars. Customer service has always been very responsive, which I appreciate, but we have not managed to get to the bottom of these issues. Even with the clunky texting, I still think I’m saving loads of time by not using a smartphone anymore. Still, the ongoing texting issues may turn out to be a deal-breaker for me. I wish they’d make a phone with a slider QWERTY keyboard. Down with smartphones!

10. 

    Rated 5 out of 5

    Kirk Mahoney (verified owner) – August 16, 2022

    Here are my observations, recommendations, nice-to-haves, and suggestions after using the Orchid running on Mint Mobile (a T-Mobile MVNO) for almost three months.

    OBSERVATIONS:

    * A received MMS message triggers the audio alert but does not turn on the green envelope light on the front.

    * Ringing as well as call and text audio alerts are loud enough to hear in another room.

    * Speech-to-text function, weather RADAR map (animated and static), and GPS point-of-interest (POI) lookup function — all part of the “Premium” service — work well. You can combine speech-to-text function with POI lookup. For example, go to the “Navigation” feature, choose “Search” within Navigation, speak the business that you want to find, tap the magnifier to bring up the match, scroll to select the match, and press the green dial button on the keypad to call that business!

    * On-screen keyboard-based entry of text is challenging on internal screen, even when rotated 90 degrees, but speech-to-text function lets me skip keyboard-based entry most of the time.

    * I used a USB cable to put three podcast files on the Orchid, but the Orchid displayed only the first one for playing, so I use the BeyondPod app on an old Android-7 cellphone to play podcasts after downloading them via Wi-Fi.

    RECOMMENDATIONS:

    * 32 GB SD card with preinstalled map data – This costs a few dollars more than buying the same SD card without the preinstalled map data, but this saves you a TON of time downloading that data manually.

    * Protective Hard Shell Cover with Holster – I was dubious about ordering this, as I don’t need a holster very often, but the hard-shell cover gives a comforting grip and protects the Orchid. Sunbeam warns that you cannot fit an F1 cellphone into the charging station when the hard-shell cover is attached, but it is NOT a big deal. You can EASILY remove and re-attach the cover. I went with a bright color (yellow) for the cover, to make my misplaced Orchid easier to find.

    NICE-TO-HAVES:

    * Quick disconnect USB charge cable. – I find the included docking station sufficient for charging. But, if you need your Orchid in your car all day, then this clever USB cable, with its magnetic connectors, will let you keep your Orchid charged without the typical wear & tear on the Orchid’s USB port, given that you leave the tiny end plugged into the Orchid’s USB port.

    * F1 Screen protector– This is an inexpensive way to protect the two screens. I’m glad that I ordered this with the Orchid, as I was able to apply these two protectors while the Orchid’s two screens were brand-new clean.

    SUGGESTIONS:

    * Keep Wi-Fi off unless you need it for making calls when you don’t have a 4G/LTE signal. This makes a charged battery last MUCH longer!

    * Let your free trial of the “Premium” service run its course before ordering. This lets you for 30 days try at no charge the speech-to-text functionality (Super-fast!), point-of-interest lookup in the map (Great for finding businesses, including their phone numbers!), and weather radar (Handy for seeing looming storms!). Sunbeam will eventually tell you that these features have expired. Plus, check this out: When I ordered an annual subscription, Sunbeam gave me ANOTHER 30 days free before charging my card $40 for a subsequent 12 months of “Premium” service!