Meadow, a mobile phone designed to help you look at your phone less

Buy another phone to spend less time looking at your phone. Pay for the device, then pay a separate monthly service bill. Meadow is designed to let you leave your smartphone at home. It offers maps, calls, and music, but no social media or web browsing. The device itself blocks the familiar detour from checking directions to watching unrelated videos.

The manufacturer describes Meadow as a companion for occasions when you want to go out without your smartphone, rather than a complete replacement. Instead of moving your existing number and SIM, you get a separate number and data plan. A second small device means maintaining another mobile service.

The official sales and service coverage is currently the United States. It should not be treated as a replacement phone ready to use in South Korea. Maps and photo storage also involve the subscription, so the device price is not the end of the expense.

You could delete apps from the smartphone you already own. Meadow's proposition is the difference between deciding not to open them and going out with a device that cannot open them. Some days you need calls and directions but want a break from everything else on the screen. The appeal is not that smartphones lack features; it is the ability to choose what to take along for a few hours. Whether Meadow actually reduces screen time still requires evidence.