Minimalist phone designed to improve mental well-being will debut in November

The Mudita Pure features a black and white E Ink display, intended to be non-distracting

Mudita Pure will debut in November amid a digital minimalism trend. Photo: Mudita

A new device that strips away the bells and whistles of modern smartphones to the bare essentials is slated to debut in November.

The Mudita Pure dials calls and sends texts but it cannot access social media platforms, send emails or take photos, in a bid to encourage users to stay offline and look after their well-being, Polish start-up Mudita said on its website.

"Designing Mudita Pure was a challenge. The more simple and clean we made the design, the more difficult it was to manufacture," the company said. "It took us around 18 months to find the final look and included the creation of more than 40 different proposals."

The Mudita Pure phone will cost $369, or $332 when pre-ordered, according to its website.

"Smartphones help us in many ways but too often they become a time-consuming burden we carry with us all the time," the company said. "We decided to build Mudita Pure to deliver ... a device that helps you enhance your offline time and look after your well-being."

The phone is designed to relieve consumers of the pressures of constantly being online, a contrast to the addictive smartphones that have invaded modern lives.

The offerings of the minimalist device – which comes in black or white – includes a simple design, monochrome screen, essential functionalities, an eye-friendly E Ink display, an open source operating system, long-life battery, a music player and a meditation timer.

"We created Mudita to design products that would allow us to use new technologies without experiencing those negative effects for our physical and mental health," Mudita's founder, Michal Kicinski, wrote on the company blog.

On crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, 1,042 backers pledged $262,506 to help bring the Mudita Pure project to life, according to its website.

Users on Twitter were divided between supporting the phone's digital minimalism philosophy while others said the price tag was too expensive for a basic device.