What's needed is a carrier offering which allows you to have a small phone on an account in addition to a big one, at no extra charge. Both ring on the same number, and you can't have independent calls on both at the same time, and there's some limitation to prevent using both for major data at the same time.
Then you should be able to get a $49 feature phone as a spare, or for when you don't need a big phone.
(Yes, you can kludge this up using Google Voice, or Twilio, or running Asterisk on your home Linux server, but it needs to be easier than that.)
> What's needed is a carrier offering which allows you to have a small phone on an account in addition to a big one, at no extra charge. Both ring on the same number, and you can't have independent calls on both at the same time, and there's some limitation to prevent using both for major data at the same time.
Why would a carrier offer for free something they can easily monetize? A proxy for this would be how Verizon charges customers a monthly fee for the "soft" sim present in Apple watches.
It's not "no extra charge" -- you pay an extra $10/month. But you get a traditional full-sized smartphone, and an additional small "Palm" phone with limited screen size and features, running on the same telephone number, with no extra setup or services required.
Then you should be able to get a $49 feature phone as a spare, or for when you don't need a big phone.
(Yes, you can kludge this up using Google Voice, or Twilio, or running Asterisk on your home Linux server, but it needs to be easier than that.)