Take one bare-bones phone with a price to match and marry it to the National Geographic Travel Abroad international calling plan. Here's what you get.
Jessica Dolcourt
Jessica Dolcourt is a passionate content strategist and veteran leader of CNET coverage. As Senior Director of Commerce & Content Operations, she leads a number of teams, including Commerce, How-To and Performance Optimization. Her CNET career began in 2006, testing desktop and mobile software for Download.com and CNET, including the first iPhone and Android apps and operating systems. She continued to review, report on and write a wide range of commentary and analysis on all things phones, with an emphasis on iPhone and Samsung. Jessica was one of the first people in the world to test, review and report on foldable phones and 5G wireless speeds.
Jessica began leading CNET's How-To section for tips and FAQs in 2019, guiding coverage of topics ranging from personal finance to phones and home. She holds an MA with Distinction from the University of Warwick (UK).
The National Geographic Travel Abroad Lite is neither made by National Geographic nor Talk Abroad's parent organization, Cellular Abroad. Instead, it's manufactured by Blu and is known globally as the Blu Deejay Lite.
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Very 'lite'
'Lite' is the perfect description, both in terms of weight (it hardly feels real) and features. It's so bare bones, it even lacks volume controls.
3 of 6 Josh Miller/CNET
Compact
The handset is either "compact" or "too tiny" depending on the agility of your fingertips and whether you consider petite build a benefit while traveling.
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Charging port
This is the phone's sole external port.
5 of 6 Josh Miller/CNET
Dialpad
I didn't like the hollow sound I hear while typing, but the keys themselves are easy to press.
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Two SIMs
There's also a microSD card slot behind the battery, along with two GSM SIM card slots. The Talk Abroad SIM is on the left, in the primary slot.
