JEE toppers just flexed keypad phones: Is ditching smartphones Kota's distraction-free strategy

In Kota, where 'AIR 1' is practically a personality trait and sleep is a luxury, a recent viral moment from a Joint Entrance Examination Main (JEE Main) 2026 felicitation event did something unexpected. It didn't flex All India Ranks, it didn't debate cut-offs and it showed...keypad phones.

Yep. In 2026. The year of AI tutors, adaptive test series and algorithm-driven everything.

At a celebration for JEE Main 2026 Session 1 toppers, students like Himanshi (99.47 percentile) and Om Shivahare (99 percentile) were asked a simple question, "What phone do you use?"

Instead of pulling out the latest iPhone or some AI-powered super-device, they flashed basic feature phones. One student even joked, "iPhone 19," before revealing a classic keypad model. The crowd laughed, but the internet didn't.

Clips from the event spread rapidly across X and Instagram. And suddenly, "focus phones" were trending harder than productivity apps.

Let's be honest. Your phone isn't just a device. It's your notes, your mocks, your Spotify therapy, your situationship and your 3 a.m. droll-scroll partner.

In Kota's coaching ecosystem, distractions aren't small; they are existential. Students are chasing seats in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), where competition is brutal and margins are microscopic.

Keypad phone strip life down to calls and texts. No Instagram reels, no Reddit rabbit holes. No "just 5 minutes" on YouTube that turns into 2 hours.

It's digital minimalism, but make it survival.



The irony lies here: we live in the golden age of AI-powered learning.

• Adaptive mock tests
• AI doubt-solving bots
• Personalised performance analytics
• 24/7 digital tutors

And yet, some of the highest scores are using phones that can't even open Chrome. Because it shows something deeper, students don't trust themselves around distraction.



Well, if used right, they are insane learning tools. Online mock platforms simulate real exam environments better than any offline test series ever did. AI tutors break down complex physics derivations in seconds. YouTube lectures can clarify what a 2-hour class couldn't.

The device isn't the enemy; the infinite scroll is. The real issue isn't technology. It's attention economics. Every app is engineered to win your focus. And in a place like Kota, attention is currency.

Lose it and you lose rank.

Here's the deeper layer most people are missing. The keypad phone trend isn't anti-technology. It's anti-cognitive overload. We grew up in hyper-stimulated environments: notifications, shorts, shorts, multitasking, split attention and the dopamine spikes every 30 seconds.

Preparing for exams like JEE demands the opposite:

• Long-form concentration
• Boredom tolerance
• Deep problem-solving
• Delayed gratification

By switching to basic phones, these students aren't rejecting the future. They are designing friction into their lives. They are removing choice. Because willpower is unreliable and environment design is stronger.

In behavioural psychology, this is called a pre-commitment strategy — changing your environment so that distraction becomes physically harder.

It’s not about being "disciplined".

It’s about reducing temptation bandwidth.