It’s 2026 and I’m suddenly desperately interested in buying a flipphone from Commodore? What is even going on? Has reality itself completely jumped the shark?
You found a secret level!! 🤯🔥💥
Ooooh 😲
T9 😞😭
Wait I looove t9 bro
Fuck yeah, I miss being able to send messages without looking at my phone, or even removing it from my pocket.
I’ve been thinking lately how cool it would be to type via T-9 on PC via the numpad. Game-changer for HTPC duties.
You need professional help. Like, immediately.
Like… Hire a developer? Hmm 🤔
:))
but would you want it flipped to suit the numpad layout? personally i’d be happy with flipping the whole numpad to a phone dialler layout.
Good question. I’d have to relearn it anyway, so i don’t think it matters either way.
Oo someone has to have done it
Can’t say I was a fan…
I smell a young poster here
Nah I’m 50. T9 was necessary, not some kind of miracle.
Had a nokia 3310, had a flip phone, did not like T9. The predictive nature was aweful and never got me to like it before I got a slide keyboard phone.
Predictive nature? I remember just spelling every word out.
Thank you!! 👌
Over 9000
Commodore has had an interesting year. A retro-tech YouTuber got into discussions with the company and ended up buying it. I think they had plans to become a public benefit company of some kind, with a focus on openness and preserving old tech.
I’m surprised that the Wikipedia article doesn’t have a lot of details on those recent developments from the past year
Well, bought the trademarks at least. Commodore as a proper company hasn’t existed for over three decades, the name has just been bouncing around from one company to another.
There’s another Commodore in Italy too though. Not sure what’s the deal with that.
Privacy first? So what is WhatsApp doing on there?
I get why, that is for a lot of people the ONLY way they use a phone instead of calling, but this definitely not privacy first or social media free then.
I mean, it’s not like it comes preloaded or anything. It’s Linux, you can choose install (or not install) whatever you want.
Edit: Good Lord, it actually does come preloaded. Unreal.
Edit: Good Lord, it actually does come preloaded.
At least Facebook will subsidize a large portion of the price, right?
> $500
Well then.
It’s Linux, you can choose install (or not install) whatever you want.
yes, well except that is what they are trying to patent (as far as I can tell) using key based tools to not allow certain apps and DNS filtering as well. If its based on linux, thats one thing, but doesnt stop them from locking things down.
Sure, but the point is, it doesn’t come with WhatsApp on it.
According to their ad, it does.
No, it’s showcasing the ability to install Android apps.
which offers 99% compatibility with Android apps, including WhatsApp, Google Maps, and Spotify.
They have it in the screen shot. And my point stands: they said they would stop apps that were social or anti-privacy (by refusing to load them or dns blocking) and WhatsApp is both of these things.
Actually I checked their site and you’re 100% right – WhatsApp does come preinstalled: https://commodore.net/callback/
I agree, that’s unbelievably stupid.
Supposedly you can’t install some things. Hopefully this is an optional parental control feature, and not baked in to every phone. They would be losing a lot of potential nostalgia sales if they only chase after the “forced distraction free” market. Some people can control their usage without needing the device to do it for them. 🤷
The phone also blocks internet browsers and social media apps at a system level, “using patent-pending technology, eliminating temptation and designed with distraction-free schools in mind.” This ties in neatly with the upcoming ban on social media for the under-16s in the UK, but I can’t imagine there are many teenagers who even know what Commodore is.
Interesting. Hopefully it’s easy enough to replace the OS.
I’d take some sandbox mechanism for those predatory apps, as it’s a pain living without them (I do, but school, colleges etc don’t).
One has nothing to do with the other. A properly configured Android is not going to leak any information to its apps. The problem comes with the customized Android a phone maker uses, where they do everything to gather data (or let others gather data if they pay for it).
So while the app itself is anything but privacy friendly, the phone is. So is GrapheneOS with WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has access to your plain text before it encrypts it. One has to trust WhatsApp with that. That’s the problem. Meta is untrustworthy.
I did not try to imply that WhatsApp is secure or trustworthy. They will, of course, use as much data as they can. But that’s something out of control of the mobile phone. And if they wouldn’t pre-install WhatsApp, users will download it ASAP.
Dumb ❌
Overpriced ✅
People do not know the manufacturing cost of TVs because everything is a smart device that generates data for to be sold by the manufacturer. A dumb device cost a premium in [insert current year] because they have to account for that lack of that revenue stream to keep the lights on. Its why dumb “commercial displays” cost an arm and a leg (plus they are designed to be on 24/7, their actual specs are usually fairly mid).
Commodore’s phone is also a smart device, despite what its form factor would suggest
As much as awesome this is, ~450$ for this is toooooo much
Yeah I was pretty shocked at that price, I thought it would be less than $200
300 because of the nostalgia maybe, but 500? Ludicrous.
Agreed
i am the target audiance like 100% but… THE PRICE! HOLLY FUCK! the idea is nice but… realy? t9 crap? and lets take about the website. i can smell ai generated background. and the scheme of the phone look like a chat gpt thing.
“We built the phone in between” [a smart phone and dumb phone] is a pretty appealing tag line. In the last half of the 2010s, when I finally dragged myself into getting an actual smart phone, I really wished I could get a flip phone that was more capable. The feature phones still on the market at the time seemed to be right out of 2003.
This implementation seems a little off. It has the flip form factor, and can run most android apps, great! But then it sounds like they arbitrarily block browsers and ‘social media’? I think just leave them out by default, and let people go that route if they want it. The form factor already limits how well some of those would work.
Agreed, it’s an odd move when so much else about the phone is being marketed as having the user’s interests at heart. If you scratch a bit and squint at the wording they’re using, though, it feels more and more like the CEO has his own idea of how people should be using their phones and is pushing that. The fact that it is more privacy respecting is incidental to the fact. I could be wrong, but that’s the vibe I’ve certainly gotten.
It’s too bad. I wouldn’t mind having a phone with no social media but no browser is probably going to be a dealbreaker for me. Their FAQ says it’s basically a way of ‘cheating’ to get to social media sites and that’s incredibly condescending. I probably just want to look up if a nearby store is still open or something.
the CEO has his own idea of how people should be using their phones and is pushing that.
He does and he is. I’ve watched Perifractic’s channel for awhile and he is really very strident about “digital detox” on account of his smartphone use negatively effecting his mental health. This phone is made for Peri specifically; he just happens to be selling it.
(Which I’m fine with, by the way. I hope it does well; I’d like to see the new Commodore stick around a little longer.)
I mean the iPhone was what Steve Jobs wanted.
If there’s a market for it then leave them to it
You know what, that’s fair.
I don’t want more capability in general. I kinda want less. like no calendar and such. what I do want is the dumb phone to be able to act as a cellular hotspot for my laptop but I would like it to be able to do it and stay sub $100.
I am with you.
I will suck Commodore’s dick all day, but for $500?
Fuck out of here with your AI-ass ad and Whatsapp-preloaded flip phone.
$499 hell no, max $70
At the heart of the Callback is a MediaTek Helio G81 SoC, with 4GB/64GB on board. A 32GB microSD card is included to get you started, too.
$70 is a bit low but yeah $500 bucks for this phone is just stupid. Max I think would be $150 to $200 just because that’s the economy right now. It’s not like these kinds of phones are hard to build.
As always these companies are overestimating the power of nostalgia.
Kinda funny that we’re looking at this on lemmy, 90% of us are on our phones browsing while doing random things.
It looks cool, but smartphones, good or bad, fill the void of riding the bus, waiting 5 mins for your next meeting, waiting for your partner to get ready in “5 more minutes”. I’m ADHD and this helps me just unwind.
I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s silly that this is being pitched as revolutionary.
I have ADHD too and my smartphone is pure poison. It’s way too addicting. I long back for the days I could just zone out on the bus while listening to music.
- Love the idea
- Already exists via kei phones out however you call them
- Love the transparent shell
- $599?!?!?! (512€)?!?!?! Chat that’s pricey as hell for a lil thing like that, girl we can get a better phone for way cheaper and just side load Linux into it. Sheeeeesh you crazy
- again transparent phone case with that flash notification mwah icing on the cake
Overall: we want to either get a cheap one second hand or make our own because PWEW that’s such a good idea lol
Already exists via kei phones out however you call them
KaiOS. Which is a great alternative… as long as you don’t mind Google everywhere (most people don’t, I know). But yeah, this one is asking too much.
Looked this up and this looks really cool!! Thank you for showing :3 Might still use sailfish but not 100% sure now
Transparent shell = prison butt phone
and more expensive for the transparent one!
That’s fucking insane. Yeah our want to make our own has increased lmao
“hey you see the ONLY insteristing color kids? ahah f you!”
“Fuuuck youuuu pay us another 50 buckaroos hahahshaaaaa”
I want this but no 5g is a deal breaker
What do you need 5G for with a phone like this, though? It’s explicitly not a media-consumption device.
While true, won’t 4g be phased out in like 5 years?
Works better in high density areas than 4G, even bandwidth/latency aside.
I’m on a provider that only has 5g in some areas. Nobody is putting up new 4g or lower towers I guess
5g has better coverage for me.
Do you think the other gs are gonna run out of bits?
The other Gs are all dead except 4g who’s days are soon to be numbered
Frankly, I’m not feeling it.
Long ago, Commodore trademark was just slapped on random junk.
It was my hope that when the Commodore trademark was recently acquired by folks who genuinely care about Commodore history, this sort of things would not happen again.
Makes me a bit apprehensive.
Hey kids! Do you want a phone that costs more, does less, and still comes bundled with privacy breaching software? Well then have I got a phone for YOU!
Anything made after 1994 isn’t the Commodore 64 “Commodore”, ya feel me?
Commodore’s promo image is 3008, the other phone brands are 2000 and late. Gotta get that.
