Announced a short time ago, the Callback 8020 is seen as a means of combating the addictive lure of the modern-day smartphone. While it supports Android apps via its SailfishOS, it disables features like web browsing and social media by default.
However, despite the noble quest for a ‘digital detox’, the phone met with a somewhat frosty reception online (no pun intended), with many comparing it to an elderly relative’s flip phone. In our poll, 70 percent of you said you wouldn’t be buying one.
I’d do up to $200 for nostalgia (given inflation and component prices like RAM).
an incredible endorsement of our vision
Fake, and the price is still ridiculous. Nostalgia-bait as someone else said.
I have a dumb-phone. 20€. I had to buy a new one because the old one used only 2G and that infrastructure is gonna be put down sooner rather than later.
I don’t get what they are trying to achieve with that thing.Nostalgia-bait isn’t going to make addictive social media go away, and these devices will probably end up with easily foiled workarounds to get to those services anyway.
Also, did Commodore even used to make flip phones? I had a legendary indestructible Nokia brick, Motorola flip phones, and one really shitty Samsung flip phone. I’d feel nostalgic for something from them if it had the same design (but not the shitty Samsung phone), not for a pseudo-oldschool actually-it’s-just-Android-but-less-functional phone.
$399, what? This is tech from over a decade ago, there are smart phones that sell for under $100. Seems like a stupid gimmick only wealthy parents will buy for their kids.
Yes, mass production feature phones. This won’t be a mass production product. You’d be surprised how much that increases costs. The question is of course, if one can make a product under those circumstances that people are still ready to buy. In other words, it has to offer something (can also be non-material) that differentiates it from those mass production feature phones.
In this case it’s linux. I am prepared to pay gobs for proper linux devices. However, I’d rather something like a liberux Nexx if that thing ever comes to fruition.
Sundray — curious why the team chose SailfishOS over something like KaiOS, which already has a carrier-backed dumbphone ecosystem (JioPhone, etc). The Android app support is clever, but does disabling web/social feel like a software band-aid rather than a hardware differentiator? We ran a quick teardown of feature trade-offs in constrained devices here https://cxgo.ai/l/etqsD4F — might save some R&D cycles if you’re iterating.
So still $100 more than a LightPhone II, an already somewhat pricey ‘detox phone’, or about the same price as a used Moto RAZR if yoh just wanted a flippy phone made of pre-owned components
Didn’t Nokia still make dumbphone and only cost double digits? With $400 i can just get a decent smartphone and then install app locker and lock all irrelevant app in it.
Or get something that run on non-bloatware OS and don’t download
They still do, HMD Global, a Finish company that started with ex Nokia employees and made the Nokia smartphones for Microsoft, also lives across from the Nokia headquarters in Finland and still makes dumb phones to this day:
Atari should make a pager. It also runs on Android software. It will cost $800. It comes with belt clip.
It’s just a flip phone with Android running on it like every other flip phone with Android running on it that they’ve produced over the last 5 years. Commodore never even made phones historically, I don’t understand why I should care about this.
Its not running android.
I know people tend to open their mouth without having read the article, but you didnt even bother to read the thread text. Congratulations.
Yeah but it runs Android apps so it might as well be an Android phone. Again it’s just a cheap flip phone being priced extraordinarily and branded with a company that never made smartphones or dumb phones or phones of any kind as far as I’m aware.
Your computer can run android apps, is your pc an android phone? Such a shit take lol
I heard it has Sailfish. Maybe its just an option but not default?
Sailfish is the only option provided
When I first saw it I was thinking 249USD. But twice that? Nah.
jesus I buy older model phones so I don’t have to deal with the enormous price tag. Samsung Galaxy S10 with headphone jack and removable SD card, got it for $150. Who tf still buying new phones? even worse, who’s paying 3 times as much for a phone that does so much less? I’d love a digital detox thing, but I like having google maps on my phone
this phone actually supports maps apparantly.
Old phones, if nothing else, lack software updates meaning also security ones. Also battery might need replacement.
They mean new old stock, not used phones.
Security updates… meh, it’s a mixed bag. Outside of maybe Google I really doubt any manufacturer bothers to keep their Android phones super up to date with all the possible fixes, even within the support period.
And as for the privacy angle… honestly the manufacturer is usually the first one to spy the shit out of you. Using Google services while worrying about a hypothetical security breach is really ironic.
yeah you can replace the battery and install lineageos, good enough in most usecases
Was $500 now $400 still lol.
It’s $400, there’s no choice of carrier, the battery won’t hold a charge, and the reception isn’t very-
Shut up and take my money!
Lol I forgot that $400 was considered excessive.
Now people buy $1200 phones yearly.
$500!? What kind of crack are they smoking?
I want one, but I don’t think they’re going to get the pricing near anywhere where it becomes a reality.
That said, I’m really happy that this product has at least started a conversation. I would 100% prefer a dumb flip phone than the advertising machine in my pocket. There is a suggestion of a market; we’ll see if the industry is too far up their own ass to respond.
Sadly I don’t think the revamped Commodore will have the clout to pull it off.
You can’t claim privacy first, promise you wont sell user data, then preinstall whatsapp.
These three things cannot all be true. At any price.Lol Whatsapp as a system app sounds like a nightmare.
The usuall approach established by Samsung etc. is to bundle a few “shim” apps as system apps for Meta. One shim is used by the regular Meta apps to bypass restrictions and talk to each other, one collects data from any app that uses the Meta ad network, and some are there in case you install the corresponding user app (eg. Facebook) to give it system privileges.
I mean it ends up technically the same as having Whatsapp bundled outright, but you gotta give props to a manufacturer so shamelss they don’t even pretend to hide it. 😃
