Dumb ❌ Overpriced ✅
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.
I kinda like the phone. Would be a good phone for my daughter, but not at that price tag. I’d pay 150€ max.
$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.
Frutiger Aero is back in fashion!
This will flop. Iol be surprised if this gets more than 5 units sold to collectors.
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.
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.
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 🤔
:))
Oo someone has to have done it
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.
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.
- 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
and more expensive for the transparent one!
I would be interested, but the amount of paternalism is disgusting.
No browser? I’m an adult; if I want to google something I forgot (when was that event?), that’s my f’ing right. Don’t try to patronize me.
They sabotage themselves by trying to teach you “to be a better person”.
No social media or internet browsering for you, young man! Now do your homework. 🙄
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.
relevant to !retrowebnet@retrofed.com maybe?
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.
Wait, where? Is that in te video i didnt watch? Preloaded whatsapp spyware is a dealbreaker if it cant be removed easily and immediately.
On their site, in the FAQ: https://commodore.net/callback/
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.
I’m not buying Linux, if the drivers aren’t open.
Respect.
I don’t share this stance (I prefer open, but it’s not a deal breaker if most alternatives are even less open), but I greatly appreciate those who do.
Care to share your mobile OS preferences? I’m test driving GrapheneOS on my old Pixel 7 Pro, but not sure if it can fully replace my daily driver yet.
