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A short while ago, Commodore International CEO Christian Simpson said that the revived company cannot survive on nostalgia alone, but its next hardware launch has proven he wasn't being entirely truthful.
Commodore has just announced the Callback 8020, a flip phone which calls to mind the pre-smartphone days of the 2000s. Granted, it's not based on a pre-existing Commodore product, but it's very much about embracing those Y2K vibes.
Designed to be the antidote to today's hectic smartphone-driven world, the Callback 8020 is powered by Jolla's Linux-based Sailfish OS, which offers 99% compatibility with Android apps, including WhatsApp, Google Maps, and Spotify. Jolla, in case you didn't know, was founded by ex-Nokia staffers.
However, the Callback 8020 looks to strip away much of what makes owning a modern Android phone so unsettling. "Commodore and Callback don’t collect personal data without consent, don't monetise data, don't track cookies, and don't monitor activities," says the company. "Your personal information doesn’t belong to anybody but – and is only ever used to provide services to – you."
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.
The handset's dome LED notification system "removes the need to rely on distracting pop-up messages designed to make you click things. The philosophy is to take people away from screens as much as possible," says Commodore. "No Slack. No Email. When you're not at work, you're not at work. If you're needed, they can 'callback' tomorrow."
Of course, with this being a Commodore product, games do feature. "Play your way with a curated collection of Commodore 64 games, carefully selected to avoid the addictive nature of modern mobile games, and bask in the red glow of Callback’s exterior display, inspired by classic Commodore calculators of the 1970s," says the company. "It displays just date, time, battery, and signal. No pop-up notifications. And of course, with Nokia heritage, the Callback has to have Snake (it’s the law)." The phone's SID-based ringtones are also a nod to the past.
There's also an "audiophile-grade music DAC" included, alongside HD in-ear monitor (IEM) earphones, which even boast a 3.5mm jack – a rarity in modern times.
Simpson had this to say about the announcement:
"Those same major corporations are convinced their phones should fold, and we agree. We think they should fold completely. Becoming a new parent a few years ago made me ask myself what type of father I wanted to be, and led me to realise that like so many of us, I was addicted to my smartphone. Switching to a dumbphone three years ago changed my life. I'm more present. I enjoy looking at the world around me. I don’t reach for my phone every few minutes. And my two year-old daughter doesn’t see me staring at something she doesn’t understand for half of the day. But the minimal phones I tried were too minimal, and so at Commodore we set out to create “the not dumb dumbphone”. The Commodore Callback is the phone I wished had existed when I started my journey, and the one we now want to put in the hands of everyone who's ready to escape the doomscrolling and distractions, with a speed bump for the mind."
This isn't the first phone to have the Commodore name attached to it; a rotary dial phone was sold in Canada back in 1983, and, more recently, we had the rather disastrous Commodore PET, a lazily rebranded Android device released in 2015. The Callback 8020 pays tribute to another aspect of the company's telecoms heritage; it takes part of its name from the 8010 modem.
"It’s time for a 'big tech' company to do better," says Simpson. "There was a time when we believed technology would bring us the future we were promised. A time of optimism and potential. Getting back there starts with a single step for every one of us, made easier by removing the immense weight of that glowing black rock from our pockets. The Callback can be an evening phone, a weekend phone, a 'going out to dinner with the family' phone, or replace our everyday phone completely, depending what level we want to start reconnecting with the world around us," says Simpson. Those of us who have already done it can vouch for its impact, and will never go back – we’ve learned to live with less scroll, and more soul.”
The Commodore Callback 8020 will be available later this year in BASIC Beige, ProtoPET White, and SX Silver for $499.99. The Starlight Edition will retail for $549.99, while the Founders Edition, with a 24k gold-plated “C=” button, will retail for $640.
Pre-orders open on 30th June, and Commodore says it is targeting a Q4 release.