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Comments (95)

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  recursivedoubts
  Regarding the price: the reality with all these alternative phones (e.g. the clicks communicator) is that you are going to have to pay a premium to make them worthwhile for the manufacturers. Scale (and the spyware economy) are what allow the larger companies to produce cheaper "better" phones, so comparing a phone like this with them on price isn't super productive. If you want something different than what the masses consume you are gonna have to pay for it.The only ones that I've seen beat this dynamic to an extent are the unihertz phones.
• gapan
  I can see a niche (or two) for this.My wife hates every smartphone that is currently in the market. They are all too huge for her. She has an iphone SE which was the best compromise at the time, although she still finds it big. She doesn't want to get a new one, because there is nothing on the market of that size. She doesn't use most the smart features. She only uses it for chat with family and friends and getting email notifications (and reading them, but never replying on the phone). She also uses it as a camera. And calls, including video calls. This might be a solution, although for some reason they say "no email app". I'm hoping you can add one later.And then as a child's phone to keep them off social media, while also having a chat app to actually communicate with them.Even for me, it's been some years too that I've been thinking that I don't really need a smartphone. I mostly need a device that I can use to make calls and that I can use as a hotspot for connecting other devices such as a laptop when I need to.The keyboard will definitely not be an issue. I'm old enough to remember teens using those kind of keyboards typing blindly in astonishing speeds, even without T9.Lack of 5G might be an issue.The price is steep. I'm not sure if that is going to be a problem.
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  SwellJoe
  I have no idea who the customer is for this product.I bought a C64U. I bought a MEGA65. I bought the T-shirt. I own nearly every original Commodore 8-bit. If anybody is the target market for Commodore products, I am the target market, and I am no more nostalgic about or interested in flip phones than I am about fax machines.It's just like the good old days: Commodore execs shipping absurdly misguided products for the wrong price at the wrong time.
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  Humorist2290
  So I had a feature phone -- the Nokia 8110 4g. What sold me was that I could use it as a 4g hotspot and connect a smartphone to it, or not and be offline. The idea of "going online" is something I miss, in that it's not normal to be always attached to the internet. The connections I want to foster don't need to be mediated by an ISP, or a Telco, or a social media crime syndicate, or whatever else.The "flip" part of this phone is cute, but the point Commodore makes about using it to punctuate the experience of using the device is significant to me. The Nokia also has a little sliding cover (which I always preferred over the flips as a matter of taste) and indeed the tactile interaction adds something. If it's still always connected to the internet though, it's just a gimmick.Sadly my cell provider at the time gave me a SIM which just wouldn't work with it, and nowadays it seems like they aren't even available to buy anymore. I'd be interested in this, but not at a 600$ price level. I want a phone which (a) is a phone and (b) is a 5g wifi hotspot on demand and (c) nothing else. After years of casual searching, I have concluded that such a product is either too niche or too countercultural to be allowed.
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  radicalbyte
  It has the same core spec as a $120 (delivered) Samsung phone and will cost between $500-$600 (delivered).The C64U is an amazing achievement but it seems too early to go for the smart phone.Hopefully there is a niche and their business plan is viable for a small number of sales.
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  msephton
  The phone may not be dumb (we'll see) but the idea for new Commodore to release one is. Sorry to be so blunt.
• rootsudo
  The Samsung android flips are great but all this patent pending tech is just configurations on a non basic build of google.Like the idea, commodore never had me in its nostalgia, too young, idea is cute, t9 keyboard is workable but I disagree that it’s viable. I want to be wrong of course butSamsung and apple using their fold flip and discipline fixes the other side. People do not want to detox. Going back to a flip won’t fix it.Same as the glp1 drugs, people knew food was bad, didn’t stop eating. Started body shame movement. Now that movement seems to have gone silent, glp1s fixed obesity seemingly overnight.So the question is, what is the future glp1 equilivant for digital detox, a simpler phone or a phone that makes it more complicated to get digital services isn’t it.Then there’s the argument for price, photo quality and all. No one is going to take photos and edit on a desktop in photoshop or Lightroom. Same as for using two phones and transferring esims, their WhatsApp number, etc
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  dpcan
  I'd go this direction as long as it had a real keyboard... Maybe it's time for the blackberry to reemerge.
• dredmorbius
  There is a growing set of options outside the Android / iOS duopoly. Commodore is stepping into this space, but they're by no means the only option.I've been looking into this area for the past month or so and have some hopefully-useful knowledge to share.For informational resources, I strongly recommend Jose Briones's website <https://josebriones.org/>, Substack <https://josebriones.substack.com/>, Dumbphone Finder <https://www.dumbphones.org/>, YouTube channel <https://inv.nadeko.net/channel/UCFtVwG0NFd6gT3TXfMCU7oA>, and /r/dumbphones on Reddit (which he co-moderates). There are others also sharing information in this space, you should be able to discover at least some especially through YT and Reddit.First question I'd pose is why do you want out of the Apple/Google phone duopoly? Typical answers would be:- Intentionality / focus. Avoiding digital distraction and social timesucks. I'd include phone/SMS/messaging spam here.- Privacy / tracking. Avoiding the pervasive adtech of modern smartphones.- Cost. Not wanting to throw a megabuck at a new flagship device.- Quality. Of calls, of hardware, of software, of support (next item).- Support. Both hardware and software. Is there a solid warranty, is the device repairable, will there be OS and app updates, and for how long?- Modularity. Whether hardware or software, the ability to add/remove from the standard feature set.- Specific features. Rugged devices, overall size, screen size, battery capacity, removable batteries, removable modules, flip phones, e-ink / monochrome, keyboard (T-9, QWERTY), headphone jack, etc. Neither Google nor Apple offer choice on most of these for current products.Second would be what other constraints exist on your options? Typical here would be mobile networking standards (4G and VoLTE are table stakes today, 5G may be soon), physical v. e-SIM, and your must-have capabilities (usually given as apps). Messaging (including group texts, WhatsApp, Signal, Teams, and/or Slack), mapping/navigation, music/podcast/entertainment, rideshare, and banking/finance are what I see come up most frequently. Most or all of these have viable workarounds, but that depends on where you care to compromise.Third is what OS option(s) fit your needs. Full integration with the Google/Apple worlds will require Android or iOS. Android alternatives will match most mainstream functionality, though Google's making this increasingly difficult. That's GrapheneOS, LineageOS, SailfishOS, /e/OS, and iodeOS generally. Android-lite options, typically based on AOSP (Android Open Source Project), notably including KaiOS are yet further restricted, though have some app support (calculators, FM radio, podcasts, minimal Web browser, sometimes mapping, Signal, etc.). Even "focus-oriented" devices typically permit sideloading apps, so ultimately you are your own gatekeeper.Fourth is to what extent you're willing to extend your "everyday carry" (EDC) with items to backfill smartphone features you've traded off. For example, an e-reader, camera, flashlight, laptop, MP3 player, or ultra-light laptop.Fifth is your price range. Options start well under $100, and can go well over $1000, though there's quite a choice in the $100--$%600 range (new), lower if you're willing to pick used/refurbished devices.I'd argue that intentionality is fairly well served by many options.Privacy is far harder to establish, and many characteristics of the phone ecosystem independent of smartphone features themselves put some pretty hard limits on what you can accomplish. Cell-tower tracking, call history, contacts, and the like will leave a pretty robust footprint regardless of your OS and app choices. Even secure comms systems leave valuable metadata. My own approach is to consider any phone tainted, and to seek instead to minimise the data on, and generated by, the device. This means relying on other tools for other online tasks ... or moving those tasks offline.The remaining factors (or others you might consider) tend to be reflected to some extent. There are flip phones, Android-alternative smartphones, feature / dumb phones, e-ink devices, modular phones, rugged phones, cheap phones, big and small phones, touchscreen or keyboarded phones. And lots and lots of headphone jacks.The options which seem to most often make a splash on HN tend to command price premiums: Light Phone, Punkt, and Commodore are all $300--$600 items, rivaling recent full-featured iOS/Android devices. These options have their strengths, particularly in design and possibly support. Fairphone is another option, starting around $750, with hardware modularity baked in. There are reasons prices tend to run high relative to spec for comparable iOS / Android devices, with fixed costs and lack of economies of scale being key, though upmarket-positioning (warranted or not) is also at play. You'll find discussion of this on Reddit and YouTube, e.g., <https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=Fj61cc3QFdM> and <https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=BurBSG0YSGk>, from Briones and "My Name is Michael" (another informative YouTuber).That said, there are far less expensive options available, though you'll want to pay attention to your priority list and reviewed quality/experience.If spam avoidence fits into your intentionality/privacy considerations ... some of the options aren't great. KaiOS, a fairly popular feature-phone OS, lacks specific call-blocking settings, apps, or APIs entirely based on what I've seen. This is ... unfortunate. I'd consider white/grey/black listing to be table stakes in 2026. Most devices offer at best per-number call blocking, which is ridiculous. Ideally I'd have a VoIP call relay which was the only number permitted to directly reach my mobile, with logic on the VoIP system to process incoming calls based on white- / grey- / black list status and other rules (e.g., time of day, availability status).There's also the option of ditching PSTN (public switched telephone network) largely or entirely, whether through VoIP/SIP systems, alternative messaging platforms, or other options. That's something I'm continuing to explore (and am well behind the curve relative to many).
• aspect0545
  I would use that phone if I had the ability to customise it to my needs. I don’t want meta apps nor Spotify preinstalled, but I would take the ability to install signal.
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  tcrenshaw
  I'm interested in the form factor and excited about the inclusion of a headphone jack but SailfishOS is the real selling point for me.I'll buy this if there is a way to remove the app restrictions they have. Ideally, I should be able to flash the default SailfishOS
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  specproc
  I'm not sure about these new dumb phones. Just not having social media in the first place has worked alright for me.I hate my phone, and my relationship with it, but sometimes you just need to use one.My preferred strategy is having a normal phone, minimal apps, and just keeping it switched off most of the time, particularly round the house.Thing is, I've got a worse problem with my laptop and desk. Between HN, lichess, and a handful of favoured blogs, I can easily blow a day doing nothing, without the help of a phone.Honestly, I think something deeper than a different form factor is required. If anyone has found it, let me know.
• nubinetwork
  Commodore died in the 80-90s, this is the husk of a dead horse being beaten by some YouTuber.
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  Animats
  > "You don’t need a Google account to operate the device."Now that's progress.
• anon
  undefined
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  Retr0id
  For some reason the diagram under the "Not Your Granny's Flip" heading has been AI-generated
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  azretd
  Folks have a hard time reclaiming their attention from the never ending distractions of a smart phone. If commodore can make a device and ecosystem to make that happen, I’m sure folks will spend the money.The reality though is, most folks don’t even think how much time they spend on phones, so I hope they can become profitable with devices sold in the thousands.
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  diydsp
  The cool thing is running two phones w same number. One big market phone and one minimal. Take the minimal out most of the time and the big one when you need to.Tmobile used to let me do that but it was pricey.
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  PrimeOS32
  This is a pocket Linux terminal with loads of untapped potential out of the box. Combining voice navigation with an ssh linked home AI server may make this a true privacy-first successor to the prying smartphone for the AI era. And there is the audio quality, with a battery that lasts a week. The Bluetooth tethering has a standby feature so any non-cellular wifi device you carry is effectively always connected as well. It won't drop like most smartphones. There is way more utility in this combo than the brick in your pocket we have to contend with now. I hope Commodore can see past the detox only and see what they have really created here. Meanwhile hackers can have a field day!!
• daneel_w
  It runs Sailfish. That's something, I guess.
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  notnullorvoid
  My biggest problem with dumb phones and similar concepts like this digital detox phone is the comparitively crappy cameras. I don't take photos often, but when I do I want them to be good.
• anon
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• ageedizzle
  This is a similar idea to the lightphone. I would be curious to see a more detailed comparison of the twos features.
• DigiEggz
  Keeping my eye on this. I really like the general form factor and aesthetic here. The candy-like wired audio and chiptune ringtones are a fun bonus.
• anon
  undefined
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  clickety_clack
  It looks awesome but I’d need to be able to swap an eSIM easily to switch back and forth from an iPhone.
• ediamondscience
  I'm all for something dumber than the average little black skinner box. The price doesn't really bother me as much as the side loading restrictions. If I'm going to pay $600 for a novelty phone I better be allowed to do whatever I want with it. Locking that behavior behind some fuzzy logic yes/no algorithm based on God only knows what LLM seems pretty tone deaf to what a lot of people have been saying about owning their own hardware over the last decade or so.
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  sedatk
  Not Commodore-looking. Not nostalgic. Not novel. It unchecks all the boxes.I’m saying that as a very happy C64U owner.
• pjmlp
  We had smart phones already before iOS and Android came to be, so the headline is a bit duh.
• DennisL123
  not so sure about this one.
• busymom0
  Am I able to use the Transit app? That's one thing I'd really like to have.
• bethekidyouwant
  I need car play, eg maps + YouTube music. And fb and texto + messenger + whatsapp. Price is irrelevant if i can get a “fully functional” phone without a browser. Oh i guess I could live without discord. But seems fine to have..
• chuckadams
  Speaking as someone who loved the hell out of the dysfunctional mess that was Commodore, and read every Compute's Gazette front to back as soon as it came out: FFS, just let them stay dead. I'm really sick of seeing my generation being strip-mined nonstop for nostalgia.
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  dotcoma
  It’s as overpriced as the SpaceX IPO.