Commodore, the long-lasting laptop model of the Nineteen Eighties, is as soon as once more again in your consideration—slapping its identify on the most well liked development: digital detox.
After a model reboot (once more) and the trustworthy recreation of the unique Commodore 64 private laptop (once more), the corporate’s subsequent product is a smartphone with the on a regular basis necessities, however with out the apps most adept at hogging your consideration.
The Commodore Callback 8020 just isn’t the primary Commodore-branded telephone (that will be the Pet from 2015), nevertheless it’s the primary to really feel distinctive and attention-grabbing. It’d appear to be a dumb Nokia telephone from yesteryear, however this flippy gadget has entry to modern-day Android apps as a result of it runs the Linux-based Sailfish OS from the Finnish firm Jolla. The Callback’s entrance display screen reveals the date, time, and battery standing, however no notifications. Flip it open, and also you’re greeted with a {custom} interface that may run apps like Uber, WhatsApp, and Spotify.
What it will probably’t run are distracting apps that pull you away from life, so no social media, no browsers, and no e mail, and undoubtedly no Slack.
Commodore CEO Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson says Commodore could have gone quiet within the ’90s, nevertheless it’s able to enter its Y2K period by going exhausting into early-2000s know-how, which simply so occurs to be en vogue proper now.
“Lots of people are attempting to return to barely less complicated tech and perhaps attempting to ditch their smartphone on the weekend,” Simpson tells WIRED. “We discovered that for the folks shopping for the C64, that very a lot resonated with them. So we positioned ourselves as a little bit of a digital minimalist model.” Simpson factors out that the brand new Commodore 64 Final, the corporate’s throwback desktop PC launched in 2025, has a phrase processor so folks can write distraction-free, very similar to on a typewriter.
Commodore has a producing accomplice in Shenzhen to construct the telephone. (Commodore would not share the identify of this accomplice.) The Callback has a MediaTek Helio G81 processor, features a 32-GB microSD card and custom-designed in-ear displays from FiiO. Sure, there is a headphone jack and an “audiophile-grade” digital-to-analog converter within the Callback. The battery is detachable and replaceable, and an LED mild on the entrance can warn you when notifications are available in. The telephone additionally has an FM radio tuner.
The digital camera has a 48-megapixel Sony digital camera sensor that, on paper, appears to have the ability to snap respectable pics. Commodore has additionally constructed a retro camcorder mode with procedurally generated filters, making it appear to be your video footage got here straight from the ’90s. The display screen helps contact capabilities, although the corporate says that is disabled by default.
