Commodore, the computer brand that defined the 1980s, is back with a flip phone, and its main selling point is everything it will not let you do.
The Callback 8020, announced on Tuesday, is a clamshell that runs modern apps but blocks web browsers and social media outright. Pre-orders open on 30 June, prices start at $499, and shipping is due in the final quarter of the year.
A dumb phone that isn’t dumb
Unlike stripped-back rivals such as the Light Phone, the Callback keeps the apps people actually rely on. It runs Sailfish OS, a Linux system from Jolla, and supports ‘over 99 per cent of Android apps’, the company says, including Spotify, WhatsApp, Signal and Uber, plus maps, podcasts and a 48MP Sony camera.
What it walls off is the doomscrolling. Browsers and social apps are blocked at the system level, and Commodore’s own app store simply never lists them. Patent-pending tech is meant to stop you sideloading them, and if you somehow install, say, TikTok anyway, the phone blocks it at the DNS level so it cannot reach its servers.
