The Commodore Callback 8020 Is a Digital Detox Phone That Isn’t Dumb

Commodore, the iconic machine marque of the 1980s, is erstwhile again backmost for your attention—slapping its sanction connected the hottest trend: integer detox.

After a marque reboot (again) and the faithful recreation of the archetypal Commodore 64 idiosyncratic machine (again), the company's adjacent merchandise is simply a smartphone with the mundane essentials, but without the apps astir adept astatine hogging your attention.

The Commodore Callback 8020 is not the archetypal Commodore-branded telephone (that would beryllium the Pet from 2015), but it’s the archetypal to consciousness unsocial and interesting. It mightiness look similar a dumb Nokia telephone from yesteryear, but this flippy gadget has entree to modern-day Android apps due to the fact that it runs the Linux-based Sailfish OS from the Finnish institution Jolla. The Callback’s beforehand surface shows the date, time, and artillery status, but nary notifications. Flip it open, and you're greeted with a customized interface that tin tally apps similar Uber, WhatsApp, and Spotify.

What it can't tally are distracting apps that propulsion you distant from life, truthful nary societal media, nary browsers, and nary email, and decidedly nary Slack.

Commodore CEO Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson says Commodore whitethorn person gone quiescent successful the ’90s, but it’s acceptable to participate its Y2K epoch by going hard into early-2000s technology, which conscionable truthful happens to beryllium en vogue close now.

“A batch of radical are trying to spell backmost to somewhat simpler tech and possibly trying to ditch their smartphone connected the weekend," Simpson tells WIRED. “We recovered that for the radical buying the C64, that precise overmuch resonated with them. So we positioned ourselves arsenic a spot of a integer minimalist brand.” Simpson points retired that the caller Commodore 64 Ultimate, the company’s throwback desktop PC released successful 2025, has a connection processor truthful radical tin constitute distraction-free, overmuch similar connected a typewriter.

Commodore has a manufacturing spouse successful Shenzhen to physique the phone. (Commodore wouldn't stock the sanction of this partner.) The Callback has a MediaTek Helio G81 processor, includes a 32-GB microSD paper and custom-designed in-ear monitors from FiiO. Yes, there's a headphone jack and an “audiophile-grade” digital-to-analog converter successful the Callback. The artillery is removable and replaceable, and an LED airy connected the beforehand tin alert you erstwhile notifications travel in. The telephone besides has an FM vigor tuner.

The camera has a 48-megapixel Sony camera sensor that, connected paper, seems to beryllium capable to drawback decent pics. Commodore has besides built a retro camcorder mode with procedurally generated filters, making it look similar your video footage came consecutive from the '90s. The surface supports interaction capabilities, though the institution says this is disabled by default.