Join the discussion
Write your take first — we'll ask for email only when you're ready to publish.
- Hacker News
- 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.by aspect0545
- 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
by tcrenshaw - 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.
by Humorist2290 - The phone may not be dumb (we'll see) but the idea for new Commodore to release one is. Sorry to be so blunt.by msephton
- 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.
by radicalbyte - 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.
by SwellJoe - 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.
by gapan - 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.