Commodore announces Callback 8020, a phone "between dumb and smart"

Commodore is making a phone that isn’t a full-on smartphone, nor is it a dumbphone. It straddles the line in a very obviously nostalgia-baiting fashion. Before we talk about the new Commodore Callback 8020, let’s get something out of the way first.

Commodore International Corporation (CIC), which now owns the brand, was established last year by Christian Simpson, a tech YouTuber who is the CEO. He’s brought on some ex-employees of the original company, but this isn’t the Commodore of old rising from the ashes like a Phoenix. It’s an entirely different company which bought the rights to the brand and the iconic logo.

Now that that’s cleared up, let’s meet the Callback (fun pun) 8020. It’s a flip phone and it runs Jolla’s Sailfish OS, a European mobile operating system. Thanks to its Android Runtime app compatibility layer, it can run “99% of Android apps”, excluding all Google apps with the one exception being Maps.

The Callback 8020 has no social media, no browser, no work or email apps (all of these are blocked at the system level), no data selling, a disabled touchscreen by default, unique dome LED notifications, worldwide network compatibility, and “audiophile grade HD Audio, FM Radio, SIDs” with support for IEM earphones through a 3.5mm jack. There’s a 48MP rear camera using a Sony sensor, which has flash and autofocus.

The device comes with a 3.25″ 480×640 internal screen, a 1.77″ external screen, the MediaTek Helio G81 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of expandable storage (with a 32GB microSD card included), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and LTE support, and a 1,550 mAh removable battery that charges through USB-C.

If you’re wondering how you message anyone, it’s “T9-style texting” of course, which, according to the company, “adds mindful friction to usage”. This is where we are after decades of technology aiming to make everything more and more convenient – we’re now going the opposite direction. Or at least Commodore is.

You can replace the battery, swap out covers, and play a curated collection of Commodore 64 games, “carefully selected to avoid the addictive nature of modern mobile games”. The red glow of the phone’s exterior display is “inspired by classic Commodore calculators of the 70s”, displaying the date, time, battery, and signal level, with no notifications.

The phone will be offered in five colorways: ProtoPET White, SX Silver, BASIC Beige, Starlight Edition, and Founders Edition. It goes on pre-order on June 30 at 10 AM CEST for $499.99 for all colors except the Starlight Edition, which will be $549.99, and the Founders Edition, which will be $640 since it has a 24k gold plated “C=” button. Shipping is “targeting” the fourth quarter of this year, which means October to December. If you join the waitlist you get $50 off.

Commodore Callback 8020 in all colors

You are definitely not paying for specs here. You’re paying for nostalgia and your own inability to stop using or overusing specific apps on your smartphone – the Commodore makes that either impossible or painful enough that you may not engage in ‘doomscrolling’ and other such buzzwords too much on the Callback 8020. Whether any of that justifies the price, and the fact that you will make the payment in the summer for a product you will then hope to receive in a functional state in the winter, from a company that didn’t exist two years ago, is naturally your call.

In case you were wondering, the 8020 name “acts as both a successor to Commodore’s highest numbered communications device – the 8010 modem – and a reference to Commodore’s 80s heritage and 2000s tech aesthetic”. That “80s heritage” is all in the design and name, let’s not forget – this isn’t the same company.