The Commodore Callback 8020 flip phone looks like it’s from decades ago but its price was definitely a sign of today’s times. That’s changed, with Commodore’s announcement today that it will drop the price $100 for most models before pre-orders start next week.
The phone caused a stir when it was announced a week ago. First, there was the thrill of 80s computing legend Commodore making a phone. Then the phone being retro in both look and function caught attention, with a flip-phone form factor combined with a focus on privacy. But one of the most unique features of the Callback 8020 is that it runs Android apps on Linux-based Sailfish OS instead of Android. Among all of the praise though, was criticism that a $500 starting price for the basic models was too high.
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Commodore is dead. Was dead for some 50+ years. If you want to revitalize said brand, you don’t ride it like a horse (that is dead) but make something of value. Android flipphone with preinstalled meta software that blocks you from installing and using other apps is just crude.
Commodore has been dead multiple times and been bought and “came back”. Though I must say, the first death wasn’t 50+ years ago, they were essentially in their peak around 40 years ago, which was around 4-5 years before they completely crashed and burned.
tbf it’s a linux flipphone, but yeah it seems like a kinda weird second product after their commodore remake.