Key Takeaways
- Client Mobile now carries the Barbie Flip Cellphone, as of November 1.
- The HMD Barbie Flip Cellphone, a throwback machine, runs on KaiOS 3.1, is proscribed to 4G LTE, and contains a headphone jack.
- HMD, previously the maker of Nokia telephones, is changing into recognized for its novel concepts, such because the modular HMD Fusion.
Through the years, producers have come out with a number of novelty telephones which have both made a real distinction within the trade or crashed and burned, and it’s normally been the latter. Again in 2018, we coated some horrible developments within the smartphone world, together with 3D screens, built-in projectors, and dual-screen telephones (effectively, we did say this was printed in 2018, one yr earlier than the unique Samsung Galaxy Fold was launched). The tech world strikes quick, and a few telephones and concepts get left within the mud (Amazon Hearth Cellphone, anybody?). What fortunately hasn’t been utterly left behind is the concept of enjoyably novelty units, just like the HMD Barbie Cellphone. It was launched this month, and it’s going to quickly be out there in bodily shops.
Associated
A Barbie flip telephone is coming later this yr
The model behind latest Nokia handsets is now making its personal units
Client Mobile, which is an MVNO operating off of AT&T’s towers, and is probably extra famously recognized for its presence in big-box shops like Walmart and Goal, now carries the HMD Barbie Flip Cellphone in shops and on-line as of November 1. Proper now, the telephone is on the market, unlocked, on HMD’s web site and goes for $130.
The Barbie Cellphone is a throwback to telephones of outdated; it doesn’t run on Android (it runs on the Linux-based KaiOS 3.1), is proscribed to 4G LTE, and has a headphone jack. It solely has 512MB of RAM, so don’t attempt to do heavy multitasking on it (you actually could not, even in case you needed to, anyway). Whereas Client Mobile has not made this public by way of its social media channels but, a consultant from the corporate messaged Android Police with this data. Moreover, there’s a web page on Client Mobile’s web site with the telephone’s guide and fast begin information.
Extra wacky Android telephones
Supply: HMD/Client Mobile
The Barbie flip telephone isn’t the primary, and it definitely received’t be the final, wacky telephone out within the wild. There have been a ton of them, and we talked in regards to the most memorable off-the-wall mainstream Android telephones we had ever seen as of final December. Few will neglect the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, a telephone that replicated the texture of a PSP Go and was able to enjoying some PS1 video games. How about we bear in mind the YotaPhone 2, which got here out in Russia in 2014 and featured an E Ink show as a second display on the again of the telephone? Lastly, in 2013, the Neptune Pine introduced a totally functioning Android Cellphone to our wrists earlier than Smartwatches grew to become a mainstream factor.
HMD isn’t any stranger to those wacky concepts. The HMD Fusion is a modular smartphone with interchangeable outfits that add performance, akin to a hoop gentle or magnetic wi-fi charging, to the telephone. We really talked about modular telephones, akin to Google’s Mission Ara, in our aforementioned listing of wacky Android telephones. The Nothing CMF Cellphone 1 proved that modularity in smartphones can nonetheless achieve success, and HMD desires the Fusion to proceed that development. The corporate just lately launched the HMD Skyline, a tool that pushes Android smartphones in the suitable course.
Client Mobile
Client Mobile, an MVNO recognized for its presence in shops like Walmart and Goal, now sells the HMD Barbie Cellphone.