Each evening is women’ evening with HMD’s Barbie cellphone

I grew up throughout a really fascinating age in expertise. I’ve seen the evolution of the cellphone into the smartphone everyone knows and love right now. I keep in mind getting the Motorola V60i, my first cellphone, again in center college to make use of whereas out with buddies. Throughout my childhood, the now classic cellphone was a giant a part of my life. It allowed me to speak and go the time. I lengthy thought the times of T9 texting and enjoying Snake have been behind me as I acquired my palms on the iPhone 4S and by no means seemed again. At the very least till I started using HMD’s Barbie phone.

All year long, I stored up with HMD’s Barbie phone. This Mattel-licenced Barbie Cellphone is paying homage to early 2000s Nokia units. This retro flip phone has taken me again to center college and early highschool days when telephones did not have entry to social media, content material creation instruments, and a plethora of how to have a espresso delivered to my entrance door. The HMD Barbie Phone is a blast from the previous, spattered in sizzling pink, bedazzled jewels and stickers.

HMD’s Barbie cellphone is a break from trendy smartphone luxuries

There is a discernable trade-off in not accessing social media

HMD’s Barbie cellphone is true in step with retro units. It retains that basic clamshell flip phone-style design. With that comes the removing of all trendy software program and help. The Barbie cellphone is a bare-bones bundle. It encompasses a 2.8-inch principal show and a 1.7-inch show on its clamshell exterior, surrounded by a reflective floor. It gives a modest 5-megapixel rear digital camera. With solely 512GB of RAM and operating Qualcomm’s 215 processor, you are taking a look at a tool which may as properly have been ripped from the clutches of 2003.

In its advertising and marketing main as much as its October launch, HMD positioned the Barbie cellphone to be a tool to “disconnect” from “distracting apps.” This contains not accessing X (previously Twitter) or doomscrolling on TikTok. There’s one thing quaint about not opening up my cellphone on impulse and slogging by every social media platform, catching up on the newest unhealthy information. With minimal app entry to Calendar, E mail, Snake, and Google Maps. As a substitute of Spotify, I have been introduced again to having built-in MP3 participant help to load my favourite tracks. That does imply you will be fully disconnected from the bigger bubbles of your smartphone ecosystem. HMD’s Barbie cellphone runs KaiOS, and is outdoors the Android ecosystem fully.

Nonetheless, abandoning modern software program and specs comes at a price. With an archaic digital camera at your disposal, there’s little or no cause to shoot images or seize video on the Barbie cellphone. Until you are going for a classic low-res type, you will doubtless be upset within the grainy and poor distinction from most images.

The cellphone additionally operates on T9, so I needed to brush up on my expertise. I used to be nervous at first, particularly having to sort in my Wi-Fi password. Fortunately, after a couple of digits, muscle reminiscence started to kick in. As soon as I used to be arrange, I fired off some texts simply to show to myself I nonetheless had the ability.

The novelties of the Barbie cellphone lie within the IP

Every little thing that makes the Barbie cellphone distinctive comes from its license

HMD’s cellphone would not be all that noteworthy in 2024 with out its half partnership with Mattel. The Barbie license giveaway to a strong array of novelties and on-device options. The Barbie cellphone ships in a big field filled with equipment to customise your cellphone with. Alongside the bottom cellphone and branded case, you obtain two additional Barbie-inspired again covers, stickers, gems, and a beaded lanyard to connect to the cellphone. Whereas not historically one thing I care about or search for from a cellphone, it is onerous to argue that it isn’t enjoyable to customise the look of your system.

The Barbie affect additionally extends into the on-device expertise. Even when turning on and activating the cellphone, customized Barbie audio performs over the speaker. There’s a complete Barbie-inspired UI on the system as properly. The Contacts menu icon is the long-lasting facet profile picture of Barbie. The Gallery app is a Malibu-esque icon and Messages even present textual content bubbles between the long-lasting character and Ken. Even the alphanumeric keyboard has small Barbie-inspired icons imprinted on it. If all of that wasn’t sufficient, they went forward and baked a Barbie-themed model of Snake. Whereas none of those are essentially promoting options, it is extra in regards to the sum of its elements. A full-blown nostalgic Barbie expertise is what you are shopping for into.

Did HMD’s Barbie cellphone arrive too late?

I might be remiss to not take into consideration the reception to this cellphone in 2023

The fandom round Barbie feels timeless. There is a endless cycle of children changing into hooked up to the dolls and larger IP, rising up and feeling nostalgic for Barbie. Due to that, I believe HMD’s Barbie cellphone will all the time have a distinct segment viewers. Nonetheless, I am unable to deny that the viewers for this cellphone would have been exponentially bigger had it launched final summer season.

Within the throes of recognition with Greta Gurwig’s Barbie movie, the zeitgeist for the IP was at an all-time excessive. I may solely think about the waves of followers heading into the theaters with their HMD Barbie cellphone final summer season. However alas, die-hard followers can now buy a branded cellphone for $129.