Each evening is ladies’ evening with HMD’s Barbie telephone

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 this moment. I bear in mind getting the Motorola V60i, my first cellphone, again in center faculty to make use of whereas out with associates. Throughout my adolescence, the now classic cellphone was an enormous a part of my life. It allowed me to speak and move the time. I lengthy thought the times of T9 texting and taking part in Snake have been behind me as I obtained my arms on the iPhone 4S and by no means appeared again. Not less than till I started using HMD’s Barbie phone.

All year long, I saved up with HMD’s Barbie phone. This Mattel-licenced Barbie Telephone is paying homage to early 2000s Nokia gadgets. This retro flip phone has taken me again to center faculty and early highschool days when telephones did not have entry to social media, content material creation instruments, and a plethora of the way 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 telephone is a break from fashionable smartphone luxuries

There is a discernable trade-off in not getting access to social media

HMD’s Barbie telephone is correct consistent with retro gadgets. It retains that basic clamshell flip phone-style design. With that comes the removing of all fashionable software program and assist. The Barbie telephone is a bare-bones bundle. It includes a 2.8-inch foremost 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 working Qualcomm’s 215 processor, you are a tool that may as nicely have been ripped from the clutches of 2003.

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

Nonetheless, abandoning modern software program and specs comes at a value. With an archaic digital camera at your disposal, there’s little or no motive to shoot pictures or seize video on the Barbie telephone. Except you are going for a classic low-res type, you may probably be disenchanted within the grainy and poor distinction from most pictures.

The telephone additionally operates on T9, so I needed to brush up on my abilities. I used to be nervous at first, particularly having to sort in my Wi-Fi password. Fortunately, after just a few 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 talent.

The novelties of the Barbie telephone lie within the IP

Every part that makes the Barbie telephone distinctive comes from its license

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

I would be remiss to not take into consideration the reception to this telephone in 2023

The fandom round Barbie feels timeless. There is a endless cycle of youngsters changing into connected to the dolls and larger IP, rising up and feeling nostalgic for Barbie. Due to that, I feel HMD’s Barbie telephone will all the time have a distinct segment viewers. Nonetheless, I can not deny that the viewers for this telephone would have been exponentially bigger had it launched final summer time.

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 telephone final summer time. However alas, die-hard followers can now buy a branded cellphone for $129.