It is a few yr late, however the Barbie Cellphone is lastly right here. That is not a smartphone, however a clamshell-style function cellphone that is all pink and branded with Mattel’s Barbie emblem. The handset has a shiny mirror on the entrance and a bunch of equipment like charms and gem stickers to trick it out so you possibly can absolutely delight in that late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s nostalgia. It even blurts out, “Hi Barbie,” if you energy it on.
It is a actual collaboration between Mattel and HMD, the corporate that used to make Nokia-branded smartphones. It is a part of HMD’s pivot to crafting its personal smartphones together with function telephones developed in partnership with notable corporations. That features The Boring Cellphone from earlier this yr, born out of a bizarre tie-in with Heineken.
The Barbie Cellphone runs KaiOS, an working system designed for function telephones that provides a couple of smartphone capabilities, like 4G connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, and entry to apps together with WhatsApp, Google Maps, and YouTube. It will nonetheless really feel such as you’re utilizing the Symbian working system from Nokia telephones of previous, simply with fashionable facilities.
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{Photograph}: HMD
By default, HMD’s new flip cellphone could make calls and ship texts. The corporate is on a little bit of a campaign about lowering display time and distractions, so the concept is to make use of this cellphone as a second cellphone when you do not wish to be pinged whereas kicking it on the seaside with the Kens.
HMD is hardly the primary to construct a product round this idea of unplugging from the always-on life. There have been a couple of like-minded telephones through the years like The Mild Cellphone or the redesigned Palm from 2018. Of the same thoughts are the app timers and different screen-time discount options which have been constructed into Android, iOS, and even the function telephones HMD made beneath the Nokia model identify just like the Nokia 3310.
Assume Pink
The skin of the Barbie Cellphone’s lid has a reflective end that serves as a mirror (bear in mind the LG Shine?) with a hidden digital clock embedded within the center. Flip it open and also you get a pleasant 2.8-inch show. You should utilize the built-in backlit keyboard to textual content, and there are a bunch of tiny Barbie-themed tidbits right here and there, just like the palm tree icon across the quantity seven. And by my depend, six Barbie logos—whether or not it is the total textual content or simply the letter “B.”
It is powered by Qualcomm’s 215 chipset, has 512 megabytes of RAM and 4 gigabytes of storage with assist for microSD playing cards as much as 32 gigs in dimension. Sure, you should utilize it as an MP3 participant and groove to “I’m Just Ken” through Bluetooth or the three.5-millimeter headphone jack. HMD claims the 1,430-mAh battery—which can be pink—provides a chat time of roughly 3.8 hours in 4G (6.3 hours in 3G), but it surely’s laborious to say what that interprets to in common use. It recharges through USB-C with, you guessed it, a pink charging cable.
