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Commodore announces Linux-based flip phone with ‘no social media, no browser’ — the Callback 8020 will be available in five retro colorways starting at $499, runs 99% of Android apps (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/hardware/p/2144337/commodore-announces-linux-based-flip-phone-with-no-social-media-no-browser-the-callback

Linux-based phone still ‘runs 99% of Android apps’ so you can do more with it, if you wish.

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[–] 12 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

Small production run + half-decent internals probably accounts for a lot of the price.

Having experimented with $100 underpowered flip phone on KaiOS, lack of apps was a real problem. What (some) people want is the slight inconvenience of a T9 keyboard and an annoyingly small screen to help them limit their screen time, but they still want full functionality of all their apps.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    I know some people who would actually kill for a physical T9 keyboard so they could touch-type. It's not my cup of tea, but I can definitely see it being a major draw for people who grew up texting on a real flip phone.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    as someone who has been using t9 phones for the last 3-4 years, the tough part is will the software and keys even be good on this. you just don't know till you use it. It's true, having an underpowered phone sucks ( I'm using the Sonim X320 now which I believe has 4GB of ram, and it's soooo nice compared to the Cat S22 Flip ). But a lot of issues on my previous phones (prev mentioned Cat, then the Qin F25) was mostly the software not working well with buttons or the screen size. The sonim I have now works well because the stock apps a designed for the hard ware. $450 or whatever is still too much, but if it covers all the bands and use usable, at least it's an option.

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