Commodore’s newest gadget is a flip phone that blocks social media and browsers - Ars Technica

Overview

Commodore’s newest gadget is a flip phone that blocks social media and browsers

Commodore’s Call Back 8020 is a phone “where the customer is not the product.”

Details

The next gadget to bear the storied Commodore branding will be a flip phone.

The name behind the bestselling desktop PC in history came back about a year ago. Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson, best known for running the Retro Recipes (now known as Retro Recipes x Commodore) You Tube channel, acquired the Commodore Corporation and “100 percent of the original and official trademarks that defined the Commodore name since 1983,” per a July 2025 press release. Simpson said the price was “in the low seven figures.” Since the acquisition, the brand released the Commodore 64 Ultimate and the Commodore 64X PC, a mini PC housed in a chassis that resembles the Commodore 64.

Today, the new Commodore announced a new device in a dated design: a flip phone.

The Commodore Call Back 8020 takes advantage of reinvigorated interest in dumb phones. Although Commodore’s phone has Internet connectivity, it blocks web browsers and social media “at the system level using patent pending technology,” the company’s announcement said. The phone supports other Internet-based capabilities, like maps and QR codes.

Frantic told Ars Technica that Commodore’s app store, Commostore, uses a whitelisting principle, and “social media and browsers will never get that whitelisting.” He added:

We’ve also developed patent pending technology that will prevent these apps—and only these apps—from being sideloaded on the device. … Users can sideload nearly anything else they want if it isn’t available on the Commostore, but we’ve drawn a firm line in the sand around any apps that drive doomscrolling. On the off-chance somebody finds a way around that, we’ve also blocked access at the DNS level. So even if you manage to get Tik Tok installed, you’re not going to be able to reach its servers.

We’ve also developed patent pending technology that will prevent these apps—and only these apps—from being sideloaded on the device. … Users can sideload nearly anything else they want if it isn’t available on the Commostore, but we’ve drawn a firm line in the sand around any apps that drive doomscrolling.

On the off-chance somebody finds a way around that, we’ve also blocked access at the DNS level. So even if you manage to get Tik Tok installed, you’re not going to be able to reach its servers.

Ars asked Frantic if community forums would also be blocked. In response, he said that old school bulletin board systems are permitted, but Reddit is not.

“We’re determined to approach this in a way that’s fair and safe for everyone, and we’ll be consulting with the Callback community over the next few months to make this determination,” he said.

The Callback 8020 runs the Linux-based operating system Sailfish OS, which is made by Jolla, a mobile company created by Nokia employees in 2012 that also makes phones.

Per Commodore, its phone will support “over 99 percent of Android apps” through Sailfish OS’s Android runtime app compatibility layer, including Spotify, Signal, and Whats App. Commodore also equipped the phone with some Commodore 64-era games.

Some Internet-based apps, like Whats App, will work.

To minimize distractions, the phone uses a dome-shaped LED light that lights up when you have a message. Commodore thinks this will be less distracting than pop-up messages, but I wager a lit-up phone draws attention, too.

The former Nokia 3360/3595 owner inside of me is highly interested in another attention-grabbing design feature: the ability to swap phone covers and attach a stringed charm to the case.

Additionally, the flip phone’s exterior screen is designed to resemble 1970s Commodore calculators and has a red tint.

As a former Nokia phone user, I’m excited to hear that the phone is supposed to let you swap covers and let you attach a stringed charm through the case.

For audio, the Callback 8020 uses an 8-bit SID music player, an app for playing music created for the SID (sound interface device) chip in the original Commodore 64. The phone also has what Commodore claims is a high-end, on-board DAC, an integrated FM radio, and a 3.5mm jack, and it comes with a pair of in-ear monitors.

The Callback 8020 is a big step for the new Commodore brand and demonstrates an interest in creating new products with a nostalgic feel, rather than re-releasing retro devices. With the Callback 8020, the brand may be seeking a middle ground that embraces newer technology while maintaining some principles from the start of modern mobile computing.

The most expensive version of the phone, the Founders Edition colorway, has a 24K gold-plated “C=” button and is $640.

Commodore’s announcement points to a “growing number of consumers, parents, and policymakers … questioning the cost of never-ending connectivity” and aims for the Callback 8020 to represent a “return to technology’s original promise: tools that serve their users” and “where the customer is not the product.” It also claims that the phone doesn’t “collect personal data without consent,” monetize data, track cookies, or “monitor activities.”

“There is something very fitting about a company like Commodore—where the lights dimmed in the nineties—returning ready to enter its Y2K era just as consumers are beginning to move back to that simpler tech,” Fractic said in a statement.

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Key Takeaways

• Commodore’s newest gadget is a flip phone that blocks social media and browsers

• Commodore’s Call Back 8020 is a phone “where the customer is not the product

• The next gadget to bear the storied Commodore branding will be a flip phone

• The name behind the bestselling desktop PC in history came back about a year ago

• Today, the new Commodore announced a new device in a dated design: a flip phone