Commodore’s New Flip Phone Focuses on ‘Digital Detox’ and Bans Social Media Apps
The company responsible for the Commodore 64, i the best-selling desktop computer model of all timeyou are back. And Commodore’s latest launch sounds appropriately retro: a “digital detox” flip phone called the Commodore Callback 8020.
Commodore’s Callback 8020 announcement blog links the phone’s simple throwback design to the “break screen” trend, writing that it’s for customers who want a “cool, purposeful phone.”
Callback 8020 promises to reverse interrupts and doomscrolling. It has limited touch screen availability and no browser access. It has no work apps, no email and no AI. Social media apps are completely banned from the internal Comstore. The company has developed a “patent pending” technology that prevents users from sideloading abusive apps.
“When you’re done using it, you close it — a deliberate end instead of another scrolling invitation,” the company wrote.
A representative for Commodore International Corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A dumb phone revolution?
Despite the Callback 8020’s simplicity, Commodore International says the phone is somewhere between a smartphone and a dumb phone. “It does everything you want, nothing you can do.”
Callback 8020 “connected to the Internet, not the web. Back to the Internot!”
The phone has many modern features. It runs a progressive Linux-based operating system called Sailfish OS. Commodore promises that, with the exception of apps on the blacklist, the Callback 8020 can run “99% of Android apps,” including apps like maps, music, rideshare, camera, games, podcasts and voice notes.
The Callback 8020 also has a 48-megapixel camera, a MediaTek Helio G81 processor, 32GB of storage, a headphone jack and a removable battery. The outer dome of the phone has adjustable LED lights so you can receive text and call notifications.
David Lumb, managing editor of the CNET team, said that the new flip phone is part of a wider trend of companies making phones that people want to disconnect without having to use them. But he is not sure that it will attract a large number of users.
“Callback makes a lot of compromises that can annoy modern phone users,” Lumb said. “However, the lack of a touch screen is unfortunate, people may get tired of navigating with only the arrow keys and typing on the T9 layout.”
The phone’s screen is touch-capable, but it only turns on when an app that requires touch controls is loaded. Lumb also pointed to a higher price tag of $500, a tough ask for a phone with fewer features than competitors at the same price.
CNET senior writer Jeff Carlson said the Callback 8020 was probably made for people who have fond memories of using early Commodore products. But he still has concerns about the flip phone and isn’t sure many people want the texting button layout of the T9.
One thing I did do is the seemingly widespread use of AI-generated visual assets in the Callback 8020’s marketing materials. The use of AI-generated visuals seems at odds with the company’s embrace of nostalgic hardware design principles and Frutiger Aero-themed visuals. The fine print on the Callback 8020 product page states that “some product images are provided” and that “some screen images are simulated.”
Commodore Callback’s marketing materials seem to feature generative-AI imagery, which gives me the ick.
Commodore returns
If you haven’t heard of Commodore lately, that’s understandable. Although the brand was a big name in the computer industry in the 1980s, it fell off in the ’90s and has since faded into obscurity.
In July 2025, the Commodore Corporation brand and its intellectual property were purchased by YouTuber Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson (owner and operator of the popular Retro Recipes channel) and several other investors. Simpson founded a new US-based company, Commodore International Corporation, with talent from the original ’80s-era Commodore team.
Commodore’s latest iteration seems to deliver on the promises Simpson made in his short video announcing the purchase, where he said Commodore will start over “not just as a retro brand with next-generation ideas, but as a digital detox brand, starting where we left off in the ’90s.”
The brand introduced two “breadbin” desktop computers, the Commodore 64 Ultimate and the Commodore 64C Ultimate, reviving the company’s most popular product for the first time in four decades.
The Callback 8020 is the first phone that the new Commodore company has unveiled, but it is not an example of the computer company taking a small role in the mobile industry: The previous owners released the Commodore PET in 2015.
The Commodore Callback 8020 will be available for pre-order for $500 on June 30. Certain colors push the price up to $640. The first Callback 8020s are expected to ship by the end of the year, but no official shipping date has been announced.
