HMD Barbie Phone(hmd.com)
hmd.com
HMD Barbie Phone
https://www.hmd.com/en_int/hmd-barbie-phone
71 comments
USB-C and LTE is pretty much required. I suppose you could do a 2G phone, but that might also be hard to source parts of.
But the camera, not sure why you'd even bother.
But the camera, not sure why you'd even bother.
Aren't 2G networks getting switched off globally?
It depends on where you are, some carriers are choosing to maintain GSM while shutting down UMTS, mainly because 2G serves a good fallback voice, SMS and IoT communication system, however insecure(!) it is. Both 3GPP and GSMA didn't really develop a successor to GSM (a basic, reliable, low-powered communication standard) so this is indeed a weird state of affairs, but GSM carrier equipment is still being manufactured for this exact reason.
I thought so too, but looking into it yesterday, what seems to be happening is that 3G is being shutdown. The largest GSM network in Denmark is 2G, 4G and 5G.
But my clear understanding was that 2G was long gone, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
But my clear understanding was that 2G was long gone, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
Interesting. Thanks
No such plans in Russia. No plans to deploy 5G either tho
No one is willing to supply 5G equipment to Russia due to the sanctions.
The 4G networks are already degrading.
I guess the reason is the screen. It's 320x240, and 0.3M is 640x480 (VGA).the secondary screen is even lower resolution (160x120).
It does work very well for this screen resolution.
And what else would you do with this media given it's a feature phone?
It does work very well for this screen resolution.
And what else would you do with this media given it's a feature phone?
> And what else would you do with this media given it's a feature phone?
Send it to someone? It probably supports MMS. Or transfer it to your computer over USB-C/bluetooth.
Send it to someone? It probably supports MMS. Or transfer it to your computer over USB-C/bluetooth.
Target customer group doesn't know how to use a computer, for the most part.
VGA is not that bad for phone pictures. If you scale down a photo from decent camera to VGA, it can look fine. The problem is that for VGA cameras, the resolution is the smallest issue - colors, sharpness, dybamic range are likely tragic.
VGA is not that bad for phone pictures. If you scale down a photo from decent camera to VGA, it can look fine. The problem is that for VGA cameras, the resolution is the smallest issue - colors, sharpness, dybamic range are likely tragic.
> VGA is not that bad for phone pictures
You're right. It is the terrible jpeg compression which destroys everything.
You're right. It is the terrible jpeg compression which destroys everything.
No, it's not the JPEG compression.
This is an example of an image from my daughter's VGA camera: https://imgur.com/oMNkrUm
The image has ~100 KB which is plenty for this resolution. But the input data from the sensor is awful because the sensor and the optics are awful.
This is an example of an image from my daughter's VGA camera: https://imgur.com/oMNkrUm
The image has ~100 KB which is plenty for this resolution. But the input data from the sensor is awful because the sensor and the optics are awful.
Yeah, people really don’t seem to understand that most kids currently in high school have only used a desktop computer to play PC games, if at all.
Yeah, I figured the value prop for something like this would be a fantastic camera for IG preening or similar.
This should perfectly complement Bic for Her ball pens. Check out the reviews on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/reviews/B004FTF6H4/
Excerpts:
"My husband has never allowed me to write, as he doesn't want me touching mens pens."
"I bought it for all my female friends and relatives. It enabled them, finally, to write things (although they may not yet know to do so on paper; but you can only expect so much, really)."
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/reviews/B004FTF6H4/
Excerpts:
"My husband has never allowed me to write, as he doesn't want me touching mens pens."
"I bought it for all my female friends and relatives. It enabled them, finally, to write things (although they may not yet know to do so on paper; but you can only expect so much, really)."
Is there a reason why this isn't Nokia branded? It seems insane to me that HMD own the most respected phone brand in history and... just choose not to use it for some of their phones? I feel like I'm missing something about the HMD/Nokia situation here.
Nokia hasn’t been the “most respected phone brand” in at least a decade… and I’m sure it costs them money to license it. They’re slowly letting go.
This seems like a kids phone, so the "decision making unit" should be the parents in the end. I am sure they would know about Nokia, that they were happy users years ago and buy the brand again for their kids.
Why is HMD still creating this crap in 2024? I do not have problem with keypad phones or barbie style phones. I have problem with OS and 0.3MP camera.
0.3mp is good enough for kitsch. It’s appropriate, and given the audience, this ensures a low level of information leakage in the form of naively snapped photos. Low-res is an arguable win for this feature set, speaking as a Parent.
Most likely bc their license for the Nokia branding is running out in 2026.
aside, but relevant: HMD is largely made up from old Nokia mobile phone hw guys and they probably feel that they've now established themselves in the market as "The guys that did the Nokia Android phone smartphone reawakening". They probably feel that they have some leeway to try out new stuff.
aside, but relevant: HMD is largely made up from old Nokia mobile phone hw guys and they probably feel that they've now established themselves in the market as "The guys that did the Nokia Android phone smartphone reawakening". They probably feel that they have some leeway to try out new stuff.
I do not think so they are established since Microsoft dented Nokia. Nokia is history and the people who has nostalgia about their old Nokia phones are dying. Newer generation only knows Apple or Samsung. They do not care about Nokia. They certainly should stop thinking getting success now, just because they were successful 20 years ago. Market has changed.
When they made a comeback back in 2017, there was enthusiasm in the market from the old Nokia users. Even then they failed to produce some good devices. Their phones were expensive and less features with other rivals. Just because Nokia has reputation for creating robust phones, which certainly cost a lot, you have to sacrifice a lot of features just to put your phone in metal enclosure. They tried for couple of years, and they just give up. Now they just try to attract old people to buy their Keypad phones. We see no innovation in keypad phones too. Just old phones getting released at heigh price in cheaper plastic than original ones.
Certainly, there is a lot of room in keypad phones especially in developing nations. Just make it cheap and with a lot features. People will buy that phone having Nokia branding than a Chinese branded cheap keypad phone having same features.
When they made a comeback back in 2017, there was enthusiasm in the market from the old Nokia users. Even then they failed to produce some good devices. Their phones were expensive and less features with other rivals. Just because Nokia has reputation for creating robust phones, which certainly cost a lot, you have to sacrifice a lot of features just to put your phone in metal enclosure. They tried for couple of years, and they just give up. Now they just try to attract old people to buy their Keypad phones. We see no innovation in keypad phones too. Just old phones getting released at heigh price in cheaper plastic than original ones.
Certainly, there is a lot of room in keypad phones especially in developing nations. Just make it cheap and with a lot features. People will buy that phone having Nokia branding than a Chinese branded cheap keypad phone having same features.
If this came with Whatsapp I'd unironically order one. Smartphones are garbage technology, I hate every last one of them.
You may contemplate how annoying text input was with T9. We are quite spoiled by full keyboards on our slab phones.
Even back in T9 days i preferred to write "manually" - then again i don't really write that much on my phone.
That said, i'd rather get something like a PinePhone, the software might be worse than most Android devices but at least i can replace/rewrite/do_something_with it.
That said, i'd rather get something like a PinePhone, the software might be worse than most Android devices but at least i can replace/rewrite/do_something_with it.
I used to put a lot of stock in texting with perfect spelling, punctuation and capitalization. Even with a T9 phone.
Eventually I got a cheap Nokia 9290, and it was heaven. My last (good) QWERTY phone was an E90 which was the perfect form factor.
I have loosened up since then and care less about writing properly while texting. I still want an E90 running Android.
(Side note: I had an Astro slide, and I wanted to love it, but the overall quality was not there)
Eventually I got a cheap Nokia 9290, and it was heaven. My last (good) QWERTY phone was an E90 which was the perfect form factor.
I have loosened up since then and care less about writing properly while texting. I still want an E90 running Android.
(Side note: I had an Astro slide, and I wanted to love it, but the overall quality was not there)
I do find the full sized keyboards an interesting situation, where I should be able to type but since moving on from the iPhone 3g I absolutely fail at being able to hit the keys correctly.
Hitting the period instead of space is extremely common, as are many other typos.
I miss my Blackberry keyboard. Everything else is so much better these days.
Hitting the period instead of space is extremely common, as are many other typos.
I miss my Blackberry keyboard. Everything else is so much better these days.
The Nokia 2720 flip phone has WhatsApp. Sadly no Signal app.
A few other models from the same line also have it IIRC, but they're all based on KaiOS and they end up being barely usable. I don't think it's their fault, I'm not sure it's even possible/EULA-compliant to use the service if not via the clients Meta gives you.
I guess my point is more that I wish the communication styles enabled by smartphones and the social expectations they carry weren't the norm. I'm not even really sure what I would do if I could wish my own phone into existence.
I guess my point is more that I wish the communication styles enabled by smartphones and the social expectations they carry weren't the norm. I'm not even really sure what I would do if I could wish my own phone into existence.
There are couples of not-too-outdated Android based LTE flip phones if you really need one, and most of them run apks so long it runs on 512MB-1GB RAM and without GMS.
It doesn't need to be a flip phone for my need, but it does need to not run Android, or KaiOS. I have a slight issue with trusting Google.
That's an interesting input. I have a guess why you'd say that, but I rather ask, genuinely, why do you think it's a "garbage technology"?
Copy-pasting from above:
> I guess my point is more that I wish the communication styles enabled by smartphones and the social expectations they carry weren't the norm. I'm not even really sure what I would do if I could wish my own phone into existence.
I also broadly agree with the usual laundry list of complaints: closed platforms, surveillance, ads, lack of innovation, smartphones being more like status symbols than actual pieces of technology.
> I guess my point is more that I wish the communication styles enabled by smartphones and the social expectations they carry weren't the norm. I'm not even really sure what I would do if I could wish my own phone into existence.
I also broadly agree with the usual laundry list of complaints: closed platforms, surveillance, ads, lack of innovation, smartphones being more like status symbols than actual pieces of technology.
I see, thanks.
I agree all of that. Usage patterns are garbage. But still, incredible technology, squeezed in a tiny box.
I agree all of that. Usage patterns are garbage. But still, incredible technology, squeezed in a tiny box.
Inequitably serving the maker, advertisers, service providers and back door entities makes it damnable. Garbage is being sincerely kind.
It's a pocket-sized "personal computer" bundled with a cellular phone. But it is designed to be "impossible" for the owner to exercise control over it. Garbage.
Of course, for the companies that control these "smartphones", they are not garbage.
Of course, for the companies that control these "smartphones", they are not garbage.
Long time ago, I worked on a project for a Korean cellphone vendor. Our task was to customize, fix bugs and implement a few features whenever a new model was going to be released in LATAM.
A colleague of mine bought (on a store) one of the models that was going to be released in another country. He customized it with a Disney Princesses theme and glued a few stickers. He gave it as a birthday present to his daughter. A unique model nobody else had.
A colleague of mine bought (on a store) one of the models that was going to be released in another country. He customized it with a Disney Princesses theme and glued a few stickers. He gave it as a birthday present to his daughter. A unique model nobody else had.
Still waiting for a hardened feature phone with Signal (and SimpleX going forward) and IMEI spoofing. The PinePhone has IMEI spoofing but the software is not focused on just being a good phone. Graphene is much more than I need. The LTE baseband should be isolated from the phone's operating system, essentially only providing an IP interface.
This is a phone marketed at kids. I'm not sure they need IMEI spoofing.
Genuinely curious... What is worth discussing here?
The market and desire of many to ditch their smartphones? Or the need for alternative mobile operating systems?
How is S30 not dead? I think it a lot more interesting then yet another app adding AI.
How is S30 not dead? I think it a lot more interesting then yet another app adding AI.
Alternate form factor mobiles in 2024. Flipphones are novel and relatively uncommon.
Remember the cool LED patterns on the Nothing phone? It’s notable when people try to bring new mobile phone concepts to market.
Remember the cool LED patterns on the Nothing phone? It’s notable when people try to bring new mobile phone concepts to market.
That a newly released phone is advertised as purposely missing features "better" phones have. Not only that but such a lack of capability is deemed important enough to proudly place in the product advertisement
It is worth wondering how long product designers can keep adding features to smartphones to justify the frequent upgrade cycle
And also worth wondering about if all the increase in capability of devices is really an meaningful increase in usefulness/happiness from the device usage, if some consumers are starting to crave less capable phones
It is worth wondering how long product designers can keep adding features to smartphones to justify the frequent upgrade cycle
And also worth wondering about if all the increase in capability of devices is really an meaningful increase in usefulness/happiness from the device usage, if some consumers are starting to crave less capable phones
Nice to see a flip phone for kids but I was hoping for a head mounted display.
What I think is most interesting is that one feature that they call out is its “ a real phone without social media”.
Guess if they want to go after a different demo, they could make a GI Joe phone. The “action figure” phone.
Guess if they want to go after a different demo, they could make a GI Joe phone. The “action figure” phone.
Hadn't heard of HMD, but they have a smartphone range as well and seem to push repairability as one of their selling points. Anyone have experience of a HMD smartphone?
As I understand, it is the mobile phone branch of Nokia which they sold to Microsoft, then bought back. I'm not sure quite how it ended up under the HMD name, but they have the rights to brand phones as Nokia.
Used an HMD Nokia 6 for a while. Phone was stable, a bit trigger happy with killing background apps but very usable compared to my current phone (different brand) that has experienced several significant bugs (for me) upon major updates. No bullshit app pre-installed was a strong plus. But the autofocus was not working properly sometimes and I needed to physically shake the phone to make it work again. This was 2017, they may have improved since then.
I have an HMD-made Nokia XR20. Rugged, waterproof, headphone jack, dual SIM or SIM + microsd, unlocked, Android One (little or no vendor or carrier bloatware). Really great phone.
That's apparently just green washing. If they were serious, they would at least offer bootloader unlocking?
> Operating System: S30+
I wonder if they'll bring back Series40 and eventually S60, and we'll be discussing SIM unlocking with paperclip jigs and rolling back clock for AllFiles hack through AppTRK like it's 2007 again.
I wonder if they'll bring back Series40 and eventually S60, and we'll be discussing SIM unlocking with paperclip jigs and rolling back clock for AllFiles hack through AppTRK like it's 2007 again.
Seems like trend-chasing that got behind schedule, and now they missed the fad.
Imagine if all the effort that went into this thing would have been directed towards getting Signal or WhatsApp onto a dumbphone.
Imagine if all the effort that went into this thing would have been directed towards getting Signal or WhatsApp onto a dumbphone.
A lot of the HMD/Nokia phones have WhatsApp. All those running KaiOS I believe, but not Signal :-(
Edit: Looking more at the specs and the promotional material, this starts to make a little more sense. Barbie brand the phone, in an attempt to make it trendy, so that young girls will want it. Avoid adding the social media, so not to expose the girls to an environment which we know to be bad for them. It actually makes a little sense, but sure if young teens are that into Barbie though. I'd love to see the sales numbers next year.
Edit: Looking more at the specs and the promotional material, this starts to make a little more sense. Barbie brand the phone, in an attempt to make it trendy, so that young girls will want it. Avoid adding the social media, so not to expose the girls to an environment which we know to be bad for them. It actually makes a little sense, but sure if young teens are that into Barbie though. I'd love to see the sales numbers next year.
Whatsapp has been disabled for new registration as of June this year, and will be disabled for all registered users from January next year.
So these phones are mostly useless going forward. Fancy, but under powered, and unable to pull off instant messaging in a reliable enough manner.
My son used a Nokia 7880 for the past 3 years, i unsuccessfully tried switching to a nokia 800 tough from January to May this year and intended for my daughter to have her own flip Nokia phone, to no avail.
We reluctantly had them switch to secondhand smartphones over the summer...
So these phones are mostly useless going forward. Fancy, but under powered, and unable to pull off instant messaging in a reliable enough manner.
My son used a Nokia 7880 for the past 3 years, i unsuccessfully tried switching to a nokia 800 tough from January to May this year and intended for my daughter to have her own flip Nokia phone, to no avail.
We reluctantly had them switch to secondhand smartphones over the summer...
The lack of social media is a (IMHO valid) selling point of this phone.
I don't know about WhatsApp, but Signal doesn't meet my definition of "social media."
It has stories, therefore it's a "social media" /s
Anyway, Signal doesn't approve use of the third-party clients. Tough luck. Dumb-phone-with-Signal has to be a collaboration with Signal-the-company.
Anyway, Signal doesn't approve use of the third-party clients. Tough luck. Dumb-phone-with-Signal has to be a collaboration with Signal-the-company.
> It has stories, therefore it's a "social media"
Congratulations, you made my skin crawl.
I'm quite familiar with Signals opposition to third-party clients. I maintained my own fork of their app for about a year in order to keep SMS support. Eventually my fork got so wildly out-of-sync with upstream that I just couldn't keep up anymore.
Congratulations, you made my skin crawl.
I'm quite familiar with Signals opposition to third-party clients. I maintained my own fork of their app for about a year in order to keep SMS support. Eventually my fork got so wildly out-of-sync with upstream that I just couldn't keep up anymore.
> It has stories, therefore it's a "social media" /s
Why /s?
Stories is exactly an example of a feature being toxic (especially, but not exclusively) for children.
Why /s?
Stories is exactly an example of a feature being toxic (especially, but not exclusively) for children.
I know cell companies want to sell you multiple accounts but will dynamic esim switching ever be a thing?
Do they have one for Ken?
There's one for Gigachad
https://www.catphones.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop7oxm5E4SE4gl9lrSpc...
https://www.catphones.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop7oxm5E4SE4gl9lrSpc...
Should be a great competition to the pink RAZR V3.
> External displaywith a mirror
Now _that_ is a killer feature. No Android or Apple phone has that. /s
Now _that_ is a killer feature. No Android or Apple phone has that. /s
USB-C and LTE, but a 0.3 MP camera is a very odd combination. I'm impressed that it's even possible to source a camera module this crappy in 2024.