The New Commodore Callback Flips Off The Distractions And Intrusions Of Modern Devices

Commodore’s new flip phone, the Callback, gets hip to the demands and requirements of the modern age, swapping out obsessive scrolling with intentional friction and an old-school form factor. While it’s not as sophisticated as, say, a Motorola Razr, nor nearly as basic as the reborn Nokia brand from HMD, the Callback walks a fine line between functionalism and full-on digital detox.

Straight up, the flip phone format beckons you back to an earlier time. However, it’s a little more sophisticated than that. Among the key apps that the Callback includes are Uber, WhatsApp and Google Maps, bringing a level of functionality that other so-called dumb phone options have talked themselves out of.

Commodore has deployed the Finnish-developed Sailfish OS, an operating system that’s mostly compatible with everyday apps but is stripped of Android’s more aggressive data-mining habits.

What you don’t get is any social media, or even a browser. There’s a camera – billed as a ‘retro camera’ – and the ability to listen to streaming music services, thanks to an onboard digital audio converter (and the all-important 3.5mm headphone socket).

Essentially all you’re missing is the ability to receive information to engage with or get enraged by, as well as other people’s unsolicited opinions on said information. In short, the worst bits of the modern world.

All this is wrapped in a series of limited-edition cases that run the gamut from classic Commodore beige to a techy-translucent finish that evokes the custom gaming rigs of the noughties and a blingy gold Founders Edition. The company’s graphic approach is also deliberately archaic, with highly polished 3D renders and light flares.

Commodore’s modern-day story is a strange one. Founded in the late 1950s by Jack Tramiel, the American company is best known for its business calculators and the Commodore 64 home computer, launched in 1982, and the Amiga, one of the mainstays of early digital music-making. The brand was bankrupted in 1994, but the name, logo and identity was revived in 2025 as the Commodore International Corporation, overseen by a team including Tramiel’s son Leonard.

The returning company’s first product targeted computing nostalgists with Commodore 64 Ultimate, updated for the modern age with USB and HDMI connectivity. The Callback is pitched at those too young to remember the heyday of 8-bit home-computing but old enough to abhor the toxic attention suck of the smartphone while yearning for something a little more Y2K.

The Callback 8020 is a world apart from 2026’s line-up of flagships from Apple, Google, Samsung and more, but it’s also very distant from Commodore’s first telephone, a rotary dial phone it sold in Canada back in the early 1980s. Other nods to the period include the exterior display in chunky segmented LEDs showing the date, time, battery, and signal.

Casual gamers will be sated by the inclusion of Snake, as well as a selection of original Commodore 64 games, while the absence of email and Slack make for blissful out of hours isolation. Finally, there’s a recreation of the original 64’s SID music player, the genesis of crunchy 8-bit chiptune music.

The new iteration of Commodore wants to build more examples of ‘purpose-driven future-facing technology,’ retaining the retro-futurist aesthetic with added layers of privacy and simplicity.

According to Peri Fractic, Commodore’s CEO and president, ‘the Callback can be an evening phone, a weekend phone, a going out to dinner with the family phone, or replace our everyday phone completely, depending what level we want to start reconnecting with the world around us. Those of us who have already done it can vouch for its impact and will never go back – we’ve learned to live with less scroll, and more soul.’

Commodore Callback 8020, from $499.99, pre-orders and more information at Commodore.net, @OfficialCommodore