It’s about a year late, but the Barbie Phone is finally here. This is not a smartphone, but a clamshell-style feature phone that’s all pink and branded with Mattel’s Barbie logo. The handset has a shiny mirror on the front and a host of accessories like charms and gem stickers to trick it out so you can fully bask in that late 1990s and early 2000s nostalgia. It even blurts out, “Hi Barbie,” when you power it on.
This is a real collaboration between Mattel and HMD, the company that used to make Nokia-branded smartphones. It’s part of HMD’s pivot to crafting its own smartphones along with feature phones developed in partnership with notable companies. That includes the Boring Phone from earlier this year, born out of a weird tie-in with Heineken.
The Barbie Phone runs KaiOS, an operating system designed for feature phones that adds a few smartphone capabilities, like 4G connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, and access to apps including WhatsApp, Google Maps, and YouTube. It’ll still feel like you’re using the Symbian operating system from Nokia phones of old, just with modern amenities.
Photograph: HMD
By default, HMD’s new flip phone can make calls and send texts. The company is on a bit of a crusade about reducing screen time and distractions, so the idea is to use this phone as a second phone when you don’t want to be pinged while kicking it at the beach with the Kens.
HMD is hardly the first to build a product around this concept of unplugging from the always-on life. There have been a few like-minded phones over the years, like the Light Phone or the redesigned Palm from 2018. Of a similar mind are the app timers and other screen-time reduction features that have been built into Android, iOS, and even the feature phones HMD made under the Nokia brand name, like the Nokia 3310.
Think Pink
The outside of the Barbie Phone’s lid has a reflective finish that serves as a mirror (remember the LG Shine?) with a hidden digital clock embedded in the middle. Flip it open and you get a nice 2.8-inch display. You can use the built-in backlit keyboard to text, and there are a bunch of tiny Barbie-themed tidbits here and there, like the palm tree icon around the number 7. And by my count, six Barbie logos—whether it’s the full text or just the letter B.
Photograph: HMD