This is a A year late, but the Barbie phone is Finally here. This is No A smartphone, but shaped like a clamshell, all pink and featuring Mattel’s Barbie logo. The phone has a shiny mirror on the front and a host of accessories, like charms and gem stickers, to pretty it up so you can indulge in that late ’90s/early 2000s nostalgia. It even says, “Hello, Barbie” when you turn it on.
This is an actual collaboration between Mattel and HMD, the company that used to make Nokia-branded smartphones. It’s part of HMD’s shift towards creating its own smartphones alongside feature phones developed in collaboration with major companies. These include The Boring Phone from earlier this year, which was born out of a strange collaboration with Heineken.
Barbie’s phone works KaiOS operating systeman operating system Designed for feature phones which adds some smartphone features such as 4G connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS and access to apps like WhatsApp, Google Maps and YouTube. You’ll still feel like you’re using the Symbian operating system from older Nokia phones, just with modern conveniences.
Photography: HMD
By default, HMD’s new foldable phone can make calls and send texts. The company is on a bit of a crusade to reduce screen time and distractions, so the idea is to use this phone as a second phone when you don’t want to get called while you’re at the beach with the Kens.
HMD isn’t the first to create a product around this concept of disconnecting from the always-on life. There have been a few phones with similar ideas over the years, such as The light phone or the redesigned Palm of the year 2018A similar idea is followed by app timers and other screen-time-reducing features that have been built into Android, iOS and even the basic phones that HMD has made under the Nokia brand, such as the Nokia 3310.
Think pink
The outside of the Barbie phone cover has a reflective finish that serves as a mirror (remember the LG Shine?) with a hidden digital clock embedded in the middle. Open it up and you’re treated to a nice 2.8-inch display. You can use the built-in backlit keyboard to text, and there are a bunch of little Barbie-themed details here and there, like the palm tree icon around the number seven. And, by my count, six Barbie logos — either the full text or just the letter “B.”
It’s powered by Qualcomm’s 215 chipset, has 512 megabytes of RAM, and 4 gigabytes of storage with support for microSD cards up to 32 gigs in size. Yes, you can use it as an MP3 player and dance to “I’m Just Ken” via Bluetooth or the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. HMD claims the 1,430mAh battery, which is also pink, offers a talk time of about 3.8 hours on 4G (6.3 hours on 3G), but it’s hard to say how much that translates to in normal use. It recharges via USB-C with — you guessed it — a pink charging cable.
