we’re just spending We spend more and more time looking at our smartphones, and in recent years, technology companies have tried to offer solutions to this very problem they created. Apple and Google launched tools within their respective mobile operating systems to curb screen time. Devices like the Light phone, designed to act as a secondary phone with limited features so you’re not scrolling through Instagram when you’re at a social gathering, are enjoying some popularity. This kind of digital detox mentality is also what’s behind a wave of AI-powered devices like the Humane Ai Pin, which promises to offload some native smartphone tasks to voice controls in a screenless interface.
The latest to join this trend is The Boring Phone, announced today ahead of Milan Design Week. The company that makes it is Human Mobile Devices (HMD), best known as the company that has been making Nokia-branded phones since 2017 thanks to a licensing partnership. The Boring Phone is cute, transparent and retrolicious. But it’s not a phone you can buy.
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2024, the Finnish company announced that it was leaning towards the Human Mobile Devices brand over the acronym HMD and that it would expand its reach by collaborating with other brands outside of Nokia as a white-label phone manufacturer. The big announcement at the time was Barbie’s flip phone, born from a partnership with Mattel, arriving this summer. We don’t have any new details on that device, but The Boring Phone comes from a collaboration with Heineken (yes, the beer brand) and the fashion brand. Store.
This basic phone (colloquially known as “dumb” phones) can only send text messages and make phone calls. There’s a camera, Dual SIM support, 4G connectivity, a headphone jack and a Micro USB port for charging. The battery can last a week in standby time, but there are no applications. Except Snake. Yes, you can play Snake on this device.
Bodega is behind the design, citing the rise of “newtro” (new and retro) as inspiration with Generation Z: the modernization of popular devices from the 1980s and 1990s. That has resulted in a transparent folding phone with holographic stickers and green details as a nod to the partnership with Heineken. Honestly, the look of this phone is half the reason I’m writing this article. It’s gorgeous.