The Boring Phone is a modern cellphone that’s designed to do less than most. You can use it to make calls and maybe send text messages if you remember how to do T9 texting. But this 4G flip phone doesn’t support mobile data and doesn’t run apps or games (except for Snake). It’s designed to offer a distraction-free way to stay connected.
One more thing you can’t do? Buy one. The Boring Phone is a limited-edition device that will only be available through giveaways and promotions.
Beer company Heineken partnered with Finnish phone maker HMD to manufacturer the Boring Phone, and with streetwear brand Bodega to come up with a “newtro” design aesthetic for a brand new device that combines the transparent plastic of a 1980s landline phone with the physical form factor of an early 2000’s flip phone.
Only 5,000 units will be produced, and the phone will make its debut on April 18th at Milan Design Week, after which “devices will be given away to revellers around the world so they can disconnect, reclaim quality time with friends, family, and loves ones, and dial up their nights out.”
While the phone is designed to be less distracting than most modern smartphones, it actually outperforms most recent phones in at least one area: battery life. HMD says to expect up to 20 hours of talk time or a week of battery life.
You may not be able to buy the Boring Phone, but if you can live without the transparent body and Heneiken-green color highlights, the phone appears to be based on the commercially-available Nokia 2660 Flip.
That phone has a 2.8 inch QVGA primary display, a 1.77 QQVGA cover screen, a 0.3MP camera, 1,450 mAh user-replaceable battery, a micro USB 2.0 port, Bluetooth 4.2 support, and 3.5mm audio jack.
It’s powered by a Unisoc T107 processor and features 48MB of RAM, 128MB of built-in storage, and a microSD card reader for up to 32GB of removable storage, which should be enough space to store a lot of low-resolution photos from the camera… or, more likely, plenty of music if you want to use the phone as an MP3 player.
Update: Fun fact: this isn’t the first product launched under the “Boring Phone” brand… well, sort of. Five years ago a small team ran a Kickstarter campaign for a “minimalist smartphone” called… BoringPhone. In light of the buzz generated by the Heineken/HMD phone, they’re accelerating plans to launch a follow-up called BP2.
via Wired
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