The concept of the flip phone was brought back in the foldable phone era, with phones that can be flipped open and snap shut but otherwise operate like your regular, run-of-the-mill smartphone. HMD’s latest phone, however, tries to bring things back to basics.

HMD, which you might know about as the manufacturer of Nokia-branded phones, has just launched a brand-new flip phone, the HMD 2660 Flip. It’s as basic as it gets with two screens. The main display is a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, offering a basic visual experience that’s just okay for what you use a feature phone for these days—essential tasks like viewing contacts, messages, and call information. A secondary 1.77-inch QQVGA display, presumably located on the exterior of the flip phone, shows the time and might also be good for things such as letting you know of incoming calls or messages.

The phone includes a single 0.3-megapixel rear camera accompanied by an LED flash, in case you need to take quick snaps. This is not a good camera by any stretch of the word, but if you need to take a picture, it’s there. It won’t be a good picture, but it will be a picture. Under the hood, the HMD flip phone is powered by a Unisoc T107 processor. It comes with 64MB of RAM and 128MB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card slot. It also runs HMD’s S30+ operating system.

Some of HMD’s recent releases, such as the Barbie phone, come with KaiOS, and we would love to see it on more feature phones from the company. The fact that we have the S30+ operating system means that this phone is just good for calls and texts, and not much else unless it’s pre-installed. KaiOS, on the other hand, doesn’t bring the phone up to smartphone status but meets you halfway with a relatively healthy ecosystem of apps, including some modern ones like WhatsApp. You won’t be hooked on things like Instagram, but you will get access to messaging people through modern platforms.

It does have 4G support, though, so it does have access to relatively modern networks despite its set of features. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 5.0 for pairing with wireless accessories, a 3.5mm headphone jack for traditional wired audio, and a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer. HMD has also equipped this flip phone with a removable 1450mAh battery. That’s not huge compared to what we get in smartphones, but considering that this phone must have relatively low power needs, it should be okay. HMD claims a talk time of up to 8.1 hours on a single SIM, 4G connection. And it’s removable, so you can just take a spare battery with you and pop it in when you’re low on juice and on the go.

The new HMD flip phone isn’t trying to compete with modern smartphones. HMD is positioning it, just like other feature phones in its range, as a phone that’s adequate for a “digital detox”—when you don’t want anything to do with smartphones and you just want something to make phone calls or text messages with it. You can also get it for an older person that might not be used to smartphones, or for a kid so they don’t dive head first into the eternally dangerous Internet.

It’s not clear if this phone will be available in the US, but you can keep an eye on HMD’s website, where you’ll be able to buy it if it goes on sale.

Source: HMD