We’re just spending money more and more time looking at our smartphones, and in the last few years, tech companies have tried to offer salves to this problem they have created. Apple and Google have launched tools within their respective mobile operating systems to limit screen time. Devices like the Light Phone, designed to act as a second phone with limited features so you don’t have to look at Instagram when you’re at a social gathering, are enjoying some popularity. This kind of digital-detox mentality is also behind a wave of AI-powered gadgets like the Humane Ai Pin, which promises to offload some smartphone-native tasks to voice controls on a screenless interface. .
The latest to jump into fashion is The Boring Phone, which was announced today ahead of Milan Design Week. The company that makes it is Human Mobile Devices (HMD), better known as the company that makes Nokia-branded phones since 2017 thanks to a licensing partnership. Boring Phone is cute, transparent, and retrolicious. But this is not a phone you can buy.
At the Mobile World Congress in February 2024, the Finnish company announced that it is relying on the Human Mobile Device brand versus the acronym HMD and that it will expand its range by collaborating with other brands outside of Nokia as a manufacturer of white label phone. The big announcement at the time was the Barbie flip phone—which came from a partnership with Mattel—coming this summer. We don’t have any new details about that device, but The Boring Phone comes from a collaboration with Heineken (yes, the beer brand) and fashion brand Bodega.
These feature phones (colloquially called “dumb” phones) can only text and make phone calls. There is a camera, Dual SIM support, 4G connection, headphone jack, and a Micro USB port for charging. The battery can last a week on standby time, but without apps. Except for the Snake. Yes, you can play Snake on this gadget.
Bodega is behind the design, citing the rise of “Newtro” (new and retro) as inspiration for Gen Z—the modernization of popular gadgets from the 1980s and ’90s. That resulted in a transparent flip phone with holographic stickers and green accents in a nod to the Heineken partnership. In fact, the looks of this handset are half the reason I’m writing this piece. It’s very nice.