HMD Barbie Phone review: Why?

As a bearded, 47-year-old, fats bloke who attire like a 90s grunge troll and likes geeky know-how, hockey, beer and rock, I don’t suppose HMD’s new telephone is de facto meant for me. It’s referred to as Barbie Telephone and it’s been launched in partnership with the Barbie model proprietor Mattel.

It seems like a cellular Barbie had within the movie that got here out final yr, or that got here as an adjunct in case you purchased a Barbie doll across the flip of the millennium. It’s vibrant pink, after all, with Barbie-themed elaborations on the main points and an enthralling flip design which you could open or shut with a wrist snap.

The £100 primary telephone comes with a plethora of equipment, from Barbie stickers and glittery, self-adhesive ‘crystals’, two further Barbie-designed shells, and a wristlet-style carrying strap, on which you’ll be able to grasp extra of the included Barbie-themed knick-knacks. So you may take your Barbie cellular and simply double the Barbie issue.

Not a lot below the pink floor

As a cell phone, it’s extremely uninteresting, actually. It’s one in every of HMD’s so-called function telephones, unsmart cell phones with basic keypads as a substitute of contact, a proprietary system with out entry to further apps, minimal reminiscence, and never very many capabilities or connectivity choices.

In actual fact, it seems to be the HMD Nokia 2660 flip telephone from 2022, however with a brand new shell and a few further Barbie-angled options within the system.

By Barbie-angled, I imply a pastel-coloured lock display screen with a Barbie-B within the background, custom-designed pink icons within the perform menu, a faux “missed name from Ken” message at startup, beach-themed “Malibu Snake” as a substitute of the standard Snake as the one sport, and a comically mistranslated “Barbie mediation” that’s presupposed to be a mediation software. It’s a timer, you get a gong sound when it counts to zero. That’s about it.

The vary of capabilities within the telephone is in any other case the identical as in most of HMD’s less complicated function telephones. Calls, contact ebook, SMS, calendar you may’t sync with something, clock with alarm, calculator, converter for models of measurement and currencies, voice memo app, FM radio, image gallery for precise photographs and video participant for precise movies.

Mattias Inghe

Easy and substandard digicam

The issue with the photograph options is that the digicam is downright awful. at 0.3 megapixels, it produces 640 x 480 pixels at greatest. And even these pixels are distressingly blurry, smeared intimately and each pale and mottled in color. Filming turns into much more miserable.

You solely get one digicam, on the again. So taking a selfie means turning on a ten-second timer, folding your telephone, turning it over and hoping for the very best. There’s a shiny mirror on the skin that will help you goal, nevertheless it’s most likely most helpful for checking that your lipstick and eyeliner are in the appropriate place. The mirror is definitely semi-transparent and has a small display screen in-built that reveals the time and date. It’s type of cool, anyway.

You’ll be able to really entry the net through a 4G connection (wifi not accessible) with an Opera Mini browser. Some websites really load in them. I can Google, learn some information websites and examine the climate. However attempting to entry my e mail by it, for instance, is nigh on unimaginable. It’s for superior and energetic forms of websites.

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What’s the level?

How Barbie does this really feel? In all the pieces however the floor, not very Barbie in any respect. Mattel’s personal dolls are, these days at the very least, supposed to provide lady energy vibes with Barbies in profitable skilled roles, however this can be a cellular that wasn’t even adequate for use for that initially of the millennium.

Final yr’s movie was an unexpectedly gratifying satirical comedy about gender roles and consumerism, nevertheless it appears HMD didn’t see it, or misunderstood it fully. Even Barbie deserves to be taken significantly, however this one feels made by a misogynistic Ken. Certainly it ought to at the very least be attainable to take an honest selfie and publish it on social media, in 2024. And browse a bloody e mail.

Is that this simply me hating on function telephones? Most of us deserted dumbphones when the iPhone got here alongside and paved the best way for at present’s period of smartphones, with actual screens, qwerty keyboards, connectivity and apps. However some have discovered their method again to those extra feature-poor telephones, for nostalgia or to flee the stress of being always on-line.

HMD additionally sells them as a ‘leisure’ possibility. “A telephone with out distractions”. However there goes the nostalgia issue of the Nokia classics, and I’m extra distracted by the truth that I can’t even comfortably kind a brief textual content message with out eager to throw the telephone on the wall, glitter and all. Is there anything that may make a less complicated cellular a winner? Possibly battery life, nevertheless it’s solely lengthy as a result of there’s not a lot to do actively that may drain the battery. Name time on most smartphones is definitely clearly higher.

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The worth tag additionally takes its toll

For instance, I’m frantically wanting in settings menus, within the accompanying handbook and on-line (on one other cellular) for some approach to set the textual content enter from a frustratingly misinterpreting auto-corrector to multi-press mode, with out success.

The tediously spongy buttons don’t make me pleased both. There may be really a greater HMD Barbie, with a quicker processor, extra reminiscence, Wi-Fi, 5Mp digicam and a wise system of apps. However solely within the US which is a disgrace.

HMD desires £100 for this cellular, a value you may get a correct funds smartphone for as a substitute. HMD’s Nokia 2660 which is principally the identical cellular however not Barbie-branded, prices simply £64.99.

Is a pink shell and a few bling price nearly double that? Hardly. Even many barely cheaper smartwatches at present can deal with textual content enter, messaging and communication in a considerably higher method than HMD Barbie. And so they don’t price any extra.

Mattias Inghe

And I doubt any child can be pleased about this cellular that may’t do what a cellular ought to have the ability to except they’re a Barbie superfan. You’ll be able to’t take respectable footage, hearken to music with out file switch through USB, or ship a message to the household WhatsApp group.

In case you’re interested by a function telephone to maintain your daughter secure from on-line threats, there are nice parental management instruments for actual smartphones as a substitute. For instance, HMD’s wonderful Skyline, which can also be accessible in cheery pink.

If I really feel like I wish to affirm my or another person’s inside Barbie, I’d relatively get one, go to the closest retailer and get a bunch of my very own Barbie stickers to print there, and obtain an Android launcher with a pink princess theme. Is it accessible? I’m certain there’s.

Specs

• Producer: HMD
• System circuit: Unisoc T107, Cortex-A7 1 GHz
• Reminiscence: 64 MB
• Storage: 128 MB, microSD slot
• Show: 2.8-inch LCD, 240 x 320 pixels
• Digital camera: 0.3Mp with rear LED
• Connections: USB-C 2.0, 3.5 mm headset
• Communication: 4G, Bluetooth 5.0, FM radio
• Working system: S30 with Barbie UI
• Different: Twin sim, shell and carrying strap
• Battery: 1 450 mAh, about 10 hours of discuss time
• Dimension: 10.84 x 5.51 x 1.89cm
• Weight: 124g