HMD Barbie Phone Review: Plastic Fantastic?

As a bearded, 47-year-old, fats bloke who clothes like a 90s grunge troll and likes geeky expertise, hockey, beer and rock, I don’t suppose HMD’s new telephone is absolutely meant for me. It’s referred to as Barbie Cellphone 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 12 months, or that got here as an adjunct for those who purchased a Barbie doll across the flip of the millennium. It’s brilliant pink, in fact, with Barbie-themed gildings on the main points and an enthralling flip design you can 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 grasp extra of the included Barbie-themed knick-knacks. So you’ll be able to take your Barbie cellular and simply double the Barbie issue.

Mattias Inghe

Not a lot beneath the pink floor

As a cell phone, it’s extremely uninteresting, actually. It’s one among HMD’s so-called characteristic 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 features or connectivity choices.

In reality, 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 imagined to be a mediation instrument. It’s a timer, you get a gong sound when it counts to zero. That’s about it.

The vary of features within the telephone is in any other case the identical as in most of HMD’s easier characteristic telephones. Calls, contact e-book, SMS, calendar you’ll be able to’t sync with something, clock with alarm, calculator, converter for items 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 picture 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 most effective. There’s a shiny mirror on the surface that can assist you purpose, nevertheless it’s in all probability most helpful for checking that your lipstick and eyeliner are in the suitable place. The mirror is definitely semi-transparent and has a small display screen inbuilt that reveals the time and date. It’s sort of cool, anyway.

You possibly can truly entry the online by way of a 4G connection (wifi not obtainable) with an Opera Mini browser. Some websites truly load in them. I can Google, learn some information websites and test the climate. However making an attempt to entry my e mail by it, for instance, is nigh on unimaginable. It’s for superior and lively kinds of websites.

Mattias Inghe

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 least, supposed to provide lady energy vibes with Barbies in profitable skilled roles, however it is a cellular that wasn’t even ok for use for that originally of the millennium.

Final 12 months’s movie was an unexpectedly fulfilling 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 severely, however this one feels made by a misogynistic Ken. Certainly it ought to at the least be potential 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 characteristic telephones? Most of us deserted dumbphones when the iPhone got here alongside and paved the way in which for right now’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 ‘rest’ choice. “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 desirous to throw the telephone on the wall, glitter and all. Is there anything that may make a less complicated cellular a winner? Perhaps 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.

Mattias Inghe

The worth tag additionally takes its toll

For instance, I’m frantically trying in settings menus, within the accompanying handbook and on-line (on one other cellular) for some method 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 completely satisfied both. There’s truly a greater HMD Barbie, with a quicker processor, extra reminiscence, Wi-Fi, 5Mp digicam and a sensible system of apps. However solely within the US which is a disgrace.

HMD needs £100 for this cellular, a value you will 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 value virtually double that? Hardly. Even many barely cheaper smartwatches right now can deal with textual content enter, messaging and communication in a considerably higher method than HMD Barbie. They usually don’t price any extra.

Mattias Inghe

And I doubt any child shall be completely satisfied about this cellular that may’t do what a cellular ought to be capable of except they’re a Barbie superfan. You possibly can’t take respectable photos, hearken to music with out file switch by way of USB, or ship a message to the household WhatsApp group.

In the event you’re occupied with a characteristic 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 glorious Skyline, which can be obtainable in cheery pink.

If I really feel like I need to affirm my or another person’s interior Barbie, I’d somewhat 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 obtainable? I’m positive 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 speak time
• Dimension: 10.84 x 5.51 x 1.89cm
• Weight: 124g