Well, I couldn’t exactly use any of Commodore’s press images since I do like to keep AI off this page…
I keep some half-written articles in my backlog for when I don’t feel like writing about current events in tech. Often they’re things I want to say about tech, but other more pressing matters or reviews pushed these editorials back. One of them is tentatively titled, “Please, Jolla, Bring Your Phone to the U.S.” It’s about how Jolla, a European smartphone maker, has made some great phones and polls their users on the best way to build a new device (though it unfortunately ended up half an inch larger than the weighted average request size of around 5.7″), then releases an attractive smartphone that runs Android apps… without Android. That’s because Jolla uses SailfishOS, a Linux-based smartphone OS going back decades, now seeing a return with Jolla’s new flagship, the Jolla Phone.
It’s slim, attractive, colorful, doesn’t contribute to bloated American tech companies, and it’s a long-tested and surprisingly decent Linux-based phone OS. I’d buy one in a heartbeat, if I could.
Unfortunately, Jolla has never sold their flagship SailfishOS phones to the U.S. market, and, unfortunately, I’m stuck in this country.
But Commodore seemingly has a solution that addresses a few concerns of mine. Commodore, yes, the one of Commodore 64 fame, revealed a new not-so-dumb phone. It’s capable of running Android apps, but not social media apps (with one unfortunate exception), and it’s based on SailfishOS. Plus, it’s a distraction-limited classic clamshell style flip phone! The Commodore Callback 8020 could be just what I need.
It’s a SailfishOS phone, but for a few obvious reasons, isn’t what I wanted. And, no, being a distraction-limiting phone isn’t one of them, I’ve been testing (and loving) my Sidephone for a week now. It’s because they’ve made some terrible decisions regarding privacy and AI.
The Commodore Callback 8020
The Commodore Callback feels like the answer to our current smartphone woes. Boring devices that have become little more than glass slabs of addictive infinite feeds. We scroll forever and connect less. How do we fix this? What saves us from our addictions?
Commodore has an answer. The Commodore Callback 8020, named with numbers like phones of old, looks like an ancient artifact from the 2000s. It’s a clamshell-style flip phone with an antenna, not even borrowing from the sleek design of the Razr, it hearkens back to the earliest of flip phones. My first flip phone looked a lot like a Commodore Callback.
But it’s not an old phone. It’s a new phone in an old package. It features a 3.25-inch touchscreen, with touch features disabled by default, but can be enabled for apps that struggle to work with the keypad. Yes, it has a keypad, a standard T9 keypad, perfect for one handed texting in a hoodie pocket during geography class. There’s a front-facing camera, because video chat is a part of communication. It has an FM radio, external and internal displays, notification lights instead of annoying pop-ups, USB-C charging, a microSD card slot and included 32GB card, 256GB internal storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, and more. It’s brilliant.
One of the key selling features of it? It’s made to help you disconnect from addictive online content without disconnecting from people. Social media apps are blocked. That includes Meta’s offerings, Twitter, even Discord and Roblox. Annoyingly, some other features, like email and even web browsing, are also blocked, which may limit its utility as a primary phone. Take it from someone who grew up with these phones, a T9 keyboard and a small screen are more than enough friction to keep a web browser from becoming addictive. I have Firefox on my Sidephone and only use it when I absolutely need to, and I even have their compact qwerty keyboard on that.
But there’s one horrible choice they made, one exception to their social media blockade. It comes with WhatsApp preinstalled. They let Meta get their hooks in this phone and I worry even your data from the factory. It’s hard to prove that Meta is collecting data from a device that has their software on it, even if it’s not in use, but I don’t trust Meta not to. The safest thing to do for your privacy when it comes to Meta’s software is to keep Meta software off your devices. Yes, many Android users, especially those outside of the U.S., are addicted to Meta’s chat app. For many, it’s the only way they text. But that doesn’t mean it should be preinstalled on everyone’s phone, it just means it should be available. Signal is available, but doesn’t come preinstalled, and everyone using WhatsApp should definitely start using Signal instead, where available. In place of choice, Commodore forced Meta on all their buyers, and they’re pushing back on any criticism of that, despite evidence that disproves their claims.
You can’t Focus on Privacy and Let Meta In
“Did you know: WhatsApp isn’t social media, and employs data encryption so your messages can’t be read by anyone, even Meta. That’s why it can live on our phone.”
– Commodore
I’d argue that WhatsApp is social media, but putting that aside for a moment. What I really have a problem with is Commodore doing marketing for Meta instead of their own research or listening to their potential buyers who raised concerns about their problematic inclusion of WhatsApp preinstalled on every phone.
WhatsApp messages are encrypted. However, Meta collects plenty of user data through metadata, including who you’re talking to and your entire contact list. They may collect other client-side data for marketing as well. Plus, Meta can decrypt and read your messages as long as one person in a chat allows them to by reporting something in a chat.
In other words, WhatsApp says it’s private, but it’s not, and insisting that it is while pre-installing it on a device is willful ignorance. It’s asking us to be as misinformed as Meta hopes we are, and it shows a level of ignorance that makes me distrust the entire project. How could you not know that Meta still collects data from WhatsApp? Meta made the decision to buy it after spying on users foolish enough to download their Onovo VPN. They’ve faced inconsequential consequences for those actions and the data they collected was profitable, telling them that WhatsApp was the biggest competitor to their social networks. Pretending WhatsApp is safe or that anything from Meta is private is a risk anyone who cares about their privacy shouldn’t take. Meta has little reason not to track you at every opportunity. I wouldn’t trust a phone after it had a Meta product installed on it.
Who Thought AI Was a Good Idea?
The same people who thought anything from Meta belongs on a privacy-focused and distraction limiting device must have made a visit to Commodore’s marketing department. Commodore’s videos, images on their websites, and other marketing material is full of AI. With all the AI, and the fact that all of the shots of the Callback seem to be renderings, it feels like vaporware. I know it’s not, Commodore is a real brand, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s a vaporware Kickstarter, not something from an established company, and that’s all thanks to this shoddy AI marketing.
MUSIC
“Go Back”
Music & Lyrics: CJ Simpson
Production: CJ Simpson (Logic Pro), Suno.ai
Backing Vocals: CJ Simpson
Available along with other music on the Callback microSD card– via Commodore’s official YouTube announcement, emphasis added
WhatsApp isn’t the only trash this comes with preinstalled. The music from their AI video was produced with Suno, an AI music generator trained on, you guessed it, real music by real artists who often did not consent for that. Suno is even the subject of multiple lawsuits over what their critics claim is IP theft for profit. Now that garbage will come on your phone, preinstalled. Commodore had the gall to call out Apple for putting a U2 album on people’s iPods for free, and then loads this AI slop on your device from the factory. Commodore went all-in on AI, from their use of it in advertising to literally forcing you to have it on your phone. Their entire app review process for whitelisting apps is AI-based. This isn’t a digital detox phone, it’s an AI phone in a nostalgia-friendly package.
Commodore, Why?
I would have ordered the Commodore Callback, even with its high price tag, just to get a SailfishOS phone. I actually didn’t think it was as overpriced as people made it out to be for what you’re getting. This is some excellent and exciting hardware. I have a Sidephone, which is my iPhone screen time reduction device currently, but I love supporting and trying something new. Anything that can help us escape from the duopoly of Apple’s closed garden and the internet spyware company that is Google. I wanted to love the Commodore Callback so badly.
But Commodore made some awful decisions. Yes, much of the world is ignorant enough to use WhatsApp, even as better options like Signal exist. But they also could install it on their phones after purchasing it if they really wanted to, like any other phone. Commodore could have allowed users to opt into installing it during setup or later with an app pack, much in the way Sidephone has done for apps not available through open source. Allowing WhatsApp but not a browser is laughably unfocused. Everyone could use a browser, and with the friction this hardware creates, it wouldn’t be addictive. But no one should be using WhatsApp.
Then there’s the AI. Commodore is a longstanding brand with a hacker ethos. Why would they use some of the most anti-human software ever created, killing jobs, desiccating and harming communities, stealing labor, harming artists, heating our planet, increasing our reliance on fossil fuels, using so much power cities may have to limit AC usage during heatwaves that will kill people. AI is evil, using it is evil, full stop. This is the antithesis to what Commodore once meant to people. It stands against what this phone supposedly represents too. So why the hell did Commodore not only use it, but force it on all of their buyers by preloading slop onto their device? It’s unacceptable, and more than enough of a reason to ignore this phone.
Anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to use generative AI ads or force AI slop “music” on users probably isn’t making a good product anyway. Sorry, Commodore, I really wanted to love the Callback, it probably started as a cool idea. But between including Meta spyware on the device and using generative AI, it’s a no-go.
The Sidephone doesn’t come with WhatsApp preinstalled, and is a de-Googled phone too, running a custom AOSP build without any Google Play Services. It also doesn’t send you any of Suno’s trash. If you’re looking to disconnect, you might find it’s a better option. It’s not perfect, but what is?