We’ve known for a while now that HMD is working on a Barbie-branded phone. It seems that the original timeline had to be pushed back by a month, but now it’s official – the Barbie phone is coming on August 28.
Back in February, the company teased a new line-up with several phones scheduled for July, including a certain pink phone. The Skyline and Crest models did arrive this month (assuming that was the original plan for them), while Barbie is running fashionably late.
A peek at the Barbie phone from HMD x Mattel
We don’t know much about the Barbie phone – it will be a flip phone, which suggests that it will run either S30+ or KaiOS. This tracks with what HMD has been saying about it, positioning it as a “digital detox” phone that won’t let you doomscroll social media.
Of course, the company is working on a Detox Mode for the Skyline as well, so that is one of its calling cards. That said, Android-powered flip phones (the non-folding kind) are exceedingly rare, so we expect something similar to the Nokia 2780 Flip, for example.
The image of the phone shared on X shows that the Barbie phone is very, very pink – a color that is becoming something of a signature for HMD after the Neon Pink Skyline drew in so much attention.
