HMD, the folks that you probably know as the makers of Nokia smartphones, have made a surprising move by teaming up with Heineken—yes, the beer company. Heineken, HMD and design firm Bodega have revealed a brand new phone: The Boring Phone. It’s basically a ‘dumbphone’ or ‘feature phone’ of sorts, but you won’t be wanting one because of its specs, you’ll be wanting one because of how cool it looks.
The Boring Phone isn’t a late April Fools joke, even though it really does seem like it. It’s a flip phone reminiscent of the ones you—or more likely, your dad—used to use around two decades ago. Designed to give you a nostalgic hit, the Boring Phone has a translucent plastic shell with a main 2.8-inch QVGA display on the inside, a 1.77-inch display on the outside (just like Motorola flip phones of yesteryear) and it even has a VGA camera for you to take photos with. The Boring Phone even supports 2G, 3G and 4G network connectivity and has a 3.5mm headphone jack too.
According to Heineken, The Boring Phone was made specifically to take you back to a time when smartphones weren’t a thing. The marketing material says that there’s more to social life when there’s less on your phone—perhaps as a way to get people out of their homes and into a bar for a pint. It boasts having only SMS for texting and even has Snake pre-installed likely thanks to HMD’s links with Nokia.
The Boring Phone is of course just a publicity stunt, and so you won’t be able to order one online. However, Heineken did say that they were doing global giveaways of The Boring Phone, with 5,000 units of them up for grabs. The beer company will be holding social media giveaways for The Boring Phone starting in the UK with other regions to follow later this year though no word if Malaysia is included on that list. There will also be an app launched in June to make your smartphone ‘boring’ if you don’t win one.
For more information on The Boring Phone, you can click here to head to Heineken’s website.
