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"We Listened" - Commodore Reduces The Price Of Its Forthcoming Callback 8020 'Dumbphone'
(www.timeextension.com)
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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That’s more like it!
And I completely disagree with the people saying it should be much cheaper.
It’s a LTE Linux computer. In 2026. With multiple screens, a 48MP camera, good DAC, enough power to run real Android apps and tons of bells and whistles; what do you expect?
Electronics are expensive, unless it’s cheap garbage, heavily subsidized, or both. That has a huge externalized cost, and avoiding that is the whole point of this phone. R&D, customer service, and continued software support for the translation layer and OS, must crazy expensive too.
I know wages haven’t gone up with inflation, which makes $400 hard to afford, but that’s not in Commodore’s control.
If one wants a cheaper AliExpress Android fliphone, that’s reasonable.
But it’s not the same product. And you’re going to pay for it in other ways.
An Oppo A5M 4G costs around a bit over $150 in AliExpress and that's including the VAT for Europe (which will be the VAT of whatever country they imported it into, normally around 20%).
This thing has a 1080p 7" screen, which judging by the pictures is more than that Commodore phone.
Electronics are expensive for these things but that's when you're aiming for heavy use such as gaming, and that means larger/higher-density screen, more CPU/GPU power and bigger battery to feed those all the things as well as more memory and storage, which are the most expensive parts. LTE modules are comparativelly cheap nowadays, as are stupidly high resolution cameras and good DACs.
The only reason I would see for this to end up in the expensive electronics range is if they're aiming for it to run heavier AI models locally, which might very well be the case since judging by what others said the CEO of the company which bought the Commodore brand is AI-bro.