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wish i could make the text bright pink
tldr - if you wanna get this phone, get it secondhand unless you want the fancy box it comes in. not worth a 100 and up in my opinion, even if i like it.
The HMD Barbie phone was released in 2024 to chase the movie and I've had and used it as my cellphone since mid summer '25. I actually really like the fact that it's kind of a movie tie-in -- I think that's mostly because I'm nostalgic for the oldschool vibe of "buy blank get phone" that this decision carries. Reminded me of those old tech claw machines in the Moscow metro I begged my parents to let me try and play.
Nostalgic tangent aside, this is gonna be a review of my experience with the thing. I have the international version, which lacks a lot of features of the US version, like wifi (??) as well as a lack of GPS and a worse camera. I suppose us Europeans are too preoccupied with rolling giant wheels of cheese down cobbled streets to worry about where exactly it is we're going.
My choice was between the Barbie and the pink Nokia 2660 - not a choice I regret. Even the small decals of flamingoes and palmtrees and whatnot on the keys made it a worthy pick over the 2660, but overall, it is just a reskin. If you're not into excessively girly stuff it's not gonna be for you. I'd go as far as to say it's a gyaru phone lol, kind of reminiscent of the old fleur phones? Some people compare it to the slightly smarter 2780, but that phone is only sold in the states and I think that to say it's most like the 2660 with how basic its features are is fair (though I haven't actually used either of those so don't take my word on it)
It's 100% a feature phone and my experience with it has been mixed, not because of the features it lacks comapred to a smartphone but because of the fact that the features it does have either don't work or work poorly. i wanted to wait the average smartphone lifecycle of two years to make any sort of review, but even though i do love the little thing i have some pretty major compaints and observations already six months in.
I'll list off the things that are good, just okay, and bad, starting with the good.
- the call quality is great, better than on my smartphone (also a Nokia, G42), and I never have issues with either myself or the other person breaking up. It's also really comfortable to hold up to my ear and pinch with my shoulder so I can easily talk on it for an hour or more. radio also works flawlessly with headphones or without.
- small. that was the initial motivation for getting it, and yeah, it's small. disappears in my pocket, disappears in my purse to the degree i freak out a little trying to feel for it lol. despite this the buttons are nice and big so it's hard to sausage finger something by accident. the keys don't get sticky either.
- the design clearly has thought put into it. all the keys are decorated with barbie and tropical themed decals (the flamingoes and palm trees mentioned above lol) which look gorgeous with the backlight on. I'm pretty sure it's white but it looks pink when on. The letters are in cursive!
- the typing and notification sounds are nice.
- i'm not a collector, i'm very much using the phone as a phone and i doubt i'll own lots of em - but i can't devalue how great this would be for a collector! the packaging is supposed to be a jewelry box, i believe? and it includes things like multiple different housings for the back of the phone (removable battery yay), a lanyard, stickers, some charms and a screen wipe as well as a pink charging cable - no block as usual :(. it's all very well designed and feels good and extremely solid. refreshing to be opening something so pompous when most phones come in really simple packagings.
- music sounds good and the album art doesn't get particularly compressed.
The issue with the good is that it's all things you notice straight out the box.
- the menu and overall design of the ui is okay. i like the pink. of course.
- the flashlight is dim but works okay.
- there's snake! i don't play it lol i'm very bad at it.
- there's a meditation app? it's a timer with some gong sounds.
- the pop-up messages are cute. it's usually stuff like "you should call your friends!" and makes me go "oh that's nice."
- there's advice on how to decrease screentime built into the phone. a-ok.
- 4 gb internal, can take a 32gb SD but not more. but what are u gonna put on it? haha
- the loudspeaker is a bit crackly and located in an annoying spot but ok.
- can hold a decent amount of tracks - i have morwe than 200 for sure and they all show up in the music library. if you have too many you'll have to look for them in the files.
- the battery lasts two-three days if you aren't calling a lot, but can drain a little fast if you're talking on the phone for an hour or more (full to about half)
- the built in browser is small but works fine to look up the weather or something. don't expect to log into youtube or email though.
- the loudspeaker is fine but in a kind of annoying place.
the bad -
- the mirror on the back is cute but it is a SCRATCH MAGNET! i put it in the same compartment as my keys one time and there's now a big old dent in it. i personally don't really mind a few scratches cuz they make the phone look well-loved... buuut it does ruin the mirror and i don't think a phone should look this well-loved six months in. also it renders the back display completely pointless in daylight.
- can't send images to one specific person in my contact list. can't tell if this is an issue on her end cuz she can send me pictures just fine.
- the camera is awful. yes it's a feature phone but for over 100 euro i think HMD should've coughed up at least a 8 mp. instead, there's 5mp for america and 2,5 for the rest of the world - i can only guess that's because they don't think international buyers are as interested in feature phones as the they are in the states.
- the feature that's supposed to delete messages after a certain amount of time just straight up doesn't work.
- my phone seems to decide which bluetooth device it can and can't connect to on total random without as much as an error message. it just doesn't happen.
- it is pure plastic babyy and not well made at that. something was rattling inside straight out the box, and after dropping this thing twice, indoors, on carpet, over its six months with me - the headphone jack broke. if i wanna hear with both ears i have to hold the cord at an angle. this thing was not made to last, which sucks, cuz i really wanted it to and to have a phone i can use without fear for two years or more.
It was evidently made without much love and HMD is also confused about its target demographic when it comes to feature phones, like, they're trying to both ride the digital detox train but also appeal to older people (the description of Nokia 2720 calls facebook an "essential app" lmaoo) so this product was kinda cobbled together. It's pretty clear HMD is not making feature phones for the love of the game -a lot of the marketing for the barbie is centered around disconnecting and detoxing to the point there's a built in... Well I hesitate to cal it an app - a collection of flash cards about how to detox. I didn't buy the phone with that purpose so it feels a bit awkward and sleazy to have the phone praise me for it, especially since both the manual and the flashcards mentioned emphasise that it can't be your only phone and that you have to use it in tandem with a smartphone or over the weekends or something. Obviously this isn't the phone for you if you do banking or other essenital stuff on your phone, but anyone could figure that out without the need for such emphasis, so I can only assume this was done mostly to ease over the gen z crowd they're marketing to.
I'm actually pretty excited for their other feature phones! The new 2660 design is very pretty, but I doubt I'll be considering those for myself thanks to the flimsy build quality. honestly i've been considering a kyocera flip phone because i've heard good things about their durability!
If you wanna get the barbie I'd say you should, but I suggest you look for a seconhand option instead of shilling 100somethin bucks/euro, unless you really want the box. For its questionable quality it's just not worth it in my opinion.
Thanks for reading if you made it all the way down!
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