In 1977, Commodore International introduced its first personal computer, the T (rsonal Electronic Transactor). It quickly became a popular choice in the newly emerging market. Now, that legendary device is back—but this time it’s an Android-based smartphone rocking two emulators for classic Commodore machines. The hsets are launching this week in Europe, likely with a U.S. launch to follow.
kimedia user Rama The original Commodore T.
Two Italian designers were able to snag the rights to the Commodore name—the original company went belly up in 1994—for 38 countries (U.S. included), according to red. The pair are operating under a company called Commodore Business Machines mited.
The impact on you at home: The T doesn’t look like it will break any new ground with innovative features or a forward-thinking design. Instead, this hset is all about appealing to retro fans who will get a nostalgic kick out of rocking a Commodore device in 2015.
This is the second time a company has tried to resurrect the Commodore br. In 2010, a company called Commodore A gained rights to the name introduced a few s before fizzling.
Blast from the past
The T smartphone offers a fairly solid set of specs including a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHz tek 64-bit processor, 13Mrear-facing camera, 8Mfront snapper, 4G dual SIM. On the back will be Commodore’s traditional “C=” logo, the developers may even create a version that uses the logo as a stylized home button, red says.
There will be two flavors to the hset: a light version will feature 16GB of storage 2GB of RAM, while the regular model packs 32GB of storage 3GB of RAM. The phone will also rock a microSD slot supporting up to 64GB of additional storage will come with a 32GB microSD as part of the package. Both phones are set to come in white, black retro beige, but other colors might be ready by the time the phone shows up stateside.
thout a U.S. release date in sight it’s not clear what the official pricing will be. en the phones roll out in Europe in the coming days, however, the light version will retail for the equivalent of $300 the regular will be about $365.
Emulation station
For retro fans, the phone’s software is where things get really interesting. The device will have a custom version of Android 5.0, will also come with emulators for the Commodore 64 Amiga—two other popular Commodore s from the 1980s. In addition, the new company hopes to make old Commodore games available so users don’t have to scour the Internet for something to run on their Commodore emulators.
Anyone interested in the escapades of the new Commodore company can follow them on Twitter or sign-up for updates on the company’s website.
