retro designs like barbie flip phone stir nostalgia in modern tech

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Retro designs in modern tech rekindle ‘old’ days

Retro designs have made their comeback as modern tech, from the Barbie and Motorola flip phones to the Polaroid camera in LEGO form. Their functions and buttons have since gotten a massive upgrade, but away from these modern touches, it’s nostalgic to have them back. They look and feel familiar, reframed into statement must-haves relieving the simpler days. Recent technology operates like rapid-fire: one touch is all it takes for features to activate. It wasn’t like this in the past. Users needed to click number ‘six’ three times on their cellphone’s keypad if they wanted to type the letter ‘O’, and they had to wait for the camera film to show them what they photographed.

They must plug the cables to their sound devices for the speaker to start playing music, and the gaming controllers had their own consoles, unlike the two-in-one fix these days with smartphones and the downloadable games and apps. Some users have embraced modern technologies; others miss the gadgets from the past. But there are those who want the best of both worlds, the modern tech with retro designs, and they’re the ones who can enjoy the keypad on the Barbie flip phone, the ejecting film in the LEGO Polaroid camera, the tactile buttons on GameSir’s gaming controller, and the retro pixel-art animation on Divoom’s Ditoo Bluetooth speaker.

HMD Barbie Flip Phone | image courtesy of HMD

upgraded flip phones from barbie to motorola and samsung

Fans can appreciate the renaissance of retro designs in modern tech, but bringing back the vintage designs for a nostalgic flick isn’t always the case, at least not so much with the arrival of the official Barbie phone. It was part of the Barbie mania that took over brands and cities across the globe during the premiere of the movie in 2023. Its wick keeps burning because Mattel continues the buzz when they team up with Human Mobile Devices (HMD), the company that used to make Nokia smartphones, to release the official Barbie phone.

But it’s not an all-screen phone. It’s a flip phone with a tactile keypad. It has a soft click when the user folds it up because of the hinges. There’s a click-clack sound again and again when the user types on the keypad, and that’s a kind of feeling smartphones these days can’t replicate, even with vibrate on keypress. Mattel and HMD aren’t the only ones because Motorola has also released the Razr 40 Ultra, and Samsung, a long-term player in the flip phone game, has introduced several models, including its recent Galaxy Z Flip6. But the Barbie phone gets an edge because, among these names, it’s the only one that hasn’t abandoned the tactile keypad (yet).

the Barbie flip phone has a tactile keypad

modern retro cameras include LEGO polaroid and fujifilm instax

At times, giving in to the retro designs of modern technology can sound as if people were joining just for the recent trend. And why not when the modern retro gadgets do contend as must-have items or gifts? Some of them look cool, but others just tap into the hibernated inner child in people. The latter is a possibility the moment LEGO Ideas releases their Polaroid OneStep SX-70 because it’s a building set for adults who want to recreate the Polaroid camera in the past, but in LEGO form. It’s for both beginner and master photographers, and to top it off, it operates just like a real vintage Polaroid camera model.

No, it can’t take actual pictures, but photographers can load one of the included photographs and eject them out of the camera when they click on the shutter. If users still want an actual camera that takes pictures while still keeping the retro vibes of the design, they can also snap up the Fujifilm Instax Pal. It’s a pocketable digital camera that looks like a surveillance cam, and it prints photos as soon as they click on the shutter. Fujifilm adds a built-in speaker into the model, so users can hear the ‘click’ sound, and when the films stop rolling because there aren’t any pieces left, they can plug in a microSD card to save the photos and transfer them to their computer or cloud drive later.

Motorola Razr 40 Ultra | image courtesy of Motorola

retro pixel art in speaker design and modern gaming controller

It’s nice, though, to have retro-designed modern gadgets around. They can be a well of references for creatives who want to shake up the design of their works. They also remind us of what we left behind, a time that has passed but we still associate good memories or experiences with. It might be a familiar feeling with game consoles as they improve, but luckily, the brands have maintained the physical buttons on the controllers. GameSir, though, takes advantage of people’s use of smartphones and devises X2S. It’s a Type-C mobile gaming controller for iPhone 15, Android, and HarmonyOS smartphones, so users don’t have to keep tapping their screens. The design recreates the buttons of Nintendo 2Ds, complete with analog triggers, clicky buttons, and a joystick.

It’s also expandable to fit the majority of smartphone sizes these days, and it’s rubber-coated so it doesn’t slip from the gamers’ grip as they spend hours on their screens. While they’re at it, they can also play music in the background using Divoom’s Ditoo retro pixel art Bluetooth speaker. It resembles the arcade machines in the past with its tube-TV-like screen, which is home to its speaker, and the tiny keyboard-like buttons with a tiny joystick. When it plays songs, the keyboard illuminates in neon colors, and the screen lights up with retro pixel animation. The speaker feels nostalgic to have these retro looks back into the present time. Their design elements might just prove how they’ve already stood the test of time, and by the looks of it, they’re not dying down anytime soon.

unlike the Barbie Flip Phone, the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra only has a screen without tactile keypad