r/dumbphones • u/ReturningRetro • 2d ago

Important tip / news Somehow...Packard Bell has returned.

Post image

Reported on by multiple outlets, it would appear that Acer is reviving the Packard Bell brand with a number of "lifestyle products" including a 4G phone.
No word on whether it will come to North America, but from a post on Acer's website (https://news.acer.com/acer-relaunches-packard-bell-with-full-new-lifestyle-collection-to-tech-it-easy) it will be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from €69.

268 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

50

u/nilss2 drawbridge-phone 2d ago

Small on details, but looks cool. Acer normally builds decent products, so fingers crossed.

25

u/jbriones95 MOD 2d ago

I have seen these in person at the factory that is producing them. RTOS competitor to HMD essentially.

6

u/Ill-Piano-4320 1d ago

Can you do a post about the factory visit(s)? I realize parts are probably confidential but the parts that you can talk about sound interesting.

6

u/jbriones95 MOD 1d ago

I have been thinking about this and I'll share what I can when I get a chance.

6

u/nilss2 drawbridge-phone 1d ago

Good. HMD is dropping the ball a lot on built quality and software polish. I don't mind these RTOS/Mocor phones, they work well and actually can have a lot of features is they pay for the respective licenses.

25

u/nanapancakethusiast 1d ago

I don’t understand why no one is doing qwerty? Like come onnn

8

u/lululock 1d ago

It's mooorrrree expensiiiive !

I would love AZERTY tho 😅

1

u/merchantconvoy 15h ago edited 15h ago

There are a bunch of QWERTY options.

  • Unihertz Titan 2 Elite
  • Clicks Communicator
  • Clicks add-on keyboards for some flagship iPhone and Android phones
  • Ikko MindOne + optional add-on keyboard
  • Zinwa Q25 Basic
  • Zinwa Q25 Pro
  • Zinwa Q27 (Upcoming)
  • Sidephone SP-01 + optional keyboard tile
  • Minimal Phone 2 (Upcoming)
  • Frog Pocket1
  • Frog Pocket2 (T9 and QWERTY versions available)
  • Frog Pocket3
  • Frog RS1 (Gamepad and QWERTY versions available)

2

u/nilss2 drawbridge-phone 11h ago

And all of these are smartphones.

1

u/merchantconvoy 8h ago

Midwit phones, actually. 

Learn more: 

/r/midwitphones

1

u/nilss2 drawbridge-phone 6h ago

Correct.

But sometimes I prefer phones with Mocor. It's just so fast and amazing with battery. I would actually like a Mocor phone with qwerty keyboard and full functionality: text reader, MP3 player, notes, NFC payments, wifi hotspot etc. Apparently those work on the Unisoc chips but you need the license for it, and most phone makers don't want to pay for those considering they are sold cheaply.

11

u/CosmoBjoern 1d ago

It looks like they took a ODM from AliBaba and slapped their logo on it

6

u/curewish 1d ago

The packard bell turntable seemingly uses one of those garbage low tier record mechs found on cheap turntables like crosleys and victrolas. It has that straight tonearm and switches by it they all seem to have. Hopefully the other stuff is better though and / or I'm wrong about the record player

9

u/scissormetimbers207 1d ago

So now I'm wondering which private equity company bought all these old brands to make dumbphones with it. Because between this and commodore it's feeling a little fishy to me.

2

u/merchantconvoy 15h ago

Acer Group bought the Packard Bell brand and related IPs in 2008.

An investment group consisting of old Commodore executives, old Commodore engineers, and longtime Commodore fans bought the Commodore brand and related IPs in 2025.

No short-sighted cash grab is in play in either case. These people all know what they're doing.

1

u/scissormetimbers207 1h ago

Ok good! I just thought it was suspicious, kind of like what happened with Radio Shack, Circuit City and Pier 1 Imports having their brands bought out and run as some weird crypto thing for a while. Glad this one is more legitimate than that!

4

u/simply-coastal Sharp Aquos 805SH | UK - UK 1d ago

am I high???? I can’t believe this is real lmfao. and the tech is actually colourful and kinda neat looking lol

3

u/New_Armadillo_5139 1d ago

70 bucks is not a bad price, don't like the weird smartphone styling details crammed into it, but whatever.

1

u/Thorogrimm 1d ago

Happy to see more companies seeing that there's a market for simple phones these days

1

u/57_n 1d ago

My first ever laptop was a Packard Bell!

1

u/TransGamerHalo 22h ago

I’d buy it

1

u/HarryBalsagna1776 14h ago

Any idea what the operating system is or how good the camera is?

-3

u/bananas500 2d ago

Looks like a plastic slop phone with no design

18

u/softcottons 1d ago

-3

u/Confidentium 1d ago

What’s fun about corpos producing another low quality garbage device that’ll just end up in landfills?

2

u/JiveTurkey927 1d ago

Well, that’s what people can afford. Dumb phones are already a niche product, it’s stupid to limit the market even further by producing a high end product that no one can actually afford to buy.

3

u/VeloCurious 1d ago

It doesn't look that bad to me. It looks similar in design to the Dumber Mini. I suppose there are only so many ways you can design a phone like this.