With the arrival of music streaming, our smartphones have become the primary way we enjoy tunes, whether on the go or even at home. Once upon a time in the age of iTunes, however, “MP3 players,” more formally known as personal music players or PMPs, were all the rage. Of course, the dumbphones back then weren’t that capable of being decent music players, but the world has thankfully moved forward. Now you can have dumbphones that can finally perform that feat.
They’re no phones, but the new HMD 130 Music and HMD 150 Music try to bring back the simple joys of listening to music whenever and wherever, without having to fumble with apps and settings. Plus, they carry a striking retro charm that will make you wish for those good old days, or dream about how listening was so much simpler back then.
Designer: HMD Global
When all you really want to do is play some tunes to inspire or relax, the last thing you need is to dig through apps and menus on your phone. Before you know it, your day has already passed you by thanks to the distractions of notifications. HMD Global’s two new darlings allow you to plug in or blast your music almost instantly, and it even has dedicated buttons that put control at your fingertips, literally.
The HMD 130 Music and HMD 150 Music sport traditional candybar designs that are simple, straightforward, and in the eyes of today’s generation, quite peculiar. The user experience revolves around a T9 keypad with a square D-pad in the middle, a convention that forced phones back then to have simpler UIs. There are two notable designs on both phones, one of which is the strip on one side of the phone that has dedicated physical controls for playing, pausing, and skipping tracks.
The other unique aspect of these phones’ designs are the grilles on their back, a circular arrangement for the HMD 130 Music, and a more conventional rectangle of dots on the HMD 150 Music. These hide a 2W speaker that will let you broadcast your favorite tunes to some extent. For more private listening, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack that’s also considered a retro feature by now.
HMD Global doesn’t hesitate to call these devices as “dumbphones,” and they pale in comparison to the capabilities of even the cheapest smartphone. What they bring, however, is the simplicity of a communication device that can let you detach without disconnecting from the world, freeing you to just enjoy your music. And with a removable 2500mAh battery, you can keep on listening far longer than your smartphone can stay alive in one day.
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