HMD has brought one of the oldest phone designs back with a very modern twist, launching a new version of its classic flip phone in the United Kingdom that comes with a built-in artificial intelligence companion. The phone, called the HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition, is aimed squarely at older users who want a handset that is simple to use but still offers company and conversation whenever they need it.
At the heart of the new handset is Mary, an AI assistant built to talk the way a patient friend would. HMD developed Mary together with inTouch, a company that specialises in AI-powered calling services for older adults, and the assistant is designed to hold natural conversations, remember details from earlier chats and keep the user company around the clock. Getting started is deliberately simple: there is no app to install and no number to dial, as Mary is reached straight from the phone’s main menu by pressing the call button, and the first-time setup only asks the owner to scan a QR code supplied in the box or visit an activation page on the web.
Mary has been tuned for the way older people actually like to talk. She uses plain, simple language, speaks slowly and leaves longer pauses so nobody feels rushed or talked over, and she can remember what was discussed before so that each conversation feels a little more personal than the last. Owners can chat with her about history, nature and stories, play memory games with her, or simply enjoy a friendly conversation, which makes the phone as much a companion as a communication device in a world where loneliness among older adults is a genuine and growing concern.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Underneath that friendly exterior, the handset itself is a modest, no-nonsense feature phone. It is an upgraded take on the existing HMD 2660 Flip, with a 2.8-inch QVGA main display on the inside and a smaller 1.77-inch QQVGA screen on the outside for checking who is calling, all powered by a Unisoc T107 processor with 64MB of memory and 128MB of storage and running the S30+ operating system. Around the edges it keeps everything a simple phone should have, including a 0.3-megapixel rear camera, Bluetooth 5.0, a 3.5mm headphone socket, an FM radio, an MP3 player, two microphones, a single speaker and a Nano SIM slot, while the whole device measures 198.9 by 55 by 19 millimetres, weighs 136.4 grams and carries an IP54 rating for resistance to dust and splashes.
Battery life is another area where the phone plays to the strengths of the old-school design. Its removable 1,450mAh battery delivers up to 8.1 hours of talk time according to HMD, and because the battery can be taken out and swapped, owners are never left waiting for a repair shop when it eventually wears down. Charging is handled over USB-C, keeping the handset in step with modern accessories despite its deliberately retro character.
The HMD 2660 Flip Senior Edition is on sale in the UK for £79.99, roughly 107 US dollars, and that price includes five free hours of conversation with Mary. Once those hours are used up, keeping the companion going costs £16.90 a month, around 23 dollars, which means families can try the idea out before committing to an ongoing payment. The pricing also raises an interesting question about where simple phones go from here: for years the smartphone has taken every new feature for itself while the humble feature phone was left behind, but HMD is betting that the people who never wanted a smartphone in the first place still deserve the best new ideas, just delivered in a form they can actually enjoy using. If Mary proves to be the kind of company older users genuinely look forward to hearing from, this little flip phone could quietly become one of the most humane gadgets of the year.
