There have been many rumours surrounding the Commodore PET smartphone for months – finally, we now have an official preview of a handset that looks like a solid mid-range device and runs Android.

For those of you too young to remember, Commodore was one of the biggest manufacturers of computers in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It holds the Guinness world record for computer sales and was a huge influence in home computing. The company gave us the Commodore 64, CPC 464, Commodore PET and Amiga to name just a few.

Now, with more computing power than several hundred of those computers of old put together comes the new smartphone. The Commodore PET smartphone piles on the nostalgia with the PET name. The Commodore PET was one of the company’s best-selling PCs of the 1970s and the new company is obviously hoping to use that to boost sales.

The handset is a stylish device that strongly resembles a Google Nexus. The phone is apparently a rebranded Orgtec WaPhone with the same specs but different covers. The Commodore PET smartphone will run a 64-bit 1.7GHz octa-core Mediatek processor in conjunction with an ARM Mali T760 GPU. There will be 2Gb of RAM in support and either 16Gb or 32Gb of storage on board. Both versions will also have a 32Gb microSD card included.

The phone has an interchangeable white plastic chassis with the C for Commodore logo and a 5.5-inch IPS screen. The screen is said to be capable of 1920 x 1080 and uses Gorilla Glass 3. Other highlights include optional cases in white, black or beige with other colours apparently coming soon. There is also a 13Mp camera capable of 4k images and video at 1080p, an 8Mp front camera and dual sim capability.

To add to the nostalgia, the Commodore PET comes with a custom version of Android Lollipop 5.0 with its own UI and two special emulators. One is the Vice C64 and the other is the Uae4All2-SDL Amiga emulator. Both will play classic Commodore games.

The marketing material released so far plays down the retrospective element of the Commodore PET, yet it’s hard to ignore. The inclusion of the two emulators strengthens that nostalgic pull. Fortunately, looking at the specs of the handset, it will actually be able to stand on its own two feet as well as appeal to those of us who remember Commodore fondly from our childhood.

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.

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