This Retro Phone Is On The Cusp Of A Major Comeback

In an era where iPhones are basically an extension of your hand and TikTok knows you better than your own mum, a curious new tech trend is bubbling up from the depths of nostalgia: Gen Z is swapping their smartphones for BlackBerrys. Yes, that BlackBerry. The one your boss used in 2008. The one Paris Hilton bedazzled. The one that made a keyboard click feel like power.

As The New York Post reports, twenty-somethings and teens are ditching touchscreens for the tiny keys of yesteryear in a bid to escape the infinite scroll. “Dumbphones” – or as millennials might call them, regular old BlackBerrys – are now the hottest accessory for anyone craving a social media detox with Y2K flair.

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Screenshot @alyssa.lenore via TikTok

Ironically, TikTok is the place where the movement is thriving. Type in “BlackBerry” and you’ll find thousands of videos showing Gen Zers unboxing eBay finds, decking them out with rhinestones, keychains, and layering on early-2000s aesthetics. For many, it’s part of a wider love for retro tech like iPods and digital cameras. McBling is back, baby.

“We’ve come full circle,” read dozens of comments under TikToks from creators like @notchonnie, whose content is a shrine to the flip phone era. One user declared, “I’m so sick of Apple, I would give up just about everything for a BlackBerry!”

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Video @chonnie via YouTube

The throwback isn’t just about style. For some, it’s a real attempt to disconnect – and save some cash while they’re at it. Why fork out over a grand for a new iPhone when a pre-loved BlackBerry can be yours for a few hundred and won’t tempt you into 12 hours of doomscrolling?

Pascal Forget, a tech columnist in Montreal, gets it. “The smartphone is not a source of enjoyment anymore,” he told CBC News. “It used to be fun, but now [people are] addicted to it, so they want to go back to simpler times using a simpler device.”

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Charlie Fisher, a 20-year-old college student, made the switch to a flip phone. “It just basically created this pattern where I was anxious, and so I’d open my smartphone, and then I would hate myself for opening my smartphone, which made me more anxious,” he told USA Today. Since the switch, Fisher says, “I’ve been seeing things more like when I was a kid… you really see things for how they are in the physical world.”

With BlackBerrys popping up on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Back Market, it’s clear that for some, peace of mind comes with a clicky keyboard and zero push notifications.