Commodore returns to the market with a mid-range Android smartphone

Scorpus

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Commodore was one of the most famous computer companies during the 1970s and 80s, but they haven't really done much over the last 20 years (aside from the occasional controller and mini-PC). Until now, that is, where the brand is making a comeback on the rear of a mid-range Android smartphone.

The handset in question is known as the Commodore PET, named after the company's line of personal computers first released in 1977. From a design perspective it looks pretty sleek, with a 5.5-inch 1080p display on the front and a prominent Commodore logo on the back.

The PET comes with typical mid-range specifications, including a Mediatek SoC with an octa-core CPU clocked at 1.7 GHz and a Mali-T760 GPU, dual-SIM LTE connectivity, a 3,000 mAh battery, a microSD card slot, and a 13-megapixel Sony camera with an f/2.0 lens.

Update: 9to5Google points out the "Commodore" phone is actually the Orgtec WaPhone, just with a bigger price tag and the promise of old school game emulators. Still cool with us, if not for the unjustified $150+ difference in price.

There will be two versions of the Commodore PET available to purchase: a $300 model with 16 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM, and a $365 model with 32 GB of storage and 3 GB of RAM. The device will be available in white, black, and a classic biscuit-beige.

On the software front, the PET will run Android 5.0 with two pre-installed customized emulators that will run Commodore 64 and Amiga games. The company hopes to have a some of the 1980's best games available on the PET by the time it ships.

As for a release, the Commodore PET will first go on sale in Italy, France, Germany and Poland, with an expansion to America and other parts of Europe on the horizon.

Second image courtesy of Wired

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interesting idea but who is going to be interested in playing 80's games in 2015?
;) I'm only interested in more selection of affordable (sub 100$) android/windows smartphones, not in actually playing them. honestly, I don't even know what a commodore is until I read this article.

the only games I still play via dosbox on windows pc are battlecity, ms pacman, and pacman (all Nintendo family computer games)
 
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