Today, using a flip phone invites mockery (or at least comes standard with a self-deprecating disclaimer about how ancient your hardware is). Even if you persist in using the brick phone you got in 2007 — whether out of sheer laziness or a desire to fight the system — new updates and operating systems ensure your phone isn’t compatible with anything. Thanks, tech companies, for your commitment to planned obsolescence.
But Phonebloks wants to help you thumb your nose at all that:
Basically, Phonebloks is a modular smartphone that’s designed to way outlast the throwaway phones of today. You can customize it with whatever suits you: a huge camera, more memory, a bigger battery. And as technology advances, you can swap in the latest whoosits and whatsits galore, which this phone calls “bloks.” Everything hooks into a pegboard-like base. It’s like building a phone out of LEGO.
And because it’s brand-agnostic, you can buy a speaker blok from one company and a camera blok from another — or create your own bloks that others can buy.
Here’s hoping Phonebloks become a reality. And that they’re a little prettier than the drab gray mock-ups. And that they come with minifigs.
