Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to An old rotary phone converted into a mobile phone

This is a project documenting the conversion of a vintage rotary phone into a functioning mobile device. Created by Stavros, it represents the completion of a multi-part series exploring how to adapt old technology for… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. An old rotary phone converted into a mobile phone launched in 2015; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1MS
   Mum's 80th birthday present- a rotary phone from the 1970's▲343

   20 Dec 2021 [email protected] It's a rotary phone from the 1970's. This is the sort of phone we had in the house when I was...

   2021 · fourlightyears.blogspot.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Rotary Phone Project▲208

   Adventures with rotary phones and asterisk. Contribute to mnutt/rotary development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   I've made a rotary dial number input, because why not?▲190

   A Rotary Dial menu for input numbers. Contribute to victorqribeiro/dial development by creating an account on GitHub.

   2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4HN
   Hacker News' “most unique support email of 2014”▲401

   (TL;DR: http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png) While digging around in drawers that hadn't been touched for decades, I found a wonderful piece of history. The Palm Treo 600 [1] was the Mercedes-Benz of the cellphone 10 years ago, and I was lucky enough to rediscover one.[2] So I decided to restore it to working order, slapping in a T-Mobile SIM[3] and a fresh battery. It worked! It could browse the Internet[4], send/receive text messages[5], make phone calls...[6] The onboard browser even passed Acid1[7,8] and could do some level of JavaScript![9] Unfortunately, most websites…

   2015 · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Rotary Phone Dial Linux Kernel Driver▲337

   A Linux kernel driver that turns a rotary phone dial into an evdev input device. You might be interested in this driver if you - prefer the slow pace of dialing over typing numbers with your numpad, - want to bring your old rotary phone into the digital era, - are an educator looking for a simple example driver with a VM-based end-to-end development & test environment (no real hardware needed) - have another creative use case in mind! This driver was my introduction to embedded Linux years ago—and ultimately led to my career. However, it remained unfinished and unpublished until now.…

   2025 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Nokia 3310▲480

   A modern classic reimagined

   2017 · nokia.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   MAKERphone▲181

   Educational DIY mobile phone 📱🛠

   2018 · kickstarter.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Brick 1100▲215

   Transform your smartphone into a classic brick phone

   2025 · visnalize.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   G.old▲122

   Jewelry from discarded smartphones.

   2020 · its alternatives →

10. 10
    HONOR Robot Phone▲104

    The phone that literally has a gimbal built in

    Sep 2026 · honor.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Dial Retro▲7

    A rotary phone dialer for the analog souls

    Jul 2026 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Motorola Razr▲305

    The iconic flip phone returns as a foldable

    2019 · motorola.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Glass phone mockups▲84

    Attractive mobile device in stylish scenes

    2023 · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Retro Gears▲68

    A mix of retro, pixels and Micromachines on steroids

    2016 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Dumbphone▲73

    Turn your Android into a dumbphone for a set period of time

    2014 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Snek▲241

    A web version of the mobile classic

    2025 · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Airfoil▲120

    Turn your old phone into a wireless music system like Sonos

    2014 · rogueamoeba.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    The Bluetooth Gramophone▲77

    Vintage design with todays technology

    2014 · verticalgrooves.com · its alternatives →

19. 19AM
    A modern port of Linux to a ten-year-old QWERTY phone▲49

    I ported modern Linux to a ten-year-old HTC QWERTY phone as a handheld terminal. I wrote it up here: https://tmzt.github.io/blog/a-modern-port-of-linux-to-a-ten-... You can see the code here: https://github.com/tmzt/linux-stable-msm-dtsi

    Jul 2026 · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Retro Wave Generator▲168

    Bring back the 80s with this image creator

    2016 · photofunia.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    OLOID M-Tag▲220

    Tesla-like mobile key experience for the modern workplace

    2022 · oloid.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Gyro Skate▲73

    Transform your phone into a skateboard

    2014 · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Nokia 6310▲155

    Brick phone is back to celebrate 20th anniversary

    2021 · nokia.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Old Phone Rotary Dialer▲4

    Rediscover the famous dialer of your grandfathers

    2017 · play.google.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →