Nostalgia overload: Verizon might bring back the Palm smartphone

Remember Palm? Remember webOS? If you don’t, congratulations! You’re young and the world is your oyster. If you do remember those things, unfortunately you’re old. But you’ll be happy to know that what’s old is cool again, as Verizon is planning on launching a new Palm smartphone in the second half of this year.

Beyond the fact that a Palm-branded smartphone made by TCL will likely hit Verizon shelves in 2018, we don’t know much else. But according to Android Police, the Palm device will run Android. That’s a relief, because while webOS certainly had some cool things going for it back in the day, there’s a reason it died out and Android became the king.

TCL acquired the Palm rights in 2015. Not long after that, it bought the rights to BlackBerry. While TCL’s BlackBerry phones haven’t sold as well as other smartphones, the concept of bringing back old smartphone styles and brands is getting more and more popular. With BlackBerry, and now Palm, we also have the revived Nokia Sirocco and 3310, and rumblings that Motorola is thinking about bringing back the Razr.

A revived Palm handset could do really well, if it’s done correctly. But if all TCL does is throw Android into a thick black bar that pops out a physical keyboard, it will probably sink like a stone. There’s plenty of room for some creativity with that flip-up action, though. Maybe a second, smaller screen underneath that has some sort of specific function? Or maybe a high-quality camera lens that sits underneath for taking great pics?

Whatever it is, this probably won’t be the last nostalgia phone we see. Where’s the Sidekick 3 revival we are all waiting for?

Next: 5 nostalgia phones we want to see return