Hand in Hand with Banana Phone: Reference memes of days gone by with this fancy handset
banana phone
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Go back to 2004 with the Banana Phone, a Bluetooth handset that pairs with your iPhone.
The Banana Phone does what it says on the box: it’s a Bluetooth handset in the form of a collar
It’s made of shiny plastic and roughly the size of an actual banana you’d find at your local grocery store. Of course, it was designed to reference a popular Flash video released in 2004, which itself referenced Rafi’s 1994 children’s hit “Bananaphone”.
The Banana Phone has three buttons – a power/pairing button, a volume up button and a volume down button. The bottom of the Banana Phone also has a micro USB port for charging it.
The banana phone’s earpiece holes are semi-disguised.
It also features clever speckle cutouts for the earpiece and mouthpiece spots.
Sound quality and performance
As far as performance goes, it’s not great, but it’s not terrible either. If you’ve ever used a cheap Bluetooth headset, it’s a similar experience.
The microphone quality was “a bit hollow,” according to those we called, but they understood us without issue.
Our biggest issue was the quality of the earpiece. Although it sounded a bit hollow, the real problem was finding a good volume for a phone conversation. It always seems ear-splittingly loud or slightly too quiet.
The makers also say you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker if you like — but we don’t recommend it.
Amazingly, the banana phone makes you look like you’re talking to a fruit.
You don’t sound like you’re listening to your music through a cheap toy, but if you’re more than a foot away, it needs to be louder to hear your music.
Good for a laugh, but not much else
It has a definite though appealIt won’t replace your favorite Bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth earbuds, or even talking on your smartphone.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its place. It could make a fun little bit of desk flair or a fun toy for a kid – it would pair well with an iPad.
Making a call in front of family, friends, colleagues or even strangers can also get you a few laughs.
In the end, if you do get it, realize you’re buying it for the visual gag and Rafi’s injury reference and not as an object of utility — but you’ve probably figured that out already.
where to buy
If you want to snag your own banana phone, you can pick one up from Amazon for $39 If you really want to hammer home the joke, you can buy a bunch of six for $209.99.
Banana Phone donates 1% of all revenue to support the work of Gearing Up 4 Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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