The weird $20 flip phone that’s one of Black Friday’s biggest sellers

This story is part of Holiday Gift Guide 2021, our list of ideas, by topic, by recipient and by price, to help you discover the perfect gift.

If you’ve spent any time on CNET over the past year, you’d be well aware that foldable phones are back. 

And, as of right now, one of the top selling items during the Black Friday sales is a foldable phone. But it’s not a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 or a Microsoft Surface Duo 2.

No, it’s one of these… things. 

That’s an LG Classic Flip phone and you can currently pick one up for a ridiculous $20. If you’d went back in time and told 2004 year old me you could pick a phone like this up for the cost of a DVD, I’d lose it. 

Sincerely, one of these would work well for a kid’s first phone. Just something you could use to stay in contact without worrying about all that unfettered internet access. At time of writing it was #1 on Amazon’s “movers and shakers” list in the electronics section. Who is buying these things and for what reason? Some questions are better left unanswered.