The Wendy's Phone is a thing that exists, for some reason

The Wendy's Phone against a red background
(Image credit: Wendy's)

If you’re hoping to snag a new phone this year there’s a new and utterly unexpected option entering the fray, as Wendy’s – yes, the Wendy’s that’s known almost exclusively for fast food – is launching a handset, called simply the Wendy’s Phone.

The company has so far been light on details about the handset, saying that it has a 6.4-inch HD+ screen, a fingerprint scanner on the back, and a triple-lens rear camera with “more megapixels than the Baconator has bacon.”

It mostly looks like a fairly conventional cheap phone then, except with a bright red finish and Wendy’s branding on the back. But there are two interesting aspects – beyond the simple fact that it exists.

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The first is that the Wendy’s Phone apparently has a bespoke voice assistant, which responds to the wake up phrase “Hey, Wendy”, and will carry out typical voice assistant tasks like setting alarms and telling jokes, albeit with a Wendy’s spin.

The second is that from the images shared so far there’s no visible camera on the front, though Wendy’s mentions a front-facing camera, so whether this is a pop-up one, an in-screen one (unlikely) or simply a case of the image being inaccurate, we’re not sure.

You won’t actually be able to buy the Wendy’s Phone, but if you live in Canada you can try and win one, by favoriting your Wendy’s order of choice, screenshotting it, and tweeting the image, alongside the hashtags #WendysPhone and #Contest. There are 20 handsets up for grabs, and you can try again every day between September 28 and October 17.


The KFC phone

A KFC-branded Huawei phone (Image credit: KFC / Huawei)

Analysis: not the first, and probably not the last

As bizarre as the Wendy’s Phone seems, this isn’t the first time a fast food company has launched a handset. Back in 2017 a KFC phone launched in China, and that one was actually possible to buy.

Similarly, the Pepsi P1 was launched in China in 2015. So it seems China has a thing for phones with food and drink branding, but the Wendy’s one is a bit different for launching in Canada.

The Wendy’s Phone is also perhaps a bit more ambitious, given that it has its own voice assistant on board. 

We’re almost disappointed that it’s limited to a competition, and to Canada, because it sounds just weird enough to be interesting, and while it probably wouldn’t be one of the best cheap phones, it would certainly be one of the most unusual ones.

Via Android Central

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.