The reason Adele is using a flip-phone in Hello video

The video for Adele's new single opens with her using a flip-phone. Photo / Screengrab / Columbia Records

Since making its debut, the video for Adele's new single Hello has had more than 45 million hits in just 48 hours.

But although excited about the singer's first new song in three years, some fans are puzzled as to why she uses a flip-phone at the start of the video.

Social media has been drowning in tweets on the subject:

Why is Adele still using a flip phone in 2015? pic.twitter.com/r5ikt5AjFK

— Sarcasm (@ComedyPosts) October 24, 2015

Adele really using a flip phone to tell you how far back she's been hurting https://t.co/WTqdKKphF2

— Tobi (@TheTobiSmith) October 23, 2015

The new Adele song is beautiful, emotional, and haunting, but the most heartbreaking part of the video is that she still uses a flip phone.

— Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) October 23, 2015

The new Adele song is beautiful, emotional, and haunting, but the most heartbreaking part of the video is that she still uses a flip phone.

— Anne T. Donahue (@annetdonahue) October 23, 2015

Under pressure to explain, the video's director, Xavier Dolan, has revealed why he used an outdated phone: it's simply because he "doesn't like iPhones".

In an interview with the LA Times, Dolan said the online reaction to the video had amused him: "It drives me crazy. I could see the GIFs on Twitter. I'm like, 'guys, get over it. It doesn't matter.' But the real explanation is that I never like filming modern phones or cars. They're so implanted in our lives that when you see them in movies you're reminded you're in reality.

"If you see an iPhone or a Toyota in a movie, they're anti-narrative, they take you out of the story. If I put an iPhone or a modern car in a movie it feels like I'm making a commercial."