Cell phones have been through many revisions. The first cell phones were bricks with antennas. The late 90’s saw the small and slim craze. Now all the rage is touch screens and cell phones that provide a world of entertainment.
The past two decades have seen some great cell phone designs. Like everything designer, cell phones have also seen their share of abysmal designs. Let’s run down four of these designs that never took off.
1. It is all trash with the Nokia N-Gage
Nokia touted this phone as a killer gaming device that could make phone calls. There were hopes that this phone would finally bring all mobile entertainment devices together in one sweet phone. Sadly, that was not the case.
This takes bad cell phone design queues from every corner of the designer’s acid trip. The graphics were subpar. This is a major issue as the phone wanted to take on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.
Next was the massive amount of buttons on the phone. Your 10-digit keypad has nothing on the N-Gage’s 20+ face buttons. Not only is this confusing to game on, but one needs a doctorate in phone design to even figure out how to make a phone call.
Lastly was the overall design. This phone was unwieldy. Most phones all came out in a nice rectangle that worked well for users. The N-Gage decided to add a beer belly to the design. This phone was full of fail before it got out the door.
2. Vertu Signature Cobra is nothing like the Shelby Cobra
Brittan cell phone maker Vertu decided to team up with a French jewelry maker by the name of Boucheron. Together the created a love child by the name of Signature Cobra. This phone sported an ungodly amount of diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. The phones $310,000 makes it one of the most expensive cell phones in existence. All that bling, and it was wasted on a cobra snake design.
3. The Serenata by Samsung and Bang & Olufsen
Samsung and Bang & Olufsen decided that their $2,000 masterpiece needed to do away with all pre-existing cell phone design. This may have worked for other phone producers, but it fell flat on the Serenata.
This phone used an iPod like wheel instead of any keypad or QWERTY keyboard. This wheel resides just above a small screen. This inevitably led users to cover their screen while trying to use the wheel. All these great design elements and no camera.
4. Social media did not rock the Nokia X5-01
Social media is huge. Making phone to take advantage of this trend might seem like a great idea. Nokia tried and failed here as well. Nokia kicked out a small 2.36-inch screen when phones were quickly transitioning to 4.3-inch screens. Even worse were the gesture style recognitions to do basic phone functions. Shaking and spinning a phone needs to be avoided at all costs. Nokia seems to have missed the memo here.
We owe the cell phone designs of today a lot of praise to the failed designs of yesterday. Thankfully, these cell phone designs here never took off. Just imagine what an iPhone would look like if you had to shake and spin it to make calls while fighting with 20 some odd face keys.
