Reminisce! 6 mobile phone designs that once amazed people are now history

The ever-changing smartphone market is always a dizzying sight. Some design trends, such as punch-hole cameras, the removal of headphone jacks and external memory card slots, have caused heated discussions, but now they have become the norm and no further explanation is needed.

However, there are also some designs that flash by like shooting stars, shining brightly for a moment but disappearing quickly.

Pop-up selfie camera phone

In pursuit of the ultimate unobstructed and simple display design, mobile phone manufacturers have pioneered the design concept of mechanized pop-up selfie cameras.

This unique design trend was once popular in the market, but it did not last long and soon faded out of people’s sight.

The OPPO Reno mobile phone launched in 2019 has won the favor of many consumers with its unique shark fin-shaped pop-up selfie camera design, and even spawned a series of “little shark”-themed emoticons, further expanding its influence.

At the same time, other smartphone brands have also launched their own unique designs. Asus Zenfone 6 uses a cooler mechanical rotating camera design. The main camera can be mechanically rotated to the front to achieve the selfie function, which not only improves the quality of selfies, but also keeps the front panel simple and beautiful.

In addition, some mobile phone brands, such as the OnePlus 7 Pro, use a design with a small square camera module built in, which pops up elegantly from the inside of the phone when in use. The Samsung A80 is even more unique, with the entire top back cover of the phone sliding up to reveal the selfie camera.

However, why did this design trend fail to continue? The reason is that the mechanical device is fragile and increases the risk of design defects, so it was quickly replaced by simpler and cheaper punch hole cameras.

For consumers, if the punch hole camera means the phone is more durable, then they don’t mind a small black dot on the screen. For brands, the punch hole camera is cheaper to manufacture and therefore more popular.

Nowadays, some smartphones have adopted more advanced under-screen camera technology, such as the newly released Red Magic 10 Pro+ and Nubia Z70 Ultra. Although pop-up cameras have become a thing of the past, the innovation and fun they once brought are still worth recalling.

Mobile phone with built-in game controller

At the beginning of the 21st century, the field of mobile phone design flourished, each mobile phone showed a unique style, and the trend of standardization and unification had not yet become dominant.

In that era, phones such as the Nokia N-Gage (released in 2003) and later the Sony Xperia Play (launched in 2011) not only met the need for communication, but also served as portable gaming devices. The Xperia Play in particular had a large touchscreen that was quite impressive even at the time, and a unique slide-out game controller design that gave it a modern look.

The clever thing about this slide-out design is that you can hide the game controller part of the phone, turning it back into a normal phone in an instant. This design is still desirable today, especially with the booming market for retro portable game consoles.

However, Nokia N-Gage and Sony Xperia Play did not shine in sales. After all, at that time, full-touch screen smartphones were the new favorite in the market.

Today, with the launch of portable gaming PCs such as Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go, they have set a new benchmark for enjoying 3A games anytime, anywhere.

Physical keyboard phone

BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Key2, two smartphones equipped with physical keyboards, were released relatively recently, especially the Key2, which was released in mid-2018.

They were once considered extremely attractive, but unfortunately, these two phones did not create the expected boom in the global market, and sales fell short of expectations. This trend also indirectly reflects the current situation that the BlackBerry brand name is gradually fading from the public’s view.

So what is the dilemma facing keyboard phones? In short, they seem to be unable to meet the changing needs of modern people. With the popularization of touch screen input technology, many people find that their touch screen typing speed even exceeds that of physical keyboards, and physical keyboards are gradually losing their former glory.

In addition, some users regard the physical keyboard as a slightly outdated design that overemphasizes business attributes and has a relatively narrow audience. As a result, keyboard phones and the BlackBerry brand itself have gradually disappeared from consumers’ sight.

Even today, for certain people, the physical keyboard on the phone may still seem cool and practical, but this is more of a theoretical sentiment and preference rather than a first choice in real life. People have entered a new era, which is an inevitable trend of social development.

Widescreen mobile phone

When mentioning the Xiaomi Mi Max 2 released in 2017, people naturally associate it with wide-screen mobile phones. As a leader in wide-screen mobile phones, this phone has left an unforgettable impression.

For the sake of clarity, the term “widescreen phone” here refers specifically to phones with a 16:9 screen aspect ratio. However, today, almost all phones on the market have adopted a more slender screen design, with an aspect ratio generally close to 19.5:9, such as the latest models such as the iPhone 16 and Samsung S24.

Widescreen phones slowly faded from the market and never regained their former glory. They are missed mainly because widescreen phones provide a more immersive viewing experience when watching videos or content in landscape mode. The extra screen width (which becomes the display height when in landscape mode) makes video playback more spectacular than on current phones.

3D screen mobile phone

One phone was once equipped with multiple face-tracking cameras to create a 3D screen viewing experience for users, but this is undoubtedly the most impractical of the many mobile phone ideas. Although the idea sounds interesting, it seems redundant and narrow, and further increases the price of the product.

This phone is the Fire Phone launched by Amazon in 2014, marking a brave attempt by the e-commerce giant to enter the smartphone market, but the results were far from expectations.

Amazon Fire Phone did not use native Android or other mainstream systems, but was equipped with its own Fire OS. Although it was full of publicity gimmicks, the hardware configuration seemed to be inadequate. Therefore, this phone, like 3D TV, only shined briefly and then quickly withdrew from the market, and Amazon never set foot in the smartphone field again.

However, Amazon has achieved remarkable results in the market of FireOS tablets and e-book readers.

Roll-up phone (concept)

Although foldable screen mobile phone technology has become increasingly mature, and Huawei has launched an innovative tri-fold foldable screen this year, the development prospects of rollable mobile phones seem confusing.

The original intention of the design of the roll-up phone is to seamlessly integrate the user experience of traditional mobile phones and tablets by unfolding rather than folding. In 2021, the concept roll-up phone launched by LG was undoubtedly the most eye-catching, and it was once close to mass production. However, LG subsequently withdrew from the smartphone market, causing this field to fall into silence, and no other brands followed up.

So, will foldable phones dominate the future market, and will roll-up phones still have a chance to be released? Admittedly, roll-up phones are still likely to become a reality, but which brand will be the first to launch such products is still unknown.

However, whether the roll-up phone can surpass the folding screen phone in terms of durability is indeed a question worth exploring in depth. After all, the full-curved screen is undoubtedly more prone to wear and tear than a screen that only folds in the middle. Even for folding screen phones, the crease problem is still significant. Therefore, the development of a roll-up phone undoubtedly requires an extremely outstanding team of engineers.

Last words

Although these once popular mobile phone designs have now faded from people’s sight, they are still worth remembering because they witness the continuous development and innovation of the smartphone market.

Kazam

Kazam is Focused on creating and reporting timely content in technology with a special focus on mobile phone technology. Kazam reports, analyzes, and reviews recent trends, news and rumors in mobile phone technology and provides the best possible insights to enhance your experience and knowledge.