Nokia, Samsung, Xelibri (15 photos)

Recall the strangest phones

Today it seems that the mobile phone industry, if not stopped in its development, it slowed down significantly. Especially this concerns the design of smartphones, which are now practically indistinguishable from the outside. differ from each other. But once manufacturers were not afraid experiment with the appearance of mobile devices.

We decided to recall the most awkward and strange, but memorable phones that today it is impossible to look at without smiling or surprise, and chose ten, in our opinion, the most remarkable samples. Let's remember how rich the imagination of the big ones was manufacturers of just some 10-20 years ago.

Siemens Xelibri

Siemens had a whole line of failed phones. Truth, it was conceived not as a failure, but as an image one. The image, however, went so far that the Xelibri models, though distinguished by their unique design, were terribly inconvenient to use as a mobile phone.





In total, eight devices were released under the Xelibri brand: Xelibri 1, Xelibri 2 and so on. Each of the phones looked like anything, but just not on a means of communication. Outwardly, they resembled either a pendant or a thermometer, then a keychain, then a giant drop of water, then a powder box. The functionality of the devices was the most common, and sometimes truncated (there were models without a keyboard, but only with voice input). No wonder that backward in capabilities and strange-looking devices did not become popular. Siemens lost tens of millions of dollars, but was able to find support from potential buyers. During the year (and all eight Xelibri models were released in 2003) only a few were sold thousand devices. As a result, a year later, the Xelibri brand remained only in history. The same thing soon happened with everything mobile. division of Siemens.

Samsung F310 Serenata

Once a Korean company decided to experiment on field of musical phones. For the sake of such a thing, they even partnered with Bang & Olufsen. At first, a rather strange and not very comfortable Clamshell E910 Serene with buttons arranged in a circle. But its predecessor was surpassed by the F310 Serenata, also known as Symphony.



It was already a slider without a numeric keypad at all. Instead of this dial a number and interact with the menu offered through joystick wheel. The wild inconvenience was aggravated by the fact that the screen Serenata was located below, and the wheel was above it. As a result, you often they simply could not see what was happening on the display.





Why were such perversions necessary? All for the music. From "serenades" was put forward quite loudly and decently at that time sounding speaker. There was even a stand built into the phone to place all this stuff on the table. It turned out really “musically”, but very uncomfortable and with a design, to put it mildly, for an amateur.

Nokia 5510

In the first decade of the new millennium, a Finnish company could experiment as much as you want with design and functionality mobile phones. Nokia 5510 is not the strangest result of such experiments, but the model has earned its place on the pedestal.



Especially for the terrible imbalance of a huge keyboard and a tiny display with up to three lines of text. Yes, type letters was convenient thanks to the keyboard, but the meaning of this was reduced to zero due to screen. And what to scribble on these keys? A dozen SMS, which also stored on the SIM card?

But talking on the Nokia 5510 was not very convenient due to strange placement of the speaker. It was the first Nokia phone with horizontal layout. Then there will be similar more successful devices, but this one turned out to be a lump.

Motorola Flipout

This "square" is interesting because it is one of the first smartphones based on Android. At the same time, there was still no fashion for giant screens and uncomplicated boxes in the form of a rectangle. Therefore, Motorola tried to cross the smartphone with the appearance cool phone. It turned out so-so.



By the way, at the time of the release of Flipout, the design of the device was quite liked it. He was called "cool" and "stylish". True, for The majority of the device still seemed primarily a toy. Today at it's hard to believe, butDisplay panel of this android smartphone was only 2.8 inches with a tiny resolution of 320240 pixels.



The square design in the shape of a clamshell with a sliding structure has been only good in theory. In reality, the system was hardly taught to work with this format, which is why a few users often complained about bugs related to opening and closing Flipout. Except In addition, due to the small dimensions and large thickness, the smartphone was not very comfortable to talk.

Panasonic G70

At one time, a Japanese company actively tried to master emerging mobile phone market. Sometimes Panasonic resorted to forbidden tricks, relying on the eye-catching (that is, catchy) design. So the G70, it seems, should have attracted female audience.



The view of the "talking powder box" with a strazik, perhaps indeed will attract someone's eye, here are just the chances that this phone buy at least someone, almost absent. Not only was there not attractiveness, but also elementary ergonomics.



The Panasonic G70 was too thick (about 3 centimeters) and its the keyboard discouraged any desire to use it. functional the phone also had nothing special to offer, except perhaps blind color screen, which in 2003 could still someone surprise.

Nokia 7280 and 7380

The Finns, of course, also tried to flirt with the female audience. It almost never ends well. Models Nokia 7280, and then 7380 at least did not try to pretend powder boxes. Instead, lipstick became an object to follow.



It's funny, but at one time these phones even received awards in the field design. Nokia really tried, using techniques such as lacquer coating, fabric tag, leather insert, mirror display. AT in some way it turned out really stylish, but it all didn’t look like to the phone.

Rejection of the keyboard in favor of voice dialing or a wheel with with the confirmation button, again, they made these mobile phones rather accessory rather than a means of communication. Plus there were complaints about poor assembly, low autonomy and increased soiling.

Motorola V100

Today this scarecrow is justified only by the fact that he came out in the distant year 2000, in accordance with the then prevailing concepts of beautiful - hence the imitation of a laptop, translucent plastic case and cheerful colors with a bias towards acidic worlds.






However, no matter how Motorola V100 tries to be a communicator, it more like a cassette player. For communication opportunities only a noticeable external antenna indicated. In spite of positioning, in fact, in front of us was an ordinary, fairly budget phone, but for some reason placed in a folding case with a functional keyboard and large screen as much as six lines of text.

At the same time and as a phone V100 was so-so. First, in this the device did not have a built-in microphone, and therefore you can talk It was only with a headset. Secondly, such a keyboard is not enough assisted in the work with the usual telephone capabilities. Thirdly, she the keyboard was not very comfortable, because its buttons were too strongly recessed into the body.

Samsung P910

A rare bird that only at first glance seems ordinary for 2006 phone. Think foldout. Yes, a little brutal and fat, but what's special about her? And the fact that this is not only a phone, but also TV. A real dream of the time.



The P910 was equipped with a DVB-H TV receiver and retractable antenna. But he made the biggest impression on those around him. swivel screen, which, with the help of a hinge, could take a horizontal orientation.

The antenna caught the signal badly, the battery landed in an instant eye, and the swivel display did not help viewing much with its modest 2.2 inches diagonal. But today Samsung P910 is a rarity that very difficult to find. After all, no one really needed him before.

Fly Z300

In the early 2000s, one of the factors in the development of phones was miniaturization. Manufacturers were sure that the lesscell phone the better. If only they were surprised to look into the future. Seems, Fly has gone the furthest in this process with its Z300.



The phone again exploited the image of a powder box, but very small. The sides of the square were a little more than 5 centimeters. True, the thickness was decent - more than 2.5 centimeters. It turned out not so much a square, how many cube. There was an additional OLED screen on the lid unimaginably small diagonal.

Almost everyone liked the appearance of the Fly Z300 at that time. But how it almost always was, ergonomics again became a victim of design. AT the keyboard with dual numeric buttons was the first to suffer, which were very difficult to use.

Nokia 7600

This device in the form of a pig's ear was released in 2003, when before sunset Nokia was still far away and the company could afford any experiments without regard for success or failure. Unlike most "colleagues", Nokia 7600 was not a fashion phone with poor characteristics. In addition to design, there was a decent "stuffing". Maybe, so the device managed to become a cult?



It was one of the first Finnish models with 3G support, and besides also with 24-voice polyphony and 30 MB of internal memory - a luxury unheard of at the time. Such a youth-aimed phone with an unusual design and sensible functionality. As usual, designers paid attention to a small nuance in the form of convenience.



The Nokia 7600 didn't just have an uncomfortable keyboard. The phone itself is bad lay in the hand, no matter how you twist it. As for attention, his this the device attracts even today - only not with its functionality and brand, but with its extremely strange appearance.