Concept Phones
Switchblade Concept Phone, Not Quite the Looker
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Count this one as an ugly concept phone, as the “Switchblade” only manages to impress through its original approach when it comes to display integration. One might expect to see the screen upfront or at the back as it was on the Maple Phone, but this handset took a different route.
It’s not much of a gadget, with its numeric rubber keys and retro speaker at the front, but the surprise is the swinging display that reminds me of Sweeney Todd’s blades rather than your average phone.
This Switchblade phone also comes with a user-removable battery, in case it matters to you minimalistic phone lovers.
[via Unwired View and JAMP Blog]
Maple Phone Brings the Wood to Life
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Wooden phones are usually expensive, if you think about those Mpingo handsets from Gresso, made out of African Blackwood, but here’s an interesting twist to this story. How about a Maple Phone? This one’s designed by Hyun Jin Yoon and Eun Hak Lee and it’s a basic camera phone concept, covered in wood.
Its touch sensitive keys light up when you touch the device and you’ll see them glittering through the housing. The Maple Phone measures 4.5 x 10.4 x 9.8 cm and it comes with an MP3 player, digital camera and basic functions like calling or texting. What’s interesting is that the display is placed at the back, revealing itself as you slide the handset.
Hopefully, we’ll see the Maple Phone going into production and hitting the streets at a more decent price than its luxurious counterparts.
[via Cameraphonesplaza]
Full Touchscreen Sony Ericsson Mystery Phone Strikes Again, Sexier
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Remember that video we showed you back in May that included a Sony Ericcson full touchscreen phone? Well, the device has surfaced again, this time in a clearer picture. Seems that we’re dealing with a cool music/multimedia phone that’s also a dual slider.
It slides down to reveal a set of multimedia buttons and up to grant you access to its camera.
The question is: “Walkmanshot” or “Cyberman”?
[via SlashPhone]
Plica Concept Phone is Two Times the iPhone
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.We’ve seen iPhone rivals, but never so hot looking and promising. The Plica concept phone was designed by James Piatt and comes with 2 touchscreens that manage to offer the user a bigger and more comfortable interface, compared to the one on the iPhone.
It might remind you of the Nintendo DS, but you should notice that the screens are able to work together as a single display, adding up to the browsing experience. Also, you can choose to set up one display as the virtual keyboard and the other as the standard screen.
The neat thing is that Plica dual touchscreen phone works great even when half of it is used, as a phone and Internet device. We can even start calling this thing a mini-laptop and in the end it’s maybe worth mentioning that its USB and headphone jack are placed in the double hinge.
[via Tuvie]
21th Century Concept Music Phones, Designed by Marianne Bailey
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Searching for concept phones on Flickr I stumbled upon these superb devices, which can be seen at the KDDI Design Center exhibition. Most of the concepts were designed by Marianne Bailey, but enough talking and let’s feast our eyes with these musical instruments/phones.
Don’t quite get the musicality of the device above, but the one below seems to turn into some sort of portable piano with pretty large keys. Sweet!
The phone below can be used as a blowing instrument and it seems to be accompanied by a couple of accessories that turn it into a real musical instrument.
Last but not least comes this cube-shaped handset, yet another puzzling device with musical functions I can’t figure out. Right now, I’m looking forward to seeing a band using such neat “instruments”.
[found on Flickr]
Projector-Based Concept Phone is Holographic. Now Wait a Minute…
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.At first I thought that this was yet another Nokia Morph wannabe handset, but as soon as I realized that the actual phone is a hologram I was like “what the?”. Check out the picture below to figure out the mystery for yourself.
As you can see, we need to attach a couple of small projectors to our fingers in order to “create” the screen of the device. This concept phone also comes with a camera, but don’t ask me where that is, because I haven’t figured it out yet. It must be on one of the user’s fingers, as is the receiver, but what about that touchscreen?
Do the small accessories sense when you touch the screen? The problem with this device is that you’ll have limited finger mobility, but the idea is great and surely original. Congrats Ronnie Ishii for such a brave and crazy (in a good way) design!
[via Coroflot]
Sony Ericsson G705 Pics Get Leaked
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Sony Ericsson G705 wasn’t announced by its manufacturer, but here it is in a couple of leaked pics, as it usually happens to the devices pertaining to this brand. We’re talking about a mid-range slider that uses the A200 platform and comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera. More specs below!
Well, it’s hard to say that we know something else about this device, except for what we can get from its naming pattern. Of course, it’ll come with Bluetooth, a Memory Stick Micro (M2) slot and some decent internal memory. Also, the handset seems to support 3G connectivity, but we’ll give you more solid info one SE decides to confirm the device.
[via Intomobile]
FuChat Phone, Eco-Friendly and Emotion-Based
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Meet FuChat, the cordless phone designed by D-Link, that can make normal calls and Internet ones if needed. It’s an eco-friendly device, made out of biodegradable plastic plus corn starch, sugarcane and some light aluminium. The phone can “sense” the user’s emotions and act accordingly, as you’ll find out if you keep on reading.
If the handset senses a change of tone or body temperature, it will react to the user’s emotions displaying texts, changing its display, playing sounds and even changing color. Sounds like a good way to work out some anger management or “read the mind” of business partners using the device in front of you.
Plus, if you’re really really busy and want to inform everyone about it, you can use the FuChat phone as a “Do not disturb” sign and hang it on the door-handle. The back of the device displays, aside from the emotional info, weather images, the time and the above-mentioned sign. FuChat also comes with a wall-mounted base station that can also show you the weather, temperature, time and caller ID.
[via Tuvie]
Nokia XpressMusic 5800 Tube Leaked Photos Again Plus Specs
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.After seeing the Nokia Tube in the latest Batman movie and checking out a couple of leaked pics, it’s time for… some more leaked photos, this time provided by Digi QQ. They also mention a couple of specs of the long-awaited device, which you’ll find out if you keep reading below.
Among the specs there’s a 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss optical lens with autofocus, plus Dual LED Flash, built-in GPS, 140 MB RAM and TV-out. Nokia XpressMusic 5800 measures 111 x 52 x 14.5 mm and weighs only 104 grams, but its main feature is the TFT LCD screen, with a 640 x 360 pixel resolution and a 16:9 display mode.
The Nokia Tube also comes with the fifth edition of Symbian S60, vibration feedback during touch interaction, a BL-5J 1150 mAh battery and a 3.5 mm headset. Connectivity’s also got some options lined up like GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSDPA/WLAN support plus Bluetooth. The public demands a video of the device folks, so we’re waiting for it and by God I hope not to see any more pics of the Tube.
[via Cell Phone Beat]
Nokia 9900 Concept Pen Phone Features Stretchable Touch Display
Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Forget about the Nokia Tube, as that’s a mere cry baby, compared to the sexy concept below. The Nokia 9900 aims to deliver what the Finnish manufacturer has been trying to create for the past year, a perfect rival for the iPhone. However, we get more than we imagined: a pen phone with uber-features.
This pen phone comes with a stretchable touch panel, which will pretty much be your display and it’ll also be used as a viewfinder for the handset’s camera. The pen functions are all there, so you can write or draw any time you want, while the button on top of the device is used to control the phone.
I see “Microsoft” mentioned on the pics of the device, so there’s bound to be some Windows Mobile action under that cover. Also, the Nokia 9900 seems bundled with a hot headset, but the details are so scarce that we’ll have to be satisfied with assumptions, for now.
Update: There’s no Windows Mobile action yet, but the concept draws its inspiration from Microsoft Surface, as translated by one of our readers. (Thanks Andy Fang)
[found on Flickr]
