The form factor of a mobile phone is its size, shape, and style, as well as the layout and position of its major components.
With one non-movable section
Bar
A bar (also known as a slab, block, candybar) phone takes the shape of a
cuboid
In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cub ...
, usually with rounded corners and/or edges. The name is derived from the rough resemblance to a
chocolate bar
A chocolate bar (Commonwealth English) or candy bar (some dialects of American English) is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily brea ...
in size and shape. This form factor is widely used by a variety of manufacturers, such as
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
and
Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...
. Bar-type smartphones commonly have the screen and keypad on a single face. Sony had a well-known '
Mars Bar
Mars, commonly known as Mars bar, is the name of two varieties of chocolate bar produced by Mars, Incorporated. It was first manufactured in 1932 in Slough, England by Forrest Mars, Sr. The bar consists of caramel and nougat coated with mi ...
' phone model CM-H333 in 1993. Bar phones without a full keyboard tend to have a 3×4 numerical keypad; text is often generated on such systems using the
Text on 9 keys algorithm.
Keyboard bars
These are variants of bars that have a full
QWERTY
QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...
keyboard on the front. While they are technically the same as a regular bar phone, the keyboard and all the buttons make them look significantly different. Devices like these were popular in the mid to late 2000s, but lost popularity afterward. The
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...
line from Research In Motion (RIM) was particularly popular and influential in this category.
Brick
"Brick" is a slang term used to refer to large, outdated rectangular phones, typically early devices with large batteries and electronics. These early phones, such as the
Motorola DynaTAC
DynaTAC is a series of cellular telephones manufactured by Motorola, Inc. from 1983 to 1994. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X commercial portable cellular phone received approval from the U.S. FCC on September 21, 1983. A full charge took roughly ...
, have been displaced by newer smaller models which offer greater portability thanks to smaller antennas and slimmer battery packs.
However, "brick" has more recently been applied to older phone models in general, including non-bar form factors (flip, slider, swivel, etc.), and even early touchscreen phones as well, due to their size and relative lack of functionality compared to current models on the market.
The term "brick" has also expanded beyond smartphones to include most
non-working consumer electronics
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...
, including a
game console
A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a t ...
,
router, or other device, that, due to a serious misconfiguration, corrupted
firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
, or a
hardware problem, can no longer function, hence, is as technologically useful as a
brick
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
.
The term derives from the vaguely
cuboid
In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cub ...
shape of many electronic devices (and their
detachable power supplies) and the suggestion that the device can function only as a lifeless, square object,
paperweight
A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with Chinese calligraphy). While any object, such as a stone, ...
or doorstop. This term is commonly used as a verb. For example, "I bricked my
MP3 player
A portable media player (PMP) (also including the related digital audio player (DAP)) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is typically stored o ...
when I tried to modify its
firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
." It can also be used as a noun, for example, "If it's corrupted and you apply using
fastboot
Fastboot is a protocol and a tool of the same name. It is included with the Android SDK package used primarily to modify the flash filesystem via a USB connection from a host computer. It requires that the device be started in Fastboot mode. If ...
, your device is a brick." In the common usage of the term, "bricking" suggests that the damage is so serious as to have rendered the device permanently unusable.
Slate
A slate is a
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
form with few to no physical buttons, instead relying upon a
touchscreen
A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...
and an onscreen
virtual keyboard
A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the Input device, input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual Computer keyboard, keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also ...
for input. The first commercially available touchscreen phone was a brick phone, the
IBM Simon
The IBM Simon Personal Communicator (simply known as IBM Simon) is a handheld, touchscreen PDA designed by International Business Machines (IBM), and manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric. Although the term "smartphone" was not coined until 199 ...
Personal Communicator, released in 1994. The
iPhone, which was released by
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
in 2007, is largely responsible for the influence and achievement of this design as it is currently conceived.
Some unusual "slate" designs include that of
LG New Chocolate (BL40)
The BL40 is a model of South Korean electronic brand LG's brand of LG Chocolate phones. It was introduced on 3 August 2009 as part of the "New Chocolate" range. It has a unique design, with a 4-inch display with the first in mobile phone history: ...
, or the
Samsung Galaxy Round
Samsung Galaxy Round is an Android phablet smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics. Unveiled in October 2013, it is a curved variation of the Galaxy Note 3 that was distinguished by being the first commercially produced smartphone to feature a ...
, which is curved.
Phablet
The phablet or ''smartlet'' is a subset of the slate/touchscreen. A
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[phone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...](_blank)
and
tablet
Tablet may refer to:
Medicine
* Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill"
Computing
* Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...
, phablets are a class of mobile device designed to combine or straddle the size of a slate smartphone together with a tablet. Phablets typically have screens that measure (diagonally) greater than 5.3 inches, and are considerably larger than most high-end slate smartphones of the time (i.e. the
Samsung Galaxy Note II
The Samsung Galaxy Note II (or Galaxy Note 2) is an Android phablet smartphone. Unveiled on August 29, 2012 and released in October 2012, the Galaxy Note II is a successor to the original Galaxy Note, incorporating improved stylus functionality ...
smartlet versus the
Samsung Galaxy SIII
The Samsung Galaxy S III (or Galaxy S3) is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Launched in 2012, it had sold more than 80 million units overall, making it the most sold phone in the S series. I ...
smartphone), which have to be 5.2 inches or less to be known as a smartphone, though significantly smaller than tablets (which must be 7 inches or above to be considered as such).
Multi-screen
The multi-screen is of basically the slate form factor, but with two touchscreens.
Some have a small separate screen above the main screens, the
LG V10
The LG V10 is an Android smartphone manufactured by LG Electronics as part of the LG V series. Announced in September 2015 and released in October 2015, the device shares many similarities with the earlier LG G4. Its main feature is a customizab ...
and LG V20.
Other multi-screen form factors has screens on both sides of the phone. In the case of
Yotaphone
Yota (russian: Йота) is a Russian mobile phone brand and mobile broadband manufacturer. Yota is a trademark of Skartel LLC.
On 9 May 2012, Yota's WiMAX was replaced by its LTE network. In September 2012, 4G networks were launched in th ...
and
Siam 7X, they have normal touchscreens on the front, but on the backside is an
e-ink screen, which enables using the cases in a fashion similar to reading a book.
The presence of the front camera for taking selfies has been an essential feature in smartphones, however, it is a difficulty to achieve a bezelless screen as is the trend in the later 2010s. The
Nubia X
The Nubia X is an android (operating system), Android smartphone which was launched on 31 October 2018.
Given the tendency in the late 2010s toward bezelless displays, instead of trimming the display with a notch or hole for housing a front camer ...
, Nubia Z20 and
Vivo NEX Dual Display
The Vivo NEX Dual Display is an Android smartphone which was launched on 11 December 2018. Given the tendency in the late 2010s toward bezelless displays, instead of trimming the display with a notch or hole for housing a front camera and face re ...
have solved this combining the use of the main camera and a smaller second rear screen, eliminating the front camera.
Wrapped-around display
Xiaomi revealed
Mi MIX Alpha, a smartphone with a display that surrounds almost entirely its body, only interrupted in the back part by a column that contains the cameras. Back part of display can be used as viewfinder for selfies and videocalls.
Taco
The taco form factor was popularized by the
Nokia N-Gage
The N-Gage is a smartphone combining features of a mobile phone and a handheld game system developed by Nokia, announced on 4 November 2002 and released on 7 October 2003. It runs the original Series 60 platform on Symbian OS v6.1.
N-Gage att ...
, released in 2003. It was widely known as the plastic
taco
A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican food consisting of a small hand-sized corn- or wheat-based tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of filling ...
for its taco-shape and the placement of microphones on the side of the device, which, when one talks into the microphone, gives the appearance of eating a taco. Other models include
Nokia 3300
The Nokia 3300 is a mobile phone announced on March 11, 2003 as the successor of Nokia 5510. It was marketed primarily as a music playing phone.
They are relatively rare and today go for high prices in the second hand market.
Design
Unlike most ...
and
Nokia 5510
The Nokia 5510 is a mobile phone announced on October 11, 2001 and released in December of that year. The Nokia 5510 features a full QWERTY keyboard, an 84 x 48 monochrome display, and is notable for its digital music player, the company's firs ...
.
Wearables
Smartwatch
A smartphone in the form of a
wristwatch
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...
is typically referred to as a smartwatch or watch phone.
With movable sections
Flip
A flip or clamshell phone consists of two or more sections that are connected by
hinge
A hinge is a mechanical bearing that connects two solid objects, typically allowing only a limited angle of rotation between them. Two objects connected by an ideal hinge rotate relative to each other about a fixed axis of rotation: all other ...
s, allowing the phone to flip open then fold closed in order to become more compact. When flipped open, the phone's screen and keyboard are available. When flipped shut, the phone becomes much smaller and more portable than when it is opened for use.
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
was once owner of a trademark for the term ''flip phone'', but the term ''flip phone'' has become
genericized
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or ...
and used more frequently than ''clamshell'' in colloquial speech. Motorola was the manufacturer of the famed
StarTAC
The Motorola StarTAC, first released on January 3, 1996, is often assumed to be the first ever clamshell (flip) mobile phone. Technically, however, NEC had been releasing flip phones on NTT Docomo's PDC Mova network long before 1996, namely the ...
flip phone in the 1990s, as well as the
RAZR
The Motorola Razr (styled RAZR, pronounced like "razor"; codenamed Siliqua) is a series of mobile phones by Motorola, part of the 4LTR line. The V3 was the first phone shown in the series and was introduced in December 2003 and released in th ...
in the mid-2000s. There were also flip "down" phones, like the
Motorola MicroTAC
The Motorola MicroTAC is a cellular phone first manufactured as an analog version in 1989. GSM-compatible and TDMA/Dual-Mode versions were introduced in 1994. The MicroTAC introduced a new "flip" design, where the "mouthpiece" folded over the ...
series and was also widely used by
Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
.
In 2010, Motorola introduced a different kind of flip phone with its
Backflip
An acrobatic flip is a sequence of body movements in which a person leaps into the air and then rotates one or more times while airborne. Acrobatic flips are performed in acro dance, free running, gymnastics, cheerleading, high jumping, tricki ...
smartphone. When closed, one side is the screen and the other is a physical QWERTY keyboard. The hinge is on a long edge of the phone instead of a short edge, and when flipped out the screen is above the keyboard.
Another unusual flip form was seen on the luxury
Serene, a partnership between
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
and
Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish high-end consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets, and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who designed a radio to work with alt ...
.
Clamshell came to be used as generic for this form factor. Flip phone referred to phones that opened on the vertical axis. As clamshells disappeared from the market, the terms again became disambiguated.
By the mid-2000s, "flip" designs reached the peak of their availability and declined afterward, being replaced by sliders which in turn were completely replaced by slate smartphones.
Dual-touchscreen
In April 2011,
Kyocera International
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunica ...
released the
Kyocera Echo
is a Japanese multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunic ...
smartphone with two 3.5" screens. The phone's primary display could lie on top of the second display, reducing its size. In November 2017,
ZTE
ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.
ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, optic ...
announced the Axon M. The screens could fold to either have two forward facing screens, or one forward and one rear facing screen. The combined
display size
On 2D displays, such as computer monitors and TVs, the display size (or viewable image size or VIS) is the physical size of the area where pictures and videos are displayed. The size of a screen is usually described by the length of its diago ...
is 6.75-inch when unfolded. The second screen allows the Axon M's single camera to be both rear and forward facing, as well as acting as a
kickstand
A kickstand is a device on a bicycle or motorcycle that allows the bike to be kept upright without leaning against another object or the aid of a person. A kickstand is usually a piece of metal that flips down from the frame and makes contact ...
or
tripod
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads ...
.
Foldable screen
Following advances in display technology,
OLED
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...
screens can now be manufactured on a flexible, plastic
substrate, meaning that glass is no longer needed; allowing the displays to be rolled, bent and folded; which makes new form factors possible. In January 2017, rumors emerged of a
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
foldable phone,
and in November 2018, the
Samsung Galaxy Fold
The Samsung Galaxy Fold is an Android-based foldable smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics. Unveiled on March 20, 2019, it was released on September 6, 2019 in South Korea. The device is capable of being folded open to expose a 7.3-inch ...
was revealed, with a combined display size of 7.4 inches. Other manufacturers, such as
Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...
and
Xiaomi
Corporation (; ), commonly known as Xiaomi and registered as Xiaomi Inc., is a Chinese designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics and related software, home appliances, and household items. Behind Samsung, it is the second largest ma ...
, have also announced phones with foldable displays.
In November 2019, Motorola officially unveiled its horizontal-folding
Motorola Razr.
Flip-up camera
The
Oppo N1 made use of a manual flip camera.
Asus, in the
Zenfone 6
The ZenFone 6 is a 2019 Android-based smartphone that was manufactured, released, and marketed by Asus. It is the only release in Asus' sixth-generation ZenFone lineup and directly succeeds the ZenFone 5Z. Asus chairman Jonney Shih u ...
smartphone, includes an all-screen front, eliminating the dedicated front-facing camera notch; instead, the main cameras are housed in a motorized flip-up module that rotates 180 degrees to focus forward. The
Samsung Galaxy A80
The Samsung Galaxy A80 is a high-end Android smartphone manufactured by Samsung Electronics as part of its fifth-generation Galaxy A series lineup. It was launched at the Samsung Galaxy Event in Bangkok, Thailand on April 10, 2019, and released ...
also has a similar flip-slide camera mechanism.
Slider
A slider is composed of usually two, but sometimes more, sections that slide past each other on rails. Most slider phones have a display segment which houses the device's screen, while another segment contains the keypad or keyboard and slides out for use. The goal of a sliding form factor is to allow the operator to take advantage of full physical keyboards or keypads, without sacrificing portability, by ''retracting'' them into the phone when they are not in use. Many different companies have developed smartphones that slide: Samsung has the Corby and BlackBerry has the Torch.
The
Siemens SL10
The Siemens SL10 is a sliding mobile phone with a four-color screen (red, green, blue, and white). It was the second mobile phone with a multicolor screen after the Siemens S10 and the first sliding mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular ph ...
was one of the first slider smartphones in 1999.
Some phones have an automatic slider built in that deploys the keypad. Many phones ''pop out'' their keypad segments as soon as the user begins to slide the phone apart. Unique models are the 2-way slider where sliding up or down provides distinct functions: the
Nokia N85
The Nokia N85 is a smartphone produced by Nokia, announced on 27 August 2008 as part of the Nseries line. The N85 runs on Symbian OS v9.3 with S60 3rd Edition platform with Feature Pack 2. It was released in October, retailing for 450 euros before ...
or
Nokia N95
The Nokia N95 is a smartphone produced by Nokia as part of their Nseries line of portable devices. Announced in September 2006, it was released to the market in March 2007. The N95 ran S60 3rd Edition, on Symbian OS v9.2. It has a two-way sli ...
are examples of this.
A version of the slider form factor, the side slider or QWERTY slider, uses vertical access of the keyboard on the bottom segment. The side slider form factor is primarily used to facilitate faster access to the keyboard with both thumbs. The
Motorola Photon Q
The Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE (XT897) is a smartphone manufactured by Motorola which runs on Sprint's 4G LTE network. The "Photon Q" has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor. It runs the Android operating system and incl ...
,
Danger Hiptop
The Danger Hiptop, also re-branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick, Mobiflip and Sharp Jump is a GPRS/EDGE/UMTS smartphone that was produced by Danger, Inc. from 2002 to 2010.
The Hiptop software was designed by Danger, Inc., which was located in Palo ...
, Sony
Mylo
Myles MacInnes (born 10 May 1978), better known by his stage name Mylo, is a Scottish electronic musician and record producer. His 2004 album ''Destroy Rock & Roll'' peaked at number 26 in the UK Albums Chart. He is best known for his 2005 sing ...
, and
HTC Touch Pro
The HTC Touch Pro (also known as the HTC Raphael, AT&T Fuze, XDA Serra, or MDA Vario IV) is a smart phone from the ''Touch'' series of Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphones designed and marketed by HTC Corporation of Taiwan. It i ...
are four primary examples.
Some unusual sliders have also been made, such as the
Nokia 7280
The 2G 7280 "lipstick" phone is a mobile telephone model supplied by Nokia. It supports GSM, SMS, MMS, HSCSD, GPRS, and SyncML. It has a VGA camera. Its design features a slider end and a Navi-Spinner in the place of a keypad. As part of Nokia's ...
modeled like
lipstick
Lipstick is a cosmetic product used to apply coloration and texture to lips, often made of wax and oil. Different pigments are used to produce color, and minerals such as silica may be used to provide texture. The use of lipstick dates back to ...
,
Samsung SGH-F520
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
from 2007 which slides three ways with a QWERTY keyboard, and the
Samsung Anycall SCH-B550
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
; which is a gaming phone.
Sliders supplanted the flip form, since they allowed manufacturers to pack more keypad buttons and features (especially the side slider or QWERTY slider) into the same form factor, while touchscreen interfaces were still in their infancy. By the late-2000s, "slider" designs reached the peak of their popularity and declined afterward, being completely replaced by slate form factors with well-developed touch interfaces. In 2015,
BlackBerry Limited
BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets ...
(previously RIM) released the
BlackBerry Priv
The BlackBerry Priv is a slider smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited. Following a series of leaks, it was officially announced by BlackBerry CEO John Chen on September 25, 2015, with pre-orders opening on October 23, 2015, for a release on ...
, the first mainstream slider phone in several years (based on
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
, not the Blackberry operating system they sold so far).
Nokia E7
The Nokia E7-00, also known as Nokia E7, is a business-oriented QWERTY smartphone by Nokia from the Nokia Eseries. It was announced at Nokia World in September 2010 together with the Nokia C6-01 and Nokia C7 and started shipping in February 2011. ...
, released in 2011 and F(x)tec Pro 1, released in 2019 are notable examples of smartphone sliders as they bring out the keyboard from the side and tilt the display so they reminisce a laptop.
Today, manufacturers are trying to develop bezel-less smartphones; the greatest difficulty being the presence of front-facing cameras and face recognition sensors. While most brands expand display real-estate, some depart from that approach, returning to the slider form factor; like the
Xiaomi Mi Mix 3
The Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 is an Android smartphone launched in Beijing on 25 October 2018. It is the successor for the Mi MIX 2 and Mi MIX 2S. This time Xiaomi uses a true bezel-less display with a magnetic sliding front camera setup.
The Xiaomi Mi ...
,
Huawei Honor Magic 2
Honor (stylized and marketed as HONOR) is a smartphone brand majority owned by a state-owned enterprise controlled by the municipal government of Shenzhen. It was formerly owned by Huawei Technologies. Honor provides smartphone handsets primaril ...
and
Lenovo Z5 Pro
Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related ser ...
.
A variation of this design is the kick-slider, a slider with an extra hinge to conform to face like on
Motorola Rizr Z8
Motorola Rizr (, styled RIZR) is a series of slide mobile phones from Motorola, and is one of the series in the 4LTR line. The first model was released in late 2006. It is a sliding phone (in the style of competing Samsung and LG phones), where ...
.
Pop up camera
Phones like
Oppo Find X
The Oppo Find X is the 2018 flagship smartphone from the Oppo Find series and was launched on 19 June 2018 in Paris by Oppo. The Find X features a different design from traditional smartphones, as it has a mechanic pop-up camera. The phone has ...
and
Vivo Nex
Vivo Nex is a smartphone that features a different design from traditional smartphones, as it has a mechanical pop-up camera. References
{{BBK Electronics, brands=yes, oppo=yes, vivo=yes, oneplus=yes, realme=yes, iqoo=yes
Android (opera ...
hide front cameras within the body of the devices in motorized pop-up modules to create a bezelless front face fully occupied by screens without any cutout while keeping a front-facing camera that can up when required. Vivo V15 Pro and Centric S1 also come with a pop-up front-facing camera mechanism.
Swivel
A swivel phone is composed of multiple—usually two—segments, which swivel past each other about a sagittal
axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
(most of the time). Use of the swiveling form factor has similar goals to that of the slider, but this form factor is less widely used. Samples are, LG U900 + 960 + V9000,
Motorola Flipout
The Motorola Flipout (Model Number MB511, also styled FLIPOUT) is a phone made by Motorola and released in June 2010. Its touchscreen is 2.8 inches in size. It also has a 3.2-megapixel camera and comes in a wide variety of colors such as "Poppy R ...
+ V70 + V80,
Nokia 7370
The Nokia 7370 is a mobile phone made by Nokia, announced in October 2005. It was part of the company's fashion-focused L'Amour Collection and came in two colours: Coffee Brown and Warm Amber. The Nokia 7370 has leather and metallic components and ...
,
Siemens SK65
Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG. Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phones, ...
,
Samsung Juke
The Samsung SCH-u470, or Juke and Verizon Wireless Juke, is a mobile phone offered exclusively by Verizon Wireless. It was announced on 2 October 2007, and released that same year on Q4 in three colors: red, teal, and navy (blue). The phone is ...
+
Samsung SGH-X830
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, and Sony Ericsson S700i +
W600. The
LG Wing
The LG Wing 5G is an Android-based phablet manufactured by LG Electronics. The device features a swivel design where the main display can be rotated to form a T-shape, revealing a smaller secondary display. On April 5, 2021 LG announced it will ...
implemented this feature into a slate design smartphone, with two touchscreens.
Other examples include the
Sierra Wireless Voq
The Voq Professional Phone is a tri-band Smartphone based on a 200 MHz Intel XScale PXA262 processor with stacked flash memory, running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 edition. Announced on October 8, 2003, the product combines elements ...
which combines a candybar with a keyboard "side-flip"; the
Nokia Communicator
The Nokia Communicator is a brand name for a series of business-optimized smartphones marketed by Nokia Corporation, all of which appear as normal (if large) phones on the outside, and open in clamshell format to access a QWERTY keyboard and an LC ...
series which utilise both a candybar and a clamshell with a QWERTY keyboard; or the
Siemens SK65
Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG. Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phones, ...
which is a swivel candybar with a QWERTY keyboard.
Bezelless
Samsung A80 only has rear cameras that are housed in a motorized module, using a combination of slider and swivel they achieve the rotation to the front to be used for selfies.
No sagital axis
Some implementations, that do not use the sagital axis, are presenting in phones like
Nokia 3250
The Nokia 3250 (code-named Thunder) is a smartphone running Symbian OS v9.1 ( S60 3rd Edition), announced on 26 September 2005. It features a unique 'twist' design that transforms the traditional phone keypad into a camera (90° CW/CCW) and dedi ...
and
Oppo N1
Oppo N1 is an Android (operating system), Android smartphone developed by Oppo Electronics. Unveiled on 23 September 2013, the N1 was released on 10 December 2013.
While some models shipped with Oppo's ColorOS software, the N1 was the first Andr ...
, with twistable components: a keyboard, and main camera (doubling as a selfie one), respectively.
Some mobile phones use more than one form, such as the
Nokia N90
The Nokia N90 is a smartphone, announced as part of Nokia's then-new line of multimedia devices, Nseries, on April 27, 2005. It had a unique swivel design encompassing four 'modes'. It has two displays and has a camera with Carl Zeiss optics and ...
, Nokia 6260, Philips 968, Sharp SX862, Samsung SGH-P910, Samsung FlipShot SCH-U900, Amoi 2560, Samsung Alias series or Panasonic FOMA P900iV, which use both a swivel and a flip axis.
Other examples include the
Sierra Wireless Voq
The Voq Professional Phone is a tri-band Smartphone based on a 200 MHz Intel XScale PXA262 processor with stacked flash memory, running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 edition. Announced on October 8, 2003, the product combines elements ...
which combines a candybar with a keyboard "side-flip"; the
Nokia Communicator
The Nokia Communicator is a brand name for a series of business-optimized smartphones marketed by Nokia Corporation, all of which appear as normal (if large) phones on the outside, and open in clamshell format to access a QWERTY keyboard and an LC ...
series which utilise both a candybar and a clamshell with a QWERTY keyboard; or the
Siemens SK65
Siemens Mobile was a German mobile phone manufacturer and a division of Siemens AG. Siemens sold Siemens Mobile to the Taiwan-based BenQ in 2005, subsequently becoming BenQ-Siemens and succeeded by Gigaset. The last Siemens-branded mobile phones, ...
which is a swivel candybar with a QWERTY keyboard.
Rear cameras only
Bezelless
Samsung A80 only has rear cameras that are housed in a motorized module, using a combination of slider and swivel they achieve the rotation to the front to be used for selfies.
References
External links
Many illustrations of standard and mixed form factorsHTC Wallaby specification
{{Mobile phones
Industrial design
Mobile phones