There seem to be hundreds of concept phone designs around at the moment, each as outlandish as the next. It’s a good thing, because it shows designers are grappling with the challenge of balancing sexy design with friendly user interfaces. Of course, actually turning these concepts into handsets you’d actually want to buy is another story. Anyway, the latest is called The Con, and it’s the work of a chap named Sean Haller. It’s got a touchscreen display, runs an Apple operating system (look, it’s a concept, you don’t have to worry about licensing issues), and has detachable buttons and a solid-state LCD screen that pops out of the side. Admit it, you want one. Although it probably wouldn’t look quite as sexy if the background to the mocked-up shot was Blackpool beach…
Tag Archive for 'concept'
Nokia design contractor Provoke Design has unveiled a few new concept designs it has put together for the ‘HARDCORE New Finnish Design‘ exhibition in New York later this month.
The Express will allow the user to ‘enhance his/her mindset instantly’ (it says here) by changing the colour of the handset electronically.
The Share “enables communication and sharing of information through personalized codes formed in subgroups of likeminded individuals” which is as perfect a rendering of purest marketing drivel as I have yet encountered. It just needs the word ‘paradigm’ as a sort of metaphorical cherry on the top of the nonsense cake. It’s something to do with skateboarding and geotagging, according to the press release.
The Feel is intended for use by couples - a bit like a phone version of one of those heart-shaped pendants in two halves. It features a tactile, haptic feedback system that lets two people communicate through simulated touch and achieve ‘deep communication’. Oo-er.
via Engadget.
Its a shame that we will never see real life versions of many of the concept phone designs that come our way.
Granted, some of them are a bit bonkers or impractical, but others seem like they would be fun - a feature that is often missing from the featureless candybars that many manufacturers keep trying to flog us.
The Easy Tiles S60 Concept phone is definitely in the ‘impractical but fun’ category. Designer Tzu-Fu Wang has taken a little bit of Scrabble, a little bit of Lego, shoved them in a bag with the guts of a Symbian mobile and given them a good shake.
The result is this great looking handset that has replaced the outer shell of the phone with removable tiles. The tiles (which can be any colour or have designs printed on them) are completely interchangeable so if you get bored of one look you can snap them off, give them a shuffle and rebuild.
It certainly beats the old Xpress-on covers for versatility, although you have to wonder what would happen if you dropped it or even answered it a little vigorously.
I could see this appealing to manufacturers too - especially when they realise the money to be made in selling extra tiles.
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