David wrote the following on PDA-247 last week- “Picture the scene, our hero, let’s call him Jack, has just had a big argument with his boss on the phone. He’s just threatened to expose him and his mismanaging of the crisis to the president; he ends the call with a stunning ultimatum, snatches the phone away from his ear and, with a crescendo of music in the background, stabs ineffectually at a non responsive touch screen to end the call…….
What he, and all TV goodies, and baddies, need is a dramatic way to end a call. There is something satisfying and final about flicking shut a flip phone that says “I’m done and don’t mess with me”. You just don’t get the same effect with a slide or a touch screen. Let face it flip phones are cool, ever since Captain Kirk first flicked open his communicator and told Scotty to beam him up, that’s all a true geek has wanted their phone to do. If it can get on the Internet, pick up emails and stuff, so much the better, but really, it just needs to flip.
Here’s a 2010 prediction for you, the first company to produce a decent Smartphone in a flip format will have a runaway success on their hands.”
I can see his point with regards to ending calls in a dramatic way, but must admit that I struggle with the concept of a flip smartphone. We live in a world where touch screens are becoming more dominant all of the time and for the rest of us the hardware QWERTY keyboard form does the job. Neither way of working lends itself to the flip phone format. It would have to be very large to include a big screen and any form of data input besides the standard 1-0 key setup, and watching videos, using GPS and playing games would be prohibitive.
David mentioned a swivel style mechanism to allow more flexible usage, but again I believe that this would cause more complexity when it isn’t really needed. It looks to me like we will have to stick with the form factors that are dominant today for a long time to come. I love the idea of something new coming along in hardware smartphone design, but do wonder if we can move much from what we already have. It is a shame if that is the case…
David then came up with the following in response- “Apart from the cool factor, there are several benefits of a flip phone: First, it’s an easy way to answer and end calls without having to stab at a button, then you’ve got the screen protection angle and also you have a much larger device when open to bridge the gap between ear and mouth, giving improved call quality. The only usage model I can see that would give problems is using the device in landscape mode, for things like web browsing, but this is a problem with any qwerty slider or front facing qwerty design and that hasn’t stop manufactures selling tons of them. I only ever use GPS in portrait mode because holding any device in landscape is too uncomfortable and if you’re driving the screen size is not important as you should’t be looking at the screen anyway.
My ideal device would be something the size of a Pre, the screen flipping up to reveal a keyboard with an extra row of keys and a larger gesture area above, this would give room for a slightly bigger screen on the top half. The device would nestle nicely in your hand for using the touch screen and you could move your fingers down to the keyboard as needed. The point is, with the flip open it wouldn’t be a lot different to the way the Pre is now with its slider open, maybe an inch or so longer.
I don’t suppose it will ever happen, you’re right, the world wants big touch slabs, but honestly, there are so many problems with that design it’s a wonder it’s caught on at all. It just shows how gullible we are, Apple shows us something and tells us it’s cool and we flock to buy it.“
How about a slim SE P910 or P990 form factor?
How about the phone in the picture, I’d forgotten the N76, I wond if ther is any on eBay?
I still use a Nokia N76 (as pictured). I have to carry a Blackberry for work and, much as I love the iphone, I don’t want to carry something that large as my personal phone in addition to the BBerry. Despite being 3 years old, the N76 is still the nearest thing I can get to a Smartphone in a convenient flip format. Sadly the N76 didn’t sell well in the UK. It was only offered by one network (Vodafone) and they dropped it after a few months because of the paint issue (the chrome effect tends to peel off). However, I have now completely removed all the peeling chrome on mine and it actually looks really good. The plastic underneath is an off-white colour that goes well with the rest of the phone (mine’s black rather than the red pictured).
To bring this back on topic- I totally agree with the article. The first Android flip phone that’s made will likely get my money. There’s a huge gap in the market here.