Spider-phone sounds like something taken out a teenager’s gaming inventory, but it’s not, not even a concept phone, as some may hope. It’s real folks and this Spiderman-themed handset is already available in Hong Kong for HK$1180, which translates to about US$152.
I wonder if that’s Peter Parker/Tobery Maguire on the phone’s box and moving on to the specs, they’re pretty basic and average: a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot and a swivel display.
We’ve seen a Batman phone previously, even an Obama phone, but how about a Wonder Woman phone? What would set it apart from other such devices?
We’ve asked ourselves numerous times what the secret behind designing concept phones is, but I guess that a simple answer would be talent, or skill, if you want. There’s little hope for a fool-proof “do it yourself” method of creating a concept device, but something pretty close to this is available in the tutorial video below:
The result of this creative process, involving the use of Photoshop CS4 (is this out yet?) is Yauhui’s concept phone (image below), borrowing HTC’s TouchFLO interface and a bit of the iPhone’s bottom side. It’s strange how all of these modern handset designs feature a very large touchscreen, extended to very edge of the phone, or even beyond it.
While concept phones are something we look up to and we always appreciate, it’s pretty rare that we get to see a concept interface. This takes a bit of work and originality, plus a mind filled with innovation and some speculation. Esato user Gavster seems to know this, as he recently showed the world his concept UI, done with the help of GDesk.
He’s keen on emulating the interface on Windows Mobile OS and the honeycomb structure really reminds me of Windows Mobile 6.5, but there’s also a “Panels” option included if I’m not mistaking.
If XPERIA’s panel-based interface met WM 6.5, what would come out of this intersection?
Time for another classic candybar cellphone design! This time we’re dealing with Vodafone 135, a pretty basic device, created by nr12 DESIGN. The phone should be a very affordable device, specially since it packs a black and white display, ideal only for texts and calls.
You should also know that this (now) concept will become real in summer 2009, as Vodafone 135 reaches the shops with a prepay offer. Notice the cool design of the phone, that uses matte and glossy areas, but also keys with haptic feeling integrated in a rubber matte, that contrasts with the general look of the handset.
This DoCoMo concept is somewhat familiar to me, since I’ve seen joint handsets before and even devices that split and come together again in order to create a single unit. This modular handset created by DoCoMo is a working prototype and you can see that one of the parts is used as a keyboard/remote for the other phone, but the devices also work as standalone units.
More action at DoCoMo’s Mobile World Congress 2009 booth:
Oh my God! I didn’t expect to see the 8 megapixel camera – Walkman player combo too soon, but here it is and it’s known as Hikaru, NOT a Sony Ericsson concept, but a real device. Hikaru is a slider phone with metal housing and probably the only really high end music handset in years…
It’s got a 2.6 inches display, 8 GB memory, Walkman player 4.0, a 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo speakers and music keys. Expect it to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2009 and launched at the end of Q2 2009. Brilliant!
My, my, my how time flies… I got so caught up in blogging about concept phones that I even forgot about the birthday of this website. On 5th February 2007, we posted a blog about the Sony Ericsson PSP Phone. It was the beginning of a journalistic/blogging adventure, with the sole purpose of showing the world the devices we’ll be using in the future.
Now, Concept-Phones.com is one year old and we’d like to thank each and every designer for their wonderful concepts and all the folks who sent us tips, critique and various designs via mail and of course, our readers. We couldn’t have done it without you guys!
Now, to celebrate the event, we want to launch a brand new section of our website, called “Wish They Were Phones” (WTWP).
Basically this section is all about the concept devices that are NOT phones, but we’d like them to be, or they only lack a minor feature to deserve being called handsets. Those will usually be remote controls, audio players, portable consoles, netbooks and whatnot… WTWP makes its debut with the great HP Thync universal remote control, designed by David Chacon.
The gadget can control basically anything in your house and it’s a handheld device that packs a pretty big touchscreen and maybe even voice recognition. Notice that there’s even a phone function among the features of the remote, so we’re not so crazy if we call this WTFP material.
Any other ideas for the “Wish They Were Phones” section?
This OLPC 2.0 design is very similar to some other concepts we’ve seen, among which there was a very neat Nintendo DS 2 and a bunch of netbook/tablets. Notice the dual touchscreen layout and keep in mind that this is only a mockup, although every concept that surfaces now and in the following two weeks is a candidate for a Mobile World Congress 2009 release.
I wonder if the kids (target audience) for this device will enjoy using its two touchscreen displays…
The T-Mobile G2 concepts looked so good that it’s going to be quite hard to live up to the expectations of the public, drooling over those beautiful designs. And now we’ve got the photos above, that show the brand new Android G2, without a sliding QWERTY keypad and packing a 3.2 megapixel camera.
Also, the new device is thinner, shinier and the source that leaked the photos claims it’ll hit the market in May. The interface is the same as the one on the T-Mobile G1, but I wasn’t waiting for Android 2.0 so soon, although I hope that all the bugs of the first version were corrected.
What’s missing from RIM right now? They’ve got that successful Storm handset, they even have a clamshell phone, with some business appeal and who knows what else they’ll launch in 2009… Hopefully, not something using their latest patent application, which you can check out below.
Imagine a candybar Pearl with an expandable keypad that unfolds on the device’s side and increases the space that’s available for texting and some business features.
Sadly, the result is not even a SureType keyboard on that narrow handset, so we sure hope the patent remains a strange idea from the R&D crew and nothing more.
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