Unusual, original and… impractical. These phones were supposed to delight, but turned out to be a flop [TOPtech]

The problem is that most of them not only did not achieve sales success, but turned out to be a complete flop.

Nokia N-Gage

In the first years of the 21st century, the advent of color displays and more powerful processors finally allowed games to run on mobile phone screens. Nokia decided to take advantage of this fact, combining the advantages of a game console with a classic mobile phone. The idea seemed to hit the spot. After all, the goal was to eliminate the need to carry two different devices in favor of one universal device. It’s just that designing such a console turned out to be an extremely difficult task.

Nokia N-Gage finally appeared on the market in 2003 and – it must be admitted – aroused a lot of interest. A small, vertical screen, inconvenient arrangement of buttons and a bizarre location of the loudspeaker for calls on the long edge of the device meant that the N-Gage did not check either as a console or as a phone. And the next problem was a slightly too weak and outdated processor that was responsible for the operation of the console.

After only a few months, an improved and slightly improved version of the device appeared on the market, but it did not eliminate the main disadvantages of its predecessor. Ultimately, both versions sold 3 million copies, and Nokia completely abandoned the idea of ​​​​combining the phone and the console into one.

Siemens Xelibri 6

The next place on the list belongs to the Siemens device. Xelibri 6, because that was the name of this phone, was presented in 2003 and it aroused considerable interest. Only that it’s not necessarily positive. All because of the crazy design, which was the work of well-known and respected designers. They wanted to make the phone a fashionable addition to the wardrobe, but it turned out, well – not the best.

Xelibri 6 was offered in pastel colors and looked like a powder box to which someone decided to add a few buttons and a tiny display. Needless to say, in practice the use of such a device was quite a breakneck task, which was quickly noticed by customers. Interest in the phone was negligible, which, however, did not prevent Siemens from launching a whole series of similar devices on the market. They all had an equally unusual design and, not surprisingly, sold very poorly.

Motorola Flip Out

Another, extremely strange idea is the work of Motorola. The American company launched the FlipOut model in 2010, which quickly turned out to be … a shot in the knee. Motorola engineers decided to create a smartphone with a touch screen working under the control of Android. They did not want to give up the physical keyboard. And maybe it wouldn’t be surprising if it wasn’t for the fact that the housing of the device was almost square, and the keyboard was sliding out from under the phone screen.

The idea seemed interesting at first, but it turned out to be impractical. And not only because the smartphone display was too small to be conveniently operated with a finger. Other aspects also determined the failure of Motorola FlipOut. First of all, the specification, which was far from the flagship devices of those years. Secondly, the device worked under Android 2.1 and was never updated to a newer system. The project was finished off by the price, which was definitely too high for customers to rush to the stores for an unusual Motorola smartphone.

Nokia 7600

The Nokia N-Gage mentioned at the beginning is not the only bizarre phone from the Finnish manufacturer. In the first years of this century, the Finns released at least a few exceptionally original, but at the same time not very practical devices. One of the most interesting was the Nokia 7600, which resembled an oversized Tamagotchi.

I must admit that the design of the device was very interesting and the phone was eye-catching. However, it was not very well thought out. The Nokia 7600 had a centrally placed screen with a diagonal of only two inches and buttons surrounding it on three sides, which made it very difficult to use, especially with one hand. The phone was also too small to be used comfortably. The unusual design and its size meant that the Nokia 7600 – like other projects of this type – quickly fell into oblivion.