WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

SOME OF THE MOST UNIQUE PHONES CREATED

- Chris Noel Hidalgo

As a millennial, I have been fortunate enough to witness how phones have evolved over time. From the bulky bricks before the turn of the millennium to the sleek and sophisticated pocket rockets of today, our mobile devices have mostly followed the same general pattern of being thinner, lighter, faster, and smarter. However, not all phones conformed to this norm. Instead, some manufacturers created ones that for better or for worse stood out from the rest with their quirky features and aesthetics. Here are some of these phones which chose to buck the trend.

Nokia 7600 

Most phones are rectangular. The Nokia 7600 is not like most phones. In fact, it's not even a square. Released in 2003, the 7600 had a teardrop shape with a face occupied by a 2-inch color screen flanked by a verticular column of number/letter keys on either side. Because of the interface, it was very awkward to use with one hand. Typing with two hands also wasn't the best experience.

Nokia 7280

Released in 2004, this phone could very well be lost in any makeup bag. Looking like a tube of lipstick, it still managed to squeeze in a minuscule screen that doubled as a mirror when not in use, a charging jack, and a 3.5mm headset jack. However, because of the sheer lack of space, the 7280 does not come with a keypad. Instead, users had to navigate through the interface and input their messages one character at a time using a spinning disk akin to the iPod’s Click Wheel. Novel? Yes. Easy to use? Not at all.

Nokia N-Gage