A review of the "obsolete" designs of smartphones that few people born after 2000 know

Last weekend, I accompanied my parents to China Mobile's offline store to buy mobile phones. They looked at the large-screen smartphones with similar designs on the counter and said they were not used to them and couldn't say which one they liked. Especially my father, he was used to smartphones with three function keys at the bottom, and he couldn't get used to the gesture operation of the full screen. In the end, I bought him the one with the largest screen and called up the function keys for him to use.

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Afterwards, he often came to me with his new phone to ask questions, such as the old mini-USB (he called it the big and small head) cable was no longer usable, how to switch to 9-key typing, etc. Smartphones have evolved so fast that I will review the designs of mobile phones that have been "eliminated" based on my own experience and recall the past.

1.T9 (9 keys)/full keyboard design, trackball

T9 (9-key) design:

When we were young, most of the mobile phones we used had a 9-key design. In 2006, the iPhone series had not yet made its mark, and Nokia dominated the global smartphone market with its N series and E series, and launched several popular models at one stroke, such as the legendary Nokia N95. I believe that friends who have experienced that era must have heard of the name of this phone. This phone is also the first mobile phone with built-in GPS. Not only can you swipe up to display the keyboard interface, but you can also slide down to display the music control buttons, which has a rather "shocking" design.

Full keyboard design:

When it comes to full keyboard design, I believe BlackBerry is the first brand that comes to mind. BlackBerry mainly targets the high-end business market and has launched a number of full keyboard models (commonly known as muscle phones). In fact, many friends don’t know that when BlackBerry first entered the smartphone market, it also launched several models with similar 9-key designs. Recently, there have been reports that it wants to return to the smartphone market. I hope BlackBerry can do better and better.

BlackBerry KEY2 At the same time, some of these models equipped with keyboards are also equipped with some "fancy features", such as trackballs, optical touchpads, separate function keys, etc., which will not be repeated here. As for the gradual elimination of keyboards, it can be said that due to technological advancement, the necessity of their existence has been gradually replaced by larger and larger touch screens. Although the input accuracy of physical keys is much higher than that of virtual keys, who can refuse the excellent look and feel of a large screen?

2. Flip cover and rotating screen design

I believe many of my friends have used flip phones. It is really cool to open the screen with a "click" sound. I was lucky enough to get a folding screen phone with EVA linkage from a friend: Sharp SH-06A Nerv version. The phone was limited to 30,000 units worldwide and cost about 10,000 RMB at the time. I guess the price will be even higher now, otherwise I really want to buy one to make up for the loss.

When I was a student, I bought a Motorola ME511. I still remember the shock I felt when I first unscrewed the screen. When it was "folded", it looked like a square powder box. When the screen was unscrewed, the full keyboard appeared at the bottom. At that time, I became the most handsome boy in the class with this phone. It is not an exaggeration to say that this phone is "deified" in my heart. It is really beautiful.

In that era, if the phone rang, you would casually take out your phone from your pocket, open the cover and put it to your ear, and say "hello, hello, hello" in one go, which was quite the temperament of an elite business person. However, with the popularity of large-screen smartphones, the "opening the cover" operation is still a bit cumbersome, and this design is gradually eliminated. However, the recently launched folding screen mobile phone has also made many people shout "My youth is back". If you like the flip design, you may consider the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3.

3. Removable battery

I believe that users who have experienced the mobile phone market around 2010 have heard of "battery chargers". At that time, most mobile phones supported battery removal, so in order to ensure the battery life, many manufacturers launched spare batteries or battery chargers for their models. I once bought a "universal battery charger" of a unknown brand and it bulged the spare battery I bought at a high price, thus picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons.

At that time, smartphones generally had back covers that could be opened and batteries removed. The emergence of the iPhone 3GS by Apple directly proved that the "removable battery" feature was not a rigid demand of users. If the battery of a mobile phone is designed to be disassembled, the parts cannot fit tightly together, which not only takes up more space in the phone, but also makes it difficult to make the phone lighter, thinner and more compact, and the waterproof performance cannot be improved. At the same time, the replaced battery may cause secondary pollution.

4. Android's "three-stage" physical navigation key, Apple's Home key

Surrounded by the T9/full keyboard keys of Android and Symbian camps, Apple launched the second product of its iPhone series in 2008: iPhone 3G. This phone only has a physical Home button, and all other operations are performed on the screen. Looking through the comments on Tieba in 2008, there were many "art fans" of Apple at that time who believed that the phone's reputation was too good and would lead to the public buying it, making it difficult to show their "honorable" status as Apple fans, which shows how highly the phone was evaluated at that time.

In 2011, the first smartphone with a "three-stage" navigation key, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, officially came onto the stage. It was also the first smartphone in history to be equipped with the Android 4.0 system. Prior to this, most smartphones still used the T9/full keyboard design. The Android 4.0 system also brought users the function of virtual navigation keys, but at that time, mobile phone screens were generally small, and displaying virtual keys would only make the available space smaller. At that time, manufacturers such as Meizu also launched the waist-round key design, which I will not go into here.

As for the replacement of physical buttons, negative factors such as high cost, large space occupied, and easy damage account for a large proportion, but I think the main reason is that users "don't need" them. With the advancement of mobile phone manufacturing technology, the screen-to-body ratio has gradually become a major criterion that mobile phone users value. All manufacturers are working hard to streamline useless designs. It is understandable that the "useless design" of physical buttons on mobile phones that can be integrated into large screens has been cancelled in recent years.

5. Elevating camera

In June 2018, vivo launched the first mobile phone equipped with a lifting camera, the "vivo Nex", which has a screen-to-body ratio of 91.24%. The lifting camera is an attempt made by some mobile phone manufacturers in pursuit of a full screen. Although the look and feel is indeed improved a lot, the weight and size of the phone are not very ideal, and other components have to be reduced to make room for the camera.

Take Xiaomi Mi MIX3 as an example. In order to pursue a full-screen look, the phone uses a magnetic sliding full-screen, with a screen-to-body ratio of up to 93.4%. But what comes with it is that the body weight has reached 218g, the thickness is 8.46mm, and the battery capacity has declined to 3200mAh. The battery life issue has become the main reason for users to complain, and charging it two or three times a day is a basic operation. As many manufacturers have begun to try the "under-screen camera" technology this year, the retractable camera design seems to no longer be necessary.

But the retractable camera design also has an advantage: users can know when the software uses the front camera. When I was playing a mobile game before, the retractable camera suddenly stretched out slowly, which was very dramatic.

At this point, I will list three features that are gradually declining and will soon disappear in the future:

1.3.5mm headphone jack, TF card slot

Although the "extremely advanced" configuration of the 3.5mm headphone jack is still a point that mobile phone consumers value very much when purchasing models, there are very few models that support TF card storage expansion. When I was a student, I loved playing music games very much. There were hundreds of songs, and the built-in storage of the phone was not enough, so I bought a 16GB TF card to store the songs.

After the iPhone 7 series removed the headphone jack for the first time, users' comments were extremely polarized. Although a small number of users cited Apple's reduction of physical buttons and Mac Book's reduction of optical drives as examples, saying that "the knife skills are still precise this time", the vast majority of users expressed great dissatisfaction. Until now, there are still voices of protest when new phones do not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. However, as the technology of wireless headphones gradually matures, the "extremely advanced" 3.5mm headphone jack will probably gradually disappear.

2. Fingerprint on the back

Back fingerprint recognition was very popular around 2019. Many mobile phone manufacturers like to add an identification area on the back of the phone, so that users can touch it with just a finger when holding the phone. The reason why this technology is gradually disappearing is easy to understand, purely because of the iteration of technology. Not to mention that AMOLED screens support under-screen fingerprint technology, most LCD screen phones currently use side fingerprint recognition. The popularity of face recognition also makes this technology seem very useless.

In terms of body design and recognition, the back fingerprint is also bound to be eliminated. You know, when a user holds a mobile phone in his hand, most people see the back of the phone. In addition to the most basic materials and colors, the camera module, special patterns and other designs of the mobile phone are necessary to highlight the product recognition, but the appearance of the back fingerprint is the same. Almost all mobile phones have this "small circle" at a similar height, which is very homogeneous.

3.2.5D screen

2.5D screen is a kind of curved screen, also known as water drop screen, which was widely used in mobile phones in the past. 2.5D screen can make the surface of the mobile phone look like a water drop that is full but not overflowing, but now high-end mobile phones directly use hyperbolic screens, and ordinary mobile phones continue to use straight screens. There are fewer and fewer mobile phones using 2.5D screens.

In conclusion:

As technology keeps pace with the times, the phones in users' hands are becoming thinner and lighter, with larger screens and more functions. The designs that have been gradually "eliminated" are being replaced by technologies with better performance and stronger functions, and have to slowly exit the stage of history. With the rapid development of AI, IoT, and smart interconnection technology, maybe one day even mobile phones will be "eliminated" by more portable smart devices. Let's wait and see.