Smartphone manufacturers regularly try to come up with technical innovations to make their own devices more interesting. From time to time, however, the ideas turn out to be flops. TECHBOOK has selected the five biggest smartphone failures.
In all the years smartphones have been around, we’ve seen some crazy developments. Extendable cameras, rotatable displays or even devices that can be completely folded are just a few of them. And compared to the features that we present to you below, they were actually quite successful. TECHBOOK presents five of the most memorable smartphone flops.
Smartphones with modular building blocks
Large manufacturers such as Google and LG or the crowdfunding project Fairphone tried the modular design: individual parts of the smartphone should be flexibly exchanged in order to increase the performance of individual areas and extend the service life. Even if the idea sounds good and makes sense, products like the LG G5 and the Fairphone didn’t catch on in the market. Google’s “Project Ara” even missed a market launch completely. Motorola has been pursuing a similar system since 2016 with the Moto Mods. Although these expansion modules do not replace any basic components of the smartphone such as the processor, they do offer added value through a better camera or battery extensions. The mods are still available, but remain as a niche product – a real smartphone flop.
double screen
In 2017, the Chinese company ZTE tried its luck with a dual-screen smartphone with the Axon M. The result did not convince the smartphone buyers: The gap between the two displays does not really make the device comfortable for using both screens upright. The dual screen also causes problems on the outside. The additional screen makes the Axom M relatively thick and heavy. The smartphone became a flop. In the meantime, the technology has advanced and the first folding smartphones are on the market. Let’s see if they end up on this list at some point.
Built-in projector
An innovation from the curiosity cabinet of smartphone history is the built-in projector. Samsung took the plunge in 2012 with the Galaxy Beam. This had the same problems as are already known from inexpensive portable projectors: The resolution is far too low, the brightness is too weak and the picture on the wall is not even a meter wide. In addition, the function also drained the battery in no time at all. The smartphone with projector was therefore a flop for Samsung.
Also read: Jesus-iPhone & Co. – the strangest smartphones in the world!
3D screen
When the trend for 3D in cinemas started at the beginning of the decade, not only TV and console manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon, but also the smartphone industry. In the meantime, however, the hype has flattened out in almost all areas. In the cinema, on game consoles and on television, 3D hardly plays a role anymore. The attempt also failed miserably in the smartphone segment and became a flop. Devices like the HTC Evo 3D and LG P920 Optimus 3D delivered 3D effects without additional glasses. However, the three-dimensional animations were nothing more than a gimmick and there weren’t any good apps that made use of the effect due to the small number of devices. In addition, some users reported nausea with prolonged use.
stylus
Whether the stylus really belongs on the list of smartphone flops is debatable, since Samsung still uses it in its Galaxy models and also in the current Tab S series. But how often do you really see someone on the street or in the office operating their smartphone with a stylus? The TECHBOOK editorial team hasn’t, at least for a long time. The added value of the pens is limited and operation still seems old-fashioned to this day. After the Palm organizers of the ’90s, the era of the stylus for portable displays should have been over.