5 of the ugliest phones we've ever seen

Though smartphones have been evolving in terms of features, we haven’t seen much innovation in the way they are designed. Today, whether you pick a smartphone from top brands like Samsung and HTC or home-brewed phone makers like Micromax and Karbonn, the device poses in a peculiar rounded-bar design dominated by a large touchscreen and smooth edges. This wasn’t the case a couple of years ago when phone makers were striving to attract users with alluring designs. It even led to several design blunders in the past. We reminisce five such design disasters for mobile phones.

Nokia 7600

For fashionistas..really?

In 2007, Apple took tech markets by storm with the first generation iPhone, pegging for sleeker and smarter devices. Around the same time, Nokia tried to create something really unusual and introduced the 7600. Just one look is enough to assure you of the impracticality of the phone. Designed like a tear drop or rather a rhombus, Nokia called 7600 a phone for the fashionistas. Yes, true story. The design of the phone is awkward with a small 2-inch screen surrounded by alphanumeric buttons on the sides and other keys (Menu and navigation keys) below the screen. We think it was rather a fashion faux pas and definitely tops our list of design blunders.

Nokia 7280

Lipstick shaped phone…phew…

Here’s another ugly looking phone from Nokia. Designed as a lipstick, it can be carried as a tool for communication at parties and nightouts. What was Nokia thinking? It is the most outrageous phone we’ve ever seen. It comes with red and white patterns, making it look all the more ugly. The phone was almost impossible to operate with a horizontal 35 mm x 20 mm display and no keypad. Yes, you heard it right. For navigation, there were a couple of buttons like upper and lower softkeys, call button, end call button and a navi spinner.

Sony Ericsson Jalou F100i

Garish look

Sony Ericsson introduced its Jalou F100i phone for the fairer sex with a gem-cut design and glossy finish. The phone is a tiny clamshell and even the name Jalou is French for jealousy, which the device will supposedly arouse in others. And what’s more, the Jalou’s shiny screen doubled as a compact mirror – all you had to do was press the cancel button. So, the company chose to embellish the phone with these features and didn’t focus on the spec sheet of the device at all. Do women really want such a phone? We think the design is garish and hideous, and definitely something women would want to stay away from.

HTC G1

Chunky and bulky

The HTC G1, or also known as the “Dream”, was rather a nightmare in terms of design. In 2008, when most phone makers were cutting out excess fat from phone designs, HTC gave us this really ugly, bulky device in order to combine a full QWERTY keypad with a touchscreen. The touchscreen slides upwards to reveal a full QWERTY keypad, leaving behind a small portion of the front area which is embedded with five physical buttons. In a bid to bring the best of touch and keypad worlds, HTC managed to introduce one of the worst-looking phones. Another such similar bulky device from HTC was the Apache .

Micromax A60 Andro

Wanna be different?

A little over two years ago when the touchscreen fad had just ignited, Micromax introduced the A60 Andro budget Android touch phone (resistive screen). Although the A60 had a decent spec sheet, the tapering design with a mere 2.8-inch display and huge chunky buttons made it look really ugly. The touchscreen was integrated with three touch buttons, and right below that was a huge oval round button flanked by two vertical buttons. Phew…Whether Micromax desired to craft an unusual design or was focusing on “ergonomic”, the final output wasn’t really appealing. 

An expensive disaster

Some more phones that could easily join the league of ugly phones are Sony Ericsson t61z , Vertu Bucheron Cobra , Nokia 3620 , and BlackBerry 8700  . Do let us know which phone design you found the most ugly..