Let's talk about everything unusual connected with smartphones - about the original models of today, extraordinary new phones of the past, as well as about unexpected ways to operate any, even the most classic smartphone.
YotaPhone 2 - smartphone and e-book
Let's start our top of unusual smartphones with the Russian development. YotaPhone 2 is a device that easily combines an electronic book and a smart one. One of its screens is regular full-color, and the second is electronic ink. The latter is always active in standby mode and consumes the very minimum charge. This smartphone runs on Android, is equipped with two cameras - 8 and 2.1 megapixels, has 32 GB of internal memory.
In their reviews, users are enthusiastic about its high-precision main display, adequate cost, low weight, large memory capacity, and the possibility of wireless charging. Among the shortcomings are support for one SIM card, weak cameras, and the lack of expandable memory.
HP Elite X3 - an alternative to PC
After connecting this unusual smartphone to a widescreen monitor, its mobile OS switches to the desktop version. A mouse and keyboard make the device an almost equivalent replacement for a PC or laptop. In addition to this innovative property, the noble metal case attracts buyers in it, the main camera is 16 megapixels, a 4-core processor, memory expansion up to 2 TB. Works smart on Windows 10 Mobile.
In the reviews, buyers note a high battery capacity, the ability to wirelessly charge, a retina and fingerprint scanner. Among the shortcomings are not the best sound from the speakers and decent cost.
Caterpillar S60 - smart with thermal camera
Next among the most unusual smartphones in the world will be the Caterpillar S60, which runs on the Android platform. He got on our list due to the fact that he has an innovative camera that can take thermal images - both photos and videos. Such an image is able to show which of the captured objects are warm, hot and hot. In addition, the gadget is equipped with a standard 13-megapixel camera, an 8-core processor, 32 GB of internal memory. Its body, by the way, is shockproof and water resistant.
Customers are delighted with the moisture protection and shock resistance created by the military standard MIL-STD-810G, high accuracy of the screen and photos, the ability to install two SIM cards, internal memory and battery capacity, but they are confused by the weight of the device (249 g) and its rather big price .
Project Ara - smartphone designer
The developer of the unusual smartphone Project Ara is the notorious Google Corporation. The concept of this phone is simple - the user acquires a case-frame (a choice of large, medium and mini), on which they attach elements of his choice to his taste - display, battery, processor, flash drive and keyboard. Any disparate or broken module can be easily replaced with your own hands.
Among other things, the developers admit that the choice of modules for their Lego smartphone can be narrow-profile - printers, night vision cameras, picoprojectors, equipment for doctors, etc. will be added to the standard ones. There is only one drawback of the project - “Ara” has been under development for many years and is still inaccessible to the audience eager to see and test it.
Bendable smartphone
To your attention an unusual smartphone LG G Flex 3 - a modified version of a flexible new items from the same "Al J", released back in 2014. The 6-inch screen of the new model with a resolution of 2K is capable of not only bending, but also folding. And the back panel, according to the developers, is made of material that can tighten its minor damage.
In addition to all these truly fantastic features, the phone is dustproof and moisture proof, and also, according to unofficial data, will be equipped with a camera with a resolution of up to 20 megapixels, a fingerprint scanner and an eye retina.
Dual screen smartphone
Smartphones with an unusual design - two screens, are represented by two developments at once. The first is the NEC Medias W. device. Here you can either safely use one compact screen or fold it together with the second into a single whole.
The second option is the LG V10. It will have two screens next to it - with a resolution of 5.7 inches and 2.09 inches. It is expected that the small "brother" will serve as an auxiliary display on which service information will be displayed.
Frameless smartphone
The relatively recently released Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy Note Edge amaze with the fact that looking at them, it seems as if you have a smartphone in front of you, whose front panel is a solid display. This effect is due to the fact that the screen is bent by a kind of strip on the side end of the device. This is done not only for the sake of giving the device additional originality - various service information appears on the strip - notifications from social networks, etc.
Rotating Camera Smartphone
An unusual smartphone of Chinese developers Oppo N3 can be added to our top because of one very original detail - its camera simultaneously performs the front and rear functions. This happens thanks to a special mechanism: pressing the button - and the camera, turning 180 degrees around itself, looks at the user or, conversely, turns away from him.
The most unusual smartphones of the past
Let's look at the gadgets that once struck our imagination in retrospect:
- Motorola Flipout - a small square attracted attention in 2010 with the choice of color panels - yellow, green, blue, red, lilac. However, it was extremely difficult to practically use such a phone.
- Samsung Serene in shape resembled a rectangular square mirror or powder box. The second unusual detail was a round numeric keypad.
- BenQ Qube Z2 could easily be confused with a small MP-3 player (by the way, it was also one of the device’s options). The developers also offered interchangeable panels of different colors to their brainchild - prototypes of modern bumpers.
- SpareOne is more unusual in content - the phone is able to stay in standby mode for 15 years without recharging the battery! In talk mode, he will calmly work up to 10 hours.
- Haier Pen Phone P7 is a pen-shaped mini-phone. It is equipped with small buttons, a voice recorder and a camera - the perfect tool for a spy.
- Cuin5 - a smartphone of an unusual shape, which is completely devoid of a screen. Instead of the last, its entire surface is covered with a wide variety of buttons.
- Sharp Touch Wood SH-08C - this bean -shaped phone boasts an important detail - its back panel is made of cypress.
- ZTE s312 in appearance is a regular push-button "grandmother" phone. But among such devices it is distinguished by a particular advantage - the device is charged from solar energy.
Unusual smartphone use
Most gadgets can be much more for you than a device for making calls, accessing social networks, a pocket camera and a player. Pay attention to this unusual use of a smartphone:
- Lantern . Almost any phone is equipped with this bright LED detail - in modern smartphones, the flashlight is the camera flash. Ancillary applications allow him to turn into an SOS signal or arrange a light disco for them.
- Measuring device. With the help of special nozzles with a ball lens, you can turn the camera of your phone into a photomicroscope. And the nozzle - a diffraction grating with partitions of ordinary black electrical tape - will make a spectrometer out of the same camera.
- Personal doctor and trainer. At your service are hundreds of applications that will turn your device, if not into a doctor, then into a junior nurse: a program that analyzes baby crying, the foods you eat, the level of fluid you drink, heart rate monitors, pedometers, etc.
- Gadget tutor. Once again, ubiquitous applications rush to the rescue, which are ready to offer both the earliest possible study of any foreign language, and a star map of the sky, a detailed atlas of the human body, SDA, all kinds of intellectual quiz games, as well as a lot of cognitive and educational.
- Toy for a four-legged friend. Application developers have long taken care of our smaller brothers - in a couple of clicks you can download an interesting toy for your animal to its taste and color.
- Remote control. For this task, you will need a device with an infrared port. The return of this option to smartphones can already be seen in some models of Samsung, LG, HTC and Sony.
- Weather station. Look for phones with their own barometer for sale - they can boast, for example, the Samsung Galaxy S4.
- Handbook for the musician. With applications that simulate a guitar, piano or other instruments, you can easily learn the necessary basics. The developers also did not ignore future DJs.
- GPS navigator and DVR. More and more often you can find drivers on the roads who navigate along the way with a navigation program built-in or downloaded to a smartphone with a GPS receiver. Some motorists quite successfully use devices with a large or freely expandable memory using flash cards memory as video recorders.
- Wi-fi router. Almost all modern smartphone models are capable of “distributing” Wi-Fi to a number of devices - such as phones, tablets, laptops.
Also, the use of “smart” as a scanner of paper documents, film negatives, a reader device for information from various barcodes, a hidden camera, etc. is not new.
As you have seen, original smartphones of the present and the past stand out from their fraternity both with bold design solutions and a set of fundamentally new options. However, many applications today can make any gadget unusual, adding new useful features to it.