Form-factors of mobile phones: clamshells.

Clamshell – a handset consisting of two folding halves, at that the keypad is hidden inside the device. To get access to the keypad you should flip the device open (vertically-directed action). Due to the specific design, the main display is located inside the clamshell’s top piece. At the same time, such devices may come with additional screens mounted on the exterior surface. Slider – the handset consists of two halves that slide relative to each other, and normally when it is shut, you see the display, and flicking it open allows you to manage the keypad. In traditional sliders both halves provide for the device’s functionality, which means they house important components. There are also some exotic solutions, having the display hidden and the top half with an extra display and keypad or an extra display alone. The spring loaded mechanism makes for smooth processes of sliding the device open and closed. Among all clamshells there were two cult phones, one of them – Motorola StarTAC, and the other – Motorola RAZR. While the former established this new form-factor, the latter gave birth to a whole new trend in the development of handsets, specifically, “slim” phones. In 2007 Motorola elaborated design of a thin folder in 6 months, at that one of the conditions it was observing was use of premium-materials, for example, aluminum. Though the stumbling block for such skinny solution was the keypad. Nokia came into the clamshell segment with one of the latest waves, however by releasing the Nokia 7200 it left no doubt that the brand and loyalty of consumers easily outweigh technological talent. The Nokia 7200’s design wasn’t particularly prosy, at the same time textile or leather framings made this handset a newsworthy event in the market. Subtypes of clamshells The first and most obvious solution was shape-changing the hinge, so that the top part of the clamshell could be turned around. This idea was picked up by the Korean manufacturers, even more, they had a race which one would come up with first phone of this kind. The main point in having a swiveling top half is omitting an outer screen – if the user wants it, he can turn the internal display faceup or, conversely, handle it in a conventional fashion. July, 2005 saw the Nseries range’s flagship packing unmatched imaging capabilities among all Nokia’s handsets – the Nokia N90. In the N90 the camera module is found on the top end and made rotatable. If you put the handset upright, you will be able to turn the module by 270 degrees until it gets fixed. This allows changing viewing angle when shooting, which is quite unusual – you no longer need to move the handset, instead, just swivel the camera. Along with some enhancements, there were obvious mangles as well – it was impossible to handle the main screen in folded state, when it was turned face up and the keypad was underneath, like in the Nokia 6290 (this makes for better reading experience and does some good to a couple of other applications as well). In April, 2006 during its show in Berlin, Nokia rolled out the Nokia N93, which was its next video and imaging flagship. In this device they were aiming at maximum resemblance with cam coders, that’s why it housed a folding display, but with the possibility of going into landscape orientation, which was decent for watching video.

www.nenokia.net 2007 (email nenokia@bigmir.net)