The 13 Ugliest Mobile Phones Ever Made

Image via Complex Original

Year: 2004

A flip-open QWERTY on a cellular might have looked great on paper during the early millennium. But in all serious, the end result was just a condemned mobile design that made messaging even more difficult with the hinged half of the keyboard being extremely uncomfortable to type with. A shame too because the phone was actually a solid Windows Mobile device.

Year: 2003

Would you believe Nokia advertised the N7600 as a phone for fashionistas? Talk about faux pas. Not only were style mavens disgusted by the teardrop form factor, but they also found no satisfaction messaging with the awkward button setup, which featured alphanumeric keys ringed around the 2-inch display and menu/navigation keys below the screen. We modern hypebeasts can sympathaize.

Year: 2006

During an era when blinged-out handsets were considered the garishly fashionable thing, French jeweler Bouncheron linked up with the luxury mobile manufacturer to make this $310,000 atrocity. Sporting two cobras dipped in 439 rubies, two emeralds, and a pair of diamonds, this thing wasn’t even popular enough to draw Paris Hilton’s attention. Thank the lord only eight of these were produced. 

Year: 2005

B&O's audio line of products are considered some of the best on the market. Its mobile phones on the other hand, well, try looking at its collaborative Samsung effort without putting on a Kevin Hart face. A rotary cellular with a compact design that required a special screwdriver to remove the battery and SIM card: epic fail. And yes, they wanted $1,250 for it. Ha!

Year: 2006

For a company that’s developed such an incredible design pedigree over the past several years, it’s disheartening to see HTC produce something that resembles a freaking lobster claw. Frankly, we’re even more shocked Virgin Mobile added it to their product lineup. Despite some of sweet technical facets such as its built-in camera and unlimited mobile TV features, the Lobster 700TV failed to resonate with subscribers and was discontinued immediately.

Year: Unknown 

“Calling Dick Tracy, Calling Dick Tracy…” Targeted towards geeks looking to live out their Star Trek fantasies or portray the yellow raincoat detective at a Comic-Con convention, the F88 came stacked with some hi-tech features: including a 3MP, 180-degree rotating camera, 26K color display, IrDA connectivity, and a speakerphone. But simply put, it was just too dorky for its time, and the future at that.

Year: 2005

Nokia’s second attempt at capturing the female market, this lipstick-inspired communication tool was just too difficult for any gender to operate. With a 35mm x 20mm display and no keypad, the 7280 proved to be a sad attempt at creating a cellphone that combined fashion, form, and function. 

Year: 2006 

One has to question whether Samsung brought in former Casio designers to create the P300. We say that because the pocket calculator design seems like a dead giveaway. While it’s unknown who was behind the archaic styling of the handset, all we can say is the device’s impressive feature set couldn’t make up for its scholastic appearance. All that remained missing was a bundled pocket protector. 

Year: 2008

Part phone, part data storage device, and part USB broadband modem—the G450 had the flair of a first-gen Logitech home entertainment remote, only much less useful and far more hideous. Two separate circular keypads to input numbers was just a terrible idea, plus the phone’s thickness made it uncomfortable to carry.

Year: 2010

Motorola thought molding a squared smartphone with a retractable QWERTY keyboard was an awesome idea. In reality, the Flipout served as an example of how the hardware engineer lost its way on the market after being heavily spoiled by the success of the RAZR series. Guess modern times called for drastic measures.

Year: 2003

Clowned by everyone as the taco phone, Nokia’s mobile gaming device was a complete mess from all angles. While many give the company credit for assembling a handset that boasted a built-in MP3 player, PDA functionality, and played video games, consumers couldn’t get past its curved physique and bizarre control setup. The detracting color pattern around the screen didn’t help much either. Yet somehow it managed to stay on the market till 2010.

Year: 2009

Granted the introduction of the iPhone killed off the clamshell mobile fad, Sony figured it could keep the movement alive by constructing a compact phone with a gem-cut design and glossy finish. Gimmicky features like the shiny screen doubling as a compact mirror didn’t even appeal to beauty queens. And what’s there to say about the bulky, yet gaudy form factor. Exactly.

Year: 2003

Choose one, anyone. No matter the selection, the entire Xelibri Collection is considered an abomination to both fashion and mobile engineering. To no surprise, Siemens dropped the entire line after selling just 780,000 units—less than 2 percent of the company’s total handset sales in 2003. Talk about a massive stage dive off the mobile runway.