A New Era for Mobile Phone Design Is Calling: Are You Picking Up?

Image credit: Persona Mockups via Unsplash

In 2008, Obama’s presidential election was not the only successful campaign that took place. At home, I won my own campaign of sorts, with a strategically thought-out plan to get an LG KS360 for my birthday. After weeks of hints, detours into phone shops and startling appearances of torn-out Argos pages appearing like Weeping Angels, my parents finally gave in. I guess it’s not so surprising that I work in advertising / creative marketing now, huh? 

Not only did this feel meaningful because it was my first proper phone but it felt like a cool piece of tech that was also a form of self-expression. I chose the colourway with the turquoise blue keyboard which was my favourite shade and the touch screen dial pad / Qwerty keyboard combo felt like I was venturing into an exciting new world of tech at the intersection of innovation and design. 

Over the following months, I personalised my handset further with charms, jewels, engravings and even a hot pink phone sock. In hindsight, a questionable combo of add-ons but it was unmistakably mine. Hearing the familiar auditory flourish as I flicked the keyboard up to type a message or watching the animated Keith Haring wallpapers that came, pre-loaded on the phone all added to what felt like a unique but also playful experience of having a mobile phone.

Whilst still amid this fairly whimsical mobile era the iPhone was taking the world by storm, redefining the industry with a more minimalist aesthetic that would become the blueprint for phone design for the next decade and a half.   

The iPhone Effect

As design styles became more sleek and refined and refined across the realms of interiors and fashion, other tech brands followed suit, shamelessly creating their own version of the iPhone. The increase in professional content creators and influencer culture further compounded our perceived need for a certain type of phone that was a practical, ‘slab’ form factor. iPhones became synonymous with the future, quality and first choice for ever-growing creative community and online influencers. 

However, this phenomenon reduced our phones to just a utility, rather than the deeply personal and connected part of our existence that they grew to become. Surely, something that we use so frequently and serves as a vehicle for such intimate moments, should have more individuality? For the better part of a decade, we've been force-fed iterations of the same phone, each model varying only slightly from its predecessor. We've sleepwalked into a realm of contentment with mobile phone designs, with an assumption that we have already reached and are living comfortably within the peak of aesthetics in this field. 

Things are changing

In my opinion, 2000-2010 was a golden era of mobile phone design. It birthed so many innovative design moments that cemented the humble cell phone as a canvas for self-expression.

Whether you were a music-loving teen with an orange-accented Sony Ericsson or a city slicker with an ‘I mean business’ Blackberry, your mobile told a brief story about who you were. As a Zillenial, who bounces between a love of nostalgia and repulsion to styles I hoped would never again see the light of day, the potential return of this incredible yet chaotic design era ✨truly✨excites me. 

Samsung and Motorola led the charge in 2020 with the release of their Z Flip and Razr models which defied the laws of physics as foldable phones that didn’t compromise on a cinematic-level viewing experience. The Nowstalgia of these handsets blends the fun of the original designs with a modern twist to fulfil our contemporary needs. And the throwback trend doesn’t appear to be a fad. We’ve seen other brands like Oppo, Tecno and Google embrace the foldable phone trend with their own versions. This is largely fuelled by and a clear response to the very millennial and now Gen Z hunger for nostalgia. Gen Z has embraced a number of Y2K trends and retro-tech is no different. 

Klarna’s 2022 Checkout report highlighted vintage tech and Y2K among the top shopping trends of the year. This translates to the visual look of content - a more casual and WIP aesthetic defining TikTok content, blurry Instagram dumps and filter apps like HUJI Cam all give a more ‘real’ and personal touch. It also carries through to the physical experience of using tech. Old flip phones and cameras allow you to be more in the moment as a lack of other distractions on the device means you make your call or take your photo and get straight back to making memories in the real world. 

What’s more, increased mindfulness around social media use, has users seeking new methods to cut down on their screen time. There’s also the added enjoyment of reviving obsolete human gestures like closing one eye and squinting through a viewfinder or dramatically ending a conversation by snapping a phone shut.

Why this is a good thing

From the boom of compact mobile phones people have shown a desire to communicate their style through selection and customisation. Aside from drastically reducing the likelihood of picking up the wrong phone, there are a bunch of other positives for both consumers and brands. This is an opportunity for brands to cater to the very human need to feel seen and represented and lean into the growth of highly personalised consumption and aesthetic trends popularised by gen Z. Every device shouldn’t be for everyone.

With most phones performing very similarly, why not focus on creating hardware that people really love. This also could help reduce pointless consumption as people have the intention of keeping their handsets for greater periods of time and companies have to invest in their longevity. 

I’m aware this feels like a far-off dream, as I'm certain no companies have ‘reduced sales’ on their list of yearly targets. However, consumers are increasingly seeking brands that are in alignment with their values.

The tech craftspeople of times gone by were taking aesthetic inspiration from pebbles, games consoles and chocolate. It would be a welcome change to see mobile design once again return to overt muses from the world around us. Left-field design really helps marketability. Not only does it spark interesting conversation through word of mouth, you’ll be the subject of group chats, think pieces and if you’re lucky - a viral TikTok. With the undeniable growth experiential and the appetite for IRL moments, stand-out activations that allow consumers to get hands-on with the product and generate organic buzz is invaluable. Samsung is a great example of this, who leveraged the concept of ‘flipping’ to create a skate park for their Galaxy Z Flip5 model. 

The future 

This week at Mobile World Congress we have already seen Motorola share details about its new adaptive display concept device, wrapping around people’s wrists and HMD (Human Mobile Devices) teasing a Barbie flip phone. 

My hope for the future is that the trend really takes off and the new visionaries in the design world strike the balance of reviving nostalgia whilst pioneering joyful new ideas that change how we engage with technology. Will we see a return to transparent technology? Will interior Maximalism infiltrate the tech industry? Will human-centred design innovations bring back the tangibility we are losing in so many areas? Or maybe we’ll turn to Midjourney to inspire possibilities that we never saw coming.