design a smartphone, critique mine.

[Guest XePeR]

any of you who have the motivation, design or describe what you'd like to see in a new model or rip mine to shreds

i'll add some shading and colour later when i'm not half-asleep. i know it's not too descriptive but i'll explain a lil more later.

[Guest XePeR]

ok i kinda put this draft of a design together out of sheer frustration with two things:

1) I HATE the direction pads on every single phone/mobile gaming device EVER made [aside from the gaming only devices, GBA, GameGear, Turbo Express, etc.] and I don't mean dislike, I HATE them with a passion,

2) Everyone I know complains about the size of the current clamshell WM Smartphones, I personally like the weight and size of my MPX200, but, oh well. The people like smaller phones, so I designed these using the MPX200 as a reference [i'll throw up a size comparison later]

basically, these are just the latenight ramblings of someone who's tested more than 15 phones over the last 6 months and is sick the navigation pads of these devices.

My ideas on the hardware are pretty simple:

The clamshell one is about 15% smaller than the MPX200, and the "candybar" one is on-par with the C500 and it's derivatives as far as most of the measurements. Both would use mini SD and have the slot accessible without removal of the battery [either underneath the battery cover or through a latched housing door.] God knows I'd love to see a QVGA screen on one of these, and since this is all just my doodlings, I'm gonna go ahead and say that's precisely what it's got :lol:

The D-Pads are akin to a Playstation's/PS2's digital D-Pad with the exception of the slightly recessed enter/select button and that the direction buttons would angle inward from the outer edges to make accidentally pressing the enter/select button more difficult without making it harder to press on purpose. The D-Pad's edges would also have a slight lip to them to make them easier to press. The D-Pad would be a one-piece "halo" with a hole in the center making them two separate pieces of plastic further making accidental keypresses difficult. I'm also going to design another fascia with a semi-analog D-Pad akin to what the Sony PSP has with a center-click for the "candybar" one later.

Anyway, just one bored software/hardware tester/geek's ideas drawn out in Illustrator. I'll have some side views [and a closed view for the clamshell] later this week just for the hell of it.

Feel free to critique any of my ideas or rip them apart. Just make sure the criticisms are CONSTRUCTIVE and not trolling please.

[Guest kurtfhouse]

I love the look (at least so far) of the clam shell and the size sounds good :lol:

Your idea for the new style D-pad is brilliant :D

The candy bar phone reminds me a little too much of a couple of nok!a phones that are out at the moment though in design, obviously yours would be far better on the inside though :wink:

[Guest XePeR]

I love the look (at least so far) of the clam shell and the size sounds good :lol:  

Your idea for the new style D-pad is brilliant :D  

The candy bar phone reminds me a little too much of a couple of nok!a phones that are out at the moment though in design, obviously yours would be far better on the inside though :wink:

yeah, i kind of just slapped the candybar together from the clamshell. i was a lil too tired to see the similarities with the nokias, but now it's a bit more clear. i think aside from the buttons i'll rework the candybar entirely.

[Guest Cabana]

I think the keypad buttons should be the same size and have nubs on a couple so you can rotate the whole thing and play games with the directional pad and a couple of buttons. The nubs would make it easy to feel the right button without looking at the keys.

Actually on second thought, I would put a couple buttons ABOVE the screen so you can hold it with the screen between your fingers.

[Guest XePeR]

doesn't look as pretty in a flat-colour dealy, but this'll do for a size comparison [after slimming it down a bit from up there]

[Guest XePeR]

I think the keypad buttons should be the same size and have nubs on a couple so you can rotate the whole thing and play games with the directional pad and a couple of buttons. The nubs would make it easy to feel the right button without looking at the keys.

Actually on second thought, I would put a couple buttons ABOVE the screen so you can hold it with the screen between your fingers.

i'm not sure many would like the idea of buttons on the top, [ i know i would, but who am i?] also, rotating a smartphone is really not something most like to do. I'd MUCH rather implement some sort of a rotating/swiveling keypad, somewhat akin to how the new Samsung phones in Asia have rotating screens, now something like that would get me to plunk down some money for a gamer-geared smartphone.

[Guest XePeR]

I have a Smartphone/PPC invention [or two or three or ...] I'd REALLY like to produce or sell the idea for or patent or SOMETHING really quickly. It's one of those things where I KNOW if I don't do it, someone else will, and they'll end up with all the cash. Does ANYONE know where in the US I can turn for something like this?

please PM me if you have ANY info that could be useful.

[Guest Billy Marrafyass]

XePeR - good ideas + good luck with the patent.

It would be great if we could fuse your ideas with PSP technology + get a PSP Smartphone that was of an acceptable size (E200 or slightly bigger). A rotating keypad/screen hinge to twist the phone into a PSP-looking device would be great as would a mini-tv card and receiver, fm (or even dab) radio, and of course, the moon on a stick.