Intro
Lately smart phones have been defined as Android and iOS devices. The rivalry is so fierce between Android and apple that people tend to forget about the leading manufacturer of cell phones in the world. Nokia is famous for its near perfect designs depending on the market needs. Looks have always been the weak point of Nokia devices, but this might be changing as it has become the first company to unveil the flexible phone concept.
Concept Phone
All attention has been drawn by Nokia towards their new Lumia range & the new flexible phone which were on display at the Nokia World event. It is just a prototype & has been named as “Nokia Kinetic Device”. Currently it is just in demo mode and comes with only an image viewer and music player. To select something on the screen, the whole body of the phone has to be twisted in a convex direction & to move back, in a concave direction. The device is expected to run on touch screen as well but the current version on display had no touch.Flexible Display
With Samsung releasing its new galaxy Nexus Prime with a curved display, Nokia has further ramped this up to a new level.
- The device is more like a 5” tablet which comes with a large flexible AMOLED display that can be bend from the middle or from around the edges.
- The users who have had a hands-on with the display have appreciated the fact that it has a very wide viewing angle. Large viewing angle means that there is no shift in contrast if viewed from different angle.
- The flexibility is not just for the purpose of looks but is actually used to control the user interface of the device. For example, zoom in and out by bending it from the middle. It can scroll through a list of items by bending it from around the edges...
Good & Bad points
- The most obvious good thing about the device would be that it would be quite close to being unbreakable & is also water resistant.
- The bad thing is that considering its size & operation, it would require both hands to twist & turn for proper operation which is a big limitation.
- The flexibility allows user to operate without actually looking at it, like for rejecting a call when the phone is in the pocket.
- As people cannot operate capacitive touch by wearing gloves or with wet hands, it would be possible on this device.
Epilogue
After seeing the excitement among the people about the flexi device, Nokia has confirmed that it is not expected to go into production anytime soon but they have also added that the development phased can be completed within 3 years. Nokia is well known for their rough & tough designs but this time they have really hyped this image. If they can put it at an attractive price then this shinning new toy might just be Nokia’s big break in smart phone market. Not just from Nokia, similar devices with flexible interface or bent displays can be expected from other manufacturers in the future.
