When Apple unveiled its latest iPhones last week, there was a lot of focus on its design choices. From the thinness of the iPhone Air to the choice of materials and the changes brought by iOS 26, people had strong opinions.
As well they should. Smartphones are not cheap, and if you are paying the equivalent of a month’s rent for a phone, it should be something that you not only really like, but that will last long enough to justify the price tag.
The truth is that we are a little spoiled these days. We don’t know ourselves; design is given more thought, and accessibility is a key consideration, driven in some cases by more stringent regulations.
But it wasn’t always like that. There have been some mistakes and missteps along the way. The ones that stick out for me?
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Before the iPhone, Nokia was king of the mobile phone. But it was also king of the weird designs. In an effort to push us away from the boring phone design, Nokia lost the run of itself.
There was the 3650 and its weird circular keypad that made sending texts tedious and awkward. The “fashion” line that Nokia produced had some questionable choices, including the 7280.
Is it a lipstick? Is it a phone? Regardless, it was a terrible idea that was difficult to make calls or send messages on – two of the only things phones were expected to do at the time.
Nokia also had a bash at a gaming phone. You could say it was ahead of its time. But like many of those devices, it made some key errors. The first generation of the N-Gage went a little too hard on the gaming side of things with the phone as a bit of an afterthought, which was glaringly obvious when you realised that they had decided to put the speaker and microphone for calls in an incredibly stupid place. Combined with the taco shape of the phone, it was almost unusable – and not great on gaming controls either.
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It turns out there was a reason the boring design was so popular: it actually worked.
In a world of Bluetooth connections, lasers and optical mice, the idea of a wired mechanical mouse seems quaint. Back in the day, the humble computer mouse needed a ball inside it to move things around. They needed a mouse mat for grip, adding another thing to your desk.
Even worse, the mouse picked up all the gunk and dirt from your desk, so you had to regularly de-fuzz the innards or it would stop working.
Questionable design wasn’t left in the last century though. Proof that even companies known for their design don’t always get it right, Apple’s Magic Mouse is sleek, easy to handle and works well. But when Apple unveiled the second generation of the device, there was one problem: the port to recharge it was on the underside of the device. That means it is unusable when charging, so you have to stay on top of power levels. Apple has never changed it, so clearly it is a feature rather than a design bug. The mouse costs €85, but the battery anxiety is free.
Micro USB. Mini USB. Anything that isn’t USB C in fact. Technology users these days have the convenience of connections that don’t need to be plugged in one particular way, leaving you trying to uselessly jam the cable in. And inevitably, when you needed a micro USB cable, all you would find were last-generation mini USB cables.
An honourable mention should go to proprietary USB cables. At one time, every manufacturer seemed to have their own connections, none of which were interoperable. If you are over a certain age, there is a good chance that you are still clinging on to a couple of cables, stashed in a little-used drawer, because you can’t figure out what they are for. And as soon as you throw them in the recycling bin, you’ll happen across the abandoned piece of technology.
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Video calls and meetings may be fairly run of the mill these days but pre-Covid, in-person was much more common. So you can almost forgive Huawei for the cardinal sin it committed with its Mate laptops.
Whoever decided to put a pop-up webcam into the keyboard of the Mate X Pro needs to have a long think about their actions.
At first glance, it seemed clever. Hide the webcam away so not only does it free up space on the screen, but it also makes it easier to protect your privacy. But on using the camera, it became quickly apparent that the angle is universally unflattering. If ever you wanted to see a good amount of chin and an upsetting amount of nostril on your video calls, this was the device for you. For the rest of us, it was a hard pass.
