2020 has been some year – and it’s totally understandable if you miss out on some phone launches amid chaos and events that are making headlines. This turmoil has certainly hit the smartphone industry, but somehow, phones have still been launched, and some are even stranger than normal.
2019 may have been the year the foldable debuted, but in 2020 we have a roll-up phone in our minds (courtesy of TCL) and a rotary phone in our hands (thanks, LG). Obviously, we also received our first shell-shaped folders, with the Motorola Razr bringing the iconic flip phone into the modern era – and Samsung is right behind with its own Galaxy Z Flip.
We also saw for the first time the next novelty in smartphones – goodbye notches and holes, hello, selfie cameras under the screen. And finally, not all advances are state-of-the-art technology – sometimes you just need to include old features, like stylets, in the most unlikely places.
So, here are our favorite weird phones that launched in 2020, more or less in the order in which they appeared – some of which we hold in our hands and others that are still too futuristic to reach the market.
OnePlus Concept One
The OnePlus Concept One was by far the most exciting phone at CES 2020 in January. While it quickly became clear that the experimental device would never be sold in stores, the Concept One was a cool approach to fixing something that phone makers still didn’t consider a problem: hiding the phone’s rear lenses using tinted glass.
OnePlus cited sports car windows as inspiration for glass; run a chain through it, and it goes from translucent to deeply shaded. Concept One automatically changes when you open the camera app, and the glass strip over the rear cameras subtly changes from opaque to transparent.
You would wonder why OnePlus isn’t rushing this across all of its phones, but there are some design considerations – namely, whether the glass strip would obstruct the cameras if it was scratched or if the mechanism failed. We barely had time to hold the phone up and experience the (very functional) effect on our own, but we couldn’t say whether this technology is ready for the mass market. We hope so: the design of the phone is very stagnant.
Motorola razr
Although we got our hands on the Motorola Razr for the first time in late 2019, delays took its launch to early 2020 – and although the folding claw captured the public’s imagination, it didn’t seem like it sold very well.
Which is a shame, given the design innovation needed to make the Razr work: a hinge that folds the plastic screen in such an esoteric way to prevent it from wrinkling, while integrating micro brushes to automatically sweep the particles so it doesn’t t get in the way of the works. And yes, the Razr has managed to make a fully functional smartphone fold into a shape that is half the size of an ordinary phone.
Unfortunately, it is significantly more expensive than the main phones, without offering more functionality – even being able to close the Razr to end a call does not justify the price increase.
Some design flaws were corrected in the refinement of the Motorola Razr 2020 launched in late 2020, but even that doesn’t quite beat the only other shell-folding device launched this year, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. But the Razr was the first on the market and in our hearts.
Also, taking a selfie with a phone folded to the size of a mint canister is very, very cool.
Stylus Moto G
Motorola has been launching G-series phones with an admirable budget for years – usually four or more models at the same time that differ slightly in specifications and price. But in 2020, the latest generation launched something new – or rather, something old, as the Moto G Stylus includes one of the oldest features of mobile computing.
The LG Stylo series has carried the pen phone flashlight for years, but the introduction of the Moto G Stylus makes it a trend. No longer limited to expensive Samsung Galaxy Note phones, the G Stylus is a powerhouse of its own with decent specs and a stylus that is surprisingly nimble, as it has no power.
Although this means that it lacks the advanced connectivity features of Samsung’s S Pen (like gesture control or shutter button), it still has pen functionality at a bargain price.
LG Wing 5G
One of our favorite phones this year is the LG Wing 5G, which is also one of the strangest. Remember the old Sidekick phones that turned out? This is the modern version – although instead of revealing a keyboard, the LG Wing’s upper screen turns out to reveal … another smaller screen.
That’s really cool: in theory, you can watch something on the big screen while chatting or doing unrelated tasks on the small screen. Ever needed to do a simple search or look for directions, but didn’t want to leave the video or program you’re watching? The LG Wing offers a more discreet space than traditional smartphones, and all with an addictive swivel.
You’ll get more screen area than a real folding one, but in LG’s recent fashion, the Wing is cheaper, with a price tag equal to first-rate flagships … but half the cost of a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, for example.
The execution is not without problems and some work is needed to switch between applications on the small and large screen. But for the value and the absolute ‘wow’ factor, the LG Wing 5G is a strange treasure that we didn’t expect in 2020.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
‘But wait, the original Galaxy Fold didn’t come out in 2019, and isn’t that just an iteration?’ Yes, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 doesn’t mess with its jaw-dropping predecessor formula, but there’s an improvement worth noting: the external screen has been expanded to go from end to end.
The Z Fold 2 works as a complete smartphone and, when unfolded, works as a small tablet. Most importantly, this means that three quarters of the phone’s surface is a touch screen. This is very difficult to achieve; it doesn’t look like much more innovation would be needed to do the same with the glass back cover, extending the touch functionality to every inch of the foldable surface.
Huawei Mate Xs and other “external” folders more or less already do this, since their only large external screen is front to back when the device is folded in half. But if we can make both sides functional to the touch, we can have very strange and very responsive devices. So, we would have to figure out what to do with all that extra area of the screen that we’re not watching, but we can still touch.
ZTE Axon 20 5G
We saw several concept phones present a new solution to the notches and holes problem: instead of placing the selfie camera in a cutout on the screen or in a pop-up section, just place it under the screen.
Of course, it would have to be a specific display to allow the camera to shoot through the screen – and the ZTE Axon 20 5G is the first we have in our hands that takes this solution.
Haven’t you heard of that? The ZTE Axon 20 5G was announced in China in September and has just been launched in the UK, but it is unclear when (or if) it will reach other countries.
We look forward to testing how the 32 MP front camera takes pictures under the screen; otherwise, it’s shaped to be a decent upper mid-range phone / cheaper flagship with a Snapdragon 765G chipset, up to 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage and a quad rear camera.
Oppo’s strange folding … and folding
No strange phone list would be complete without the devices we’ve seen (or heard about) that won’t be released for years – if they arrive. Some of them are radically different from conventional phones, and perhaps too bizarre to appeal to consumers. Consider the Oppo concept developed in partnership with the Japanese design studio Nendo – folding with triple hinge.
Today, we are presenting two new design concepts produced in collaboration with the leading Japanese design studio, nendo. Firstly, there is the slide-phone, which has a folding screen system with triple hinge. #OPPOxnendo pic.twitter.com/r6YNrc2EmPDecember 14, 2020
This is not the only eccentric non-traditional phone to be teased this year. Rumors of a TCL roll-up phones have been popping up all year, most recently in a purported leaked video showing a functional phone prototype with a screen that slides out.
Oppo also displayed a design for a mobile phone and may be closer to launching a usable device: the company unveiled the Oppo X 2021 in late 2020, although the company has clarified that it is a concept phone and probably will not be sold as is in the market.
Still, it’s promising, as Oppo showed a functional design: a 6.7-inch OLED display to start, but the phone’s body slides sideways to expand the screen to 7.4 inches.
And while we haven’t seen it, we’ve also heard of the LG Rollable – a rumored mobile phone that, if leaked, could cost $ 2,359 (about £ 1,775, AU $ 3,130).