“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”, reads a famous proverb; and the mobile phone industry did take this one very seriously. It is only after a series of miscalculations and faux pas has the smartphone now become one of the savviest tech gadgets to carry around. So let’s take a look at our past and see what our ancestors might have thought to be uber cool.

Nokia 7600

Let’s just look at this phone for sometime. Among the various questions that confound us, one of them is just where is the keypad? And that is not even the most important question. What was Nokia thinking by revealing this mobile phone in 2007, just when Apple launched the iPhone? Anyway, to answer the question about the keypad, there’s a 2 inch display and if you look at it hard enough you’ll see that it is surrounded by alphanumeric buttons on the sides and other keys (Menu and navigation keys) below the screen. Oh, and this tear drop Nokia phone was created for ‘fashionistas’. Well, we didn’t see Anna Wintour carrying it. ‘Nuff said.

Nokia 7280

If you thought Nokia would learn from their previous mistakes, you thought wrong. At least previously we only asked about the keyboard; over here? Where is anything? Nokia thought that a lipstick shaped phone would be more fashionable than a tear drop. They were technically right, but this lipstick is making tears drop from our eyes. This phone has a 35 mm x 20 mm display and no keypad. That’s it. Just look at it until it disappears.

Sony Ericsson Jalou F100i

Do you know why this one has a visible keypad? Because it’s not Nokia! Regardless even Sony Ericsson Jalou F100i has its faults. First of all, it’s called ‘jalou’, which means jealousy in French, and unfortunately for them, it arouses none. The Sony Jalou was created especially for women and that is why the display could also double up as a compact mirror. Yes, Sony really understood women, they don’t really want to get any work done, they just want to look at themselves in the mirror. Hopefully, most people stayed away from this futile attempt at fashionable smartphone making.

HTC G1

The HTC G1 was ironically called the “Dream”. Now, compared to the last few phones we mentioned, it probably is a dream. But it still falls short in design with his rather chunky and bulky looking keypad and screen. However, this seems to be its only fault, so it does look like we were getting closer to the “dream” of owning a modern and sleek cellphone.

Vertu Boucheron Cobra

Just when you thought things were getting better, Vertu brought to us the Boucheron Cobra. Yes, a snake is one of the sleekest reptiles we have around, but putting them on a mobile phone will not make it look sleek, even if it is embedded with the costliest Swarovski diamonds. Yes, those are real diamonds on a rather ugly looking snake, which has been dumped on a rather small and expensive (Rs 1.75 crore approx) phone. This snake doesn’t look powerful or sleek and neither does the gadget. Luckily for us, Vertu has learnt from its mistakes and now creates better looking phones with a similar if not higher price tag.