
These two concept devices appeared during or shortly after CES in early January 2011, and are somewhat old news by now, but I wanted to share them nonetheless. Many promising concept devices never materialize, because financiers couldn’t be found, the projects weren’t deemed commercially viable, or because the designs were too far ahead of current technology. But we must dare to dream, right?
Flip Phone by Kristian Ulrich Larsen
The first of these two concept devices is created by designer Kristian Ulrich Larsen. He has come up with a Flip Phone idea: a handset running vanilla Android, featuring three flexible and versatile displays and a hardware QWERTY keyboard.
The video illustrating Ulrich Larsen’s Flip Phone vision is interesting, well made, and even occasionally poetic. It gave me goose bumps when I first saw it, and it’s one of the best concept videos I’ve come across.
Razer Switchblade gaming handheld
The second concept device is a gorgeous portable gaming gadget with a netbook form factor. Razer has dreamed up a unit it calls Switchblade, that rocks a 7-inch multitouch touchscreen and a full keyboard that also is a screen. The keyboard is like a chameleon that changes itself depending on the context, and it will provide new keys optimized for the game you’re currently playing.
The idea is that the Razer Switchblade will let users have the “PC gaming experience on mobile devices.” This video is more traditional and conventional than the one for the Flip Phone, but it does a good job showing the vision behind the Switchblade. I wouldn’t buy such a gaming gadget myself, though, since I want one single handheld device that can do (nearly) all the things all other handheld touchscreen devices can (i.e. a phone), but I do enjoy the concept.
Do you know of any more recent concept devices worth checking out?
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