The most bizarre phones we have ever seen

There are many cell phones that please the eye and would make people look in your direction. Well, it´s not them we are talking about today, but rather, handsets you don´t want to be caught dead using. Now, kick off your shoes, put your feet up and get yourself mentally prepared for an exhaustive list of the most bizarre handsets ever made.

Vertu Signature Cobra - Vertu is a manufacturer of luxurious cell phones, famous for using only high quality, massively expensive materials and gems for their devices. One of their series is the well-known Signature and what you see in the pics is a cell phone of the lineup. Typically, most handsets of the series are elegant and dainty, but none of these words describes the Cobra. The ornamental kitsch that has taken over and more specifically, the huge snake on the front side of the device with its emerald eyes and 439 ruby scales and this is why the device has earned a place in the ranking.

Virgin Lobster 700 – Aside from its weird name, the Lobster features a rather odd form factor. Its body looks like a sloppy stitch-up of two separate handsets, in particular, the Sony Ericsson K700 (the left hand half) and Nokia 6600 (the right hand half). The asymmetric design has failed to impress us and we do think the only place where the Lobster wouldn´t look completely out of place is deep into your bag or rucksack.

Siemens Xelibri 6 and Xelibri 8 – The Siemens Xelibri series first appeared in 2003 and vanished into thin air in 2004. A total of eight handsets made it to the market during its rather short, two year long lifespan, each one of them named after its own serial number in the series, i.e. 1 to 8. They targeted people, on the lookout for offbeat handsets with eccentric accessories that can also be used to make phone calls. We tend to think the 6th and 8th models turned out to be the most unsightly of them all.

The Xelibri 6 came in a round shaped clamshell form factor and managed to become proverbial for its utterly unhandy features. That, however, wasn’t the worst about it. Imagine you were in public and someone was calling – you would answer and start talking, of course. The thing is most people would´ve taken you for a, downright, nutcase for talking to your make-up box.

The pear-like Xelibri 8 didn´t have the, erm, self-differentiating look of the Xelibri 6, but it certainly didn’t look much better either. If you take a closer look, you will see that for some unfathomable reason the Xelibri inscription is imprinted upside down and there is a neck strap attached to the bottom side of the phone – doesn’t it look just like the stopwatch of you P.E. class teacher?

Well, you can see all the models in Siemens Xelibri series below. We are not going to utter a single word about the way they look and let the design speak for itself, for as we all know, a single picture is worth a thousand words.



GIVORI Serendipity and Nefertiti – Sometimes, if certain handset proves to be a huge success, manufacturers will fall over backwards to roll out a luxurious successor. The case in point here is GIVORI and their attempt to turn the otherwise elegant and stylish Nokia Arte into something better looking. Well, what we can say is they could´ve tried harder, because the result is… heart-breaking. Both models based on the Arte look tawdry and we really doubt it if many people found them appealing. Now, here are the other models of the manufacturer that are, by no means, less eccentric or eye-catchy.



Samsung Serene – The Samsung´s and Bang&Olufsen´s offspring bears striking resemblance to the Xelibri 6. Yet again, we have a clamshell phone, only more angular this time. Its circular keypad is neither comfy to use, nor makes it look any better. Still, we believe the Samsung Serene is one of the most appealing handsets on our list on the most unsightly handsets ever.

Cool G108 – This particular "work of art" is actually a wristwatch cell phone. The Cool G108 is the same size as a pocket compass and you will see yet another circular keypad. The earpiece is right above the screen, but we tend to think you would look ridiculous, walking along with a wrist stuck against the ear and we highly doubt the whole thing would feel comfy either. It´s a good thing you can easily save yourself from such a dismal fate by simply getting a Bluetooth hands-free set. Even so, the overall look of the handset is as far from stylish as it gets.

Telstra T165i – Well, cell phones have been manufactured with internal antennas for quite some time now, but apparently, there are still exceptions to the prevailing trend, like the Telstra T165i. It seems the handset is designed to be used in places, where the network coverage is flimsy, but the aerial is, simply put, way too large for such a small device and makes the phone look dated and at least several years older than it actually is. Go figure this is a model that came out in 2008.



We need to say the article sounds off our own opinion about the above mentioned cell phones. Of course, if you can guess of any other unsightly product that deserves to make it to our list, please, do let us know.