'Form factor,' when speaking of mobile phones, refers to the style and shape of the phone and the layout and position of the phone's major components.
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A bar (also slab, block, or slate) phone takes the shape of a cuboid, usually with rounded corners and/or edges. The name is derived from the rough resemblance to a candy bar in size and shape. This form factor is widely used by a variety of manufacturers, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Bar-type mobile phones normally have the screen and keypad all on one face. The Samsung SPH-M620 is a unique take on the bar form factor, offering different devices on either side of the bar: a phone on one side, and a digital audio player on the other.
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Brick is a slang term often used to refer to large, outdated bar-type phones, although it can be applied to older flip, slider and swivel phones as well. Large, bulky phones such as the Motorola DynaTAC have been displaced by their newer, smaller counterparts, which offer greater portability thanks to smaller antennas and slimmer battery packs.
In a different sense, to brick a mobile phone means to accidentally render it inoperable while attempting to modify the operating system or other components. Such a phone can then be called a brick, particularly if it is damaged beyond repair.
A touchscreen or slate phone is a subset of the bar form that, like a tablet computer, has minimal buttons, instead relying upon a touchscreen and onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The first commercially available touchscreen phone was the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, released in 1994. Well-known touchscreen smartphone manufacturers are Apple, HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Mobile, and Sony.
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A flip (or clamshell) phone consists of two or more sections that are connected by hinges, allowing the phone to fold or flip in order to become more compact. When flipped open, the phone's speaker and microphone are placed closer to the operator's ear and mouth, improving usability. When flipped shut, the phone can become much smaller and more portable than when it is opened for use.
Motorola was once owner of a trademark for the term flip phone, but the term flip phone has become genericized, and used more frequently than clamshell in colloquial speech. Motorola was the manufacturer of the famed StarTAC flip phone.
In 2010, Motorola introduced a different take on the flip phone with its Backflip smartphone. When closed, one side is the screen and the other is a physical QWERTY keyboard. The hinge is on a long edge of the phone instead of a short edge, and when flipped out, the screen is above the keyboard.
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A slider or slide phone is composed of usually two, but sometimes more, sections that slide past each other on rails. Most slider phones have a display segment which houses the speaker used for calls and the phone's screen, while another segment contains the keypad or keyboard and slides out for use. The goal of using a sliding form factor is to allow the operator to take advantage of full physical keyboards or keypads, without sacrificing portability, by retracting them into the phone when these are not in use. Many different companies have developed phones that slide. Samsung has the Corby and BlackBerry has the Torch.
The Siemens SL10 was one of the first sliding mobile phones in 1999. Some phones have an automatic slider built in which deploys the keypad. Many phones will pop out their keypad segments as soon as the user begins to slide the phone apart. Unique models are the 2-way slider (sliding up or down provides distinct functions) such as the Nokia N85 or Nokia N95.
A version of the slider form factor, the side slider or QWERTY slider, uses vertical access of the keyboard on the bottom segment. The side slider form factor is primarily used to facilitate faster access to the keyboard with both thumbs. The Danger Hiptop, Sony Mylo and HTC Touch Pro are two primary examples.
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A swivel phone is composed of multiple (usually two) segments, which swivel past each other about a central axis. Use of the swiveling form factor has similar goals to that of the slider, but this form factor is less widely used.
A watch that is usually called a watch phone and that has full 4 band GSM and Bluetooth support giving the user the ability to make phone calls to any other landline phones and cell phones.
Some phone models use both a swivel and a flip axis, like the Nokia N90, or Panasonic FOMA P900iV.
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